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stunted watermelon plants?
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Posted by krystine 5 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 1, 05 at 20:04
| I've planted two kinds of watermelon seeds... sugarbabies and Early Canada Improved (McKenzie seeds) and neither one of these seem to be doing that great. Everything else in my raised beds is chugging right along, except for these plants.
Is there something I should or shouldn't be doing with these plants? Here's a pic of my sad watermelon plants (The cedar mulch is new today, so that wouldn't impact on their growth.)
Thanks very much,
Kristine (a brand new gardener) |
Here is a link that might be useful: Krystine's Garden Blog
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| They look healthy, patience M |
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| Thanks for responding. I guess I can't measure everything against the growth rate of the zuchinni plants! I'll try and be patient :) Take care,
Kristine |
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| Hey Kristine: Man oh man. If those guys start growing, I wish you well!
This is only my second year growing sugar baby watermelons so I'm no expert. However, I will share my experience so far.
1. Those little hot hats from CdnTire accelerate growth of the small plants by about 100% at the start of the season. Literally twice as big. Shove them under and don't remove until the whole thing is full (plant will look cramped).
2. Sun and heat are essential. Last year my plants had a slow start (cool summer) and didn't grow fast. The vine just died once it got cool and the dozen small fruit that were left just shrivelled up. This year I have numerous small fruit and one about 3" across. About 3 weeks earlier than last year. I use black mulch under them.
3. I've got 2 plants and they have sprouted about 7, five foot long vines each (and still growing). I have them trained on two 7' tall trellises that are half overgrown already. I don't know what to suggest to you when they do start growing. The melons are heavy and need a really sturdy trellis if you want to grow vertically (mine is rebar).
4. Harvest: I waited for the sugar baby to turn dark green, but I was way off on the peak time to harvest. I have no wisdom for you. I picked way too early. The best fruit we had was the last one which we picked about 1 month after it had turned dark green. Here's a pic of last year's watermelons. This year looks just about the same.
 Like I said, I'm no expert, but hopefully I've passed along some info you can use either this season or the next. |
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| I'm in Ottawa, two weeks later mine are maybe twice the size of yours and are getting flowers. Yay. They seemed to have just taken off in the past 10 days in this extreme heat. I think giving them a warm start like Mitanoff suggests will yield better results. Mitanoff, you can grow watermelons on a tellis???? I know what I am doing next year. Thanks |
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| We tried watermelons our first year growing in our raised beds and got golf ball sized melons! This year we put some in containers in our 'almost' complete greenhouse (no doors, no fans, hot like an oven!!!) and they are doing much, much better! They are about 7" in diameter. There only seems to be about 1 melon per plant though. Next year we will try pruning the vine to direct all the growing energy to each melon. You might want to try building a mini greenhouse (a plastic tent) over your melons to raise the heat a little. This will also extend your season. Happy Gardening! |
RE: stunted watermelon plants?
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| I grew sugarbaby watermelons from seed last summer- and didn't have a single melon that grew bigger than a marble. The fruit would reach the marble size, then turn black starting from the bottom (where the flower had been) and shrivel... Any suggestions? I had wondered if I planted them too late in the season? I tried removing all but one melon per vine but it did not seem to make any difference. The plants had many long vines with smallish leaves. |
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