This year I decided to plant my first garden and put watermelon in it.
Everything is growing great except my watermelon. Is there any
special tips or tricks to doing this. I have watered and weeded it
regularly, but it just won't take grow any larger.

The plant wont grow any bigger or the melon wont grow bigger?
What kind of melon did you plant? Where are you?

Some melons don't grow very big, but the plants will still vine over a
fairly large area. Without knowing the answer to these questions, there
isn't much else I can do. Dwayne





"Heidi" wrote in message
om...
This year I decided to plant my first garden and put watermelon in it.
Everything is growing great except my watermelon. Is there any
special tips or tricks to doing this. I have watered and weeded it
regularly, but it just won't take grow any larger.

On 24 Jun 2003 17:48:52 -0700, (Heidi) wrote:

This year I decided to plant my first garden and put watermelon in it.
Everything is growing great except my watermelon. Is there any
special tips or tricks to doing this. I have watered and weeded it
regularly, but it just won't take grow any larger.

Sandy soil (all-purpose rough sand, not the fine play-sand). and hot
weather. Less watering when the melons start to develop.

Watermelons this year were a disaster. Century-old rainfall record
for June was shattered only 2/3 through the month, and HIGH temps were
usually in the mid-upper _50s_(F). I also planted them in thick heavy
clayish loam (I had forgotten about the sand & thinning out the soil).

Luckily I kept 2 pots (out of 6) in reserve. This week Im gonna
filli up a 40-gallon pot with loamy sand and leave the 3 plants in the
new sunroom. Hopefully I will finally get a watermelon (after 4 years
of trying!!!)

Dan

This year I decided to plant my first garden and put watermelon in it.
Everything is growing great except my watermelon. Is there any
special tips or tricks to doing this. I have watered and weeded it
regularly, but it just won't take grow any larger.


Usually I just stick them in the ground and run. This years cool wet spring has
slowed them down considerably. They are just beginning to set melons, I don't
know where you are but watermelons need soil temps to come up before they start
growing. Unless you are in a semi-arid area, watering should be considered only
during a drought, Watermelons also do not do extremely well in clay soils so
that may also be a problem but cool wet soil would be by first bet.

The post was about trying to get the plant started, but since the
subject was just tips, here's one for later in the season.

In late summer, when the weather becomes dry (assuming you're in one of
those climates) and you have immature fruit on the vine, you may have
damage from birds (mostly crows) looking for water. One way to prevent
this is to stretch monofilament fish line over the melon patch. I find
it sufficient to put the line about 3' high, in rows about 4-5' apart.
Use the fish line with a fluorescent blue cast. The birds can see that
there's something there but their eyes apparently aren't good enough to
make out what it is and they don't like to have anything over them. Fish
line is cheap (about $2-3 for 700 yards 8 lb test).

This also works when you have problems with birds (again, primarily
crows) pulling up small seedlings to eat the roots. It takes two lines,
straddling the row of seeds.

I live in Nebraska, so it has been pretty humid and luckily we have
had a lot of rain. My plants don't seem to get any larger.
Melons---I haven't had enought luck to see any of those yet! Thanks
for your tips. Anymore let me know.

On 2 Jul 2003 11:47:34 -0700, (Heidi) wrote:

I live in Nebraska, so it has been pretty humid and luckily we have
had a lot of rain. My plants don't seem to get any larger.
Melons---I haven't had enought luck to see any of those yet! Thanks
for your tips. Anymore let me know.

I heard a lot of people around here (north texas) who say they dont
have any luck with watermelons. I planted about 24 plants and i have
one bush baby vine that is small and hasn't really grown in the last
few weeks. I am hoping for fruit.