Ten Tips for Growing Great Watermelons

Nothing beats a cool slice of watermelon on a hot summer day! Growing watermelons is a labor-intensive gardening experience, but pays off with sweet, juicy fruits that you'll never find at the local grocery store! The rambling vines can take over limited garden space, and less-than-ideal growing conditions invite fungi and insect pests. Grow the best watermelons by following these tips for planting, feeding, and cultivating your watermelon patch:

1. Watermelons require a long growing season, at least three months of temperatures that are 70 to 80 degrees F or higher. They won't do well in the extremely hot and humid parts of the U.S. or in the cooler northern climates with short growing seasons.

2. It's best to grow watermelon from seeds, but don't use the seeds in commercially-grown hybrid varieties. Hybrid seeds won't usually sprout, and if they do the plants will not be as healthy, or true to parent type. Buy seeds of an open-pollinated, heirloom variety, and you can dry and save the seeds for planting your watermelon patch next year.

3. Watermelon seeds sprout quickly, but seedlings don't like to be transplanted. Start your seeds in the ground where you want them to grow. Mound the garden soil in hills about three feet in diameter and one foot high. Seeds may also be planted in ridges if you like a neater garden. Space hills or rows about six feet apart.

4. Clear the garden of weeds before planting, and work some rich, organic compost into the soil. Watermelons can't compete with weeds very well, so consider using a soil solarization technique before planting, and keep the soil carefully weeded (trying not to disturb the roots of the vines) during the growing season. Mulching your garden will help retain moisture in the soil and discourage weeds. Plastic mulch will increase the soil temperature and you may be able to harvest your melons a few weeks earlier than expected.

5. Plant about twice as many seeds as you want watermelon plants. Push the watermelon seeds an inch or so into the soil near the tops of the hills or ridges, and water them gently. As the seeds sprout, thin them out so the stronger plants remain. Individual plants should be about one foot apart when you're done. Clip the weaker plants off at soil level instead of pulling them, so you won't disturb the roots of the remaining plants.

6. Water your melon patch when the first couple of inches of soil become dry. Watermelon vines have shallow roots, so the garden soil needs to be kept moist without becoming soggy. Wet conditions will invite fungal diseases, slugs, and beetles that will destroy your watermelon crop. Water your melon plants in the early morning, so the leaves will be dry before the hot afternoon sun comes out.

7. Feed your young watermelon plants with a high-phosphorus fertilizer to encourage vine growth and fruiting. Add nitrogen to the soil 30 and 60 days after planting. Large, healthy vines will grow large, sweet watermelon. Neglected and spindly vines will produce inferior fruit, if they produce any at all.

8. Male flowers will appear on the vines before the larger female flowers. Tiny fruits will soon begin to appear beneath the female blossoms. Fruits that shrivel up and fall off mean that the plants are not being adequately pollinated by bees. You can help nature along by plucking off the male flowers, removing their petals, and rubbing their pistils in the center of the female flowers.

9. The first few female flowers on each vine will produce the best fruit. Pinching off the end of the vine after the first few blossoms will create larger watermelons, but naturally you won't get as many. If you'd prefer many smaller melons, let the vines grow until they are six feet long, then pinch of the ends so they will branch off in two directions. This will make it easier to keep your watermelon patch under control so it won't take over the back yard or the rest of your garden.

10. When the curly tendrils begin to dry out and fall off, your watermelons may be ready. A ripe melon will be a creamy yellow where the fruit lies on the ground, and the rind will lose some of its gloss and the stripes will have less contrast. Thumping on a ripe melon will produce a hollow sound. Watermelons that are on vines that are dead or dying won't get any riper. Go ahead and pick them.