"0tterbot" wrote in message
"c" wrote in message

How big should a watermelon vine be before watermelons grow please ?

depends on the cultivar - small watermelon types grow on small vines -
it's a matter of proportion to expected fruit size afaik. are you growing
full-size watermelon? if so, something is probably seriously wrong!! if
it's a small cultivar & the plant size is ok, probably a matter of
fertilising the flowers.

male flowers grow on a stalk, female flowers have a swelling beneath the
flower that eventually (hopefully) becomes a fruit when fertilised. in the
mornings, either use a small paintbrush to take pollen from the males &
put it in the females, or pull off male flowers & dip them in.

if you can't find any female flowers, try nipping out the tips of the
vines to help them come on (check again in a few days).

if your plants are supposed to be full-size & there is therefore something
wrong, you can try giving them a boost with liquid fertiliser (preferably
home-made ;-). potential problems might be anything - who knows? possibly
soil fertility or not enough water or bad drainage, but it might be
anything (including moody plants ;-) one big problem would be if your
weather isn't warm enough.
kylie

I agree wholeheartedly with Kylie's post. She saved me the effort of
responding because she's said everything I was going to. :-))