Growing watermelons in the uk

[Organicfreak]

Hi, hope all is well.

Normally I only grow strawberries, tomatoes and most recently chillies and mutton style courgettes.

However a friend of mine saw my plants and asked me to help him with his, so I come to find he has all sorts.

Anyway long story short he gave me a watermelon plant that he started and was dieing. I didn't really want to take as chances of it actually producing are slim to none but I took it anyway.

I managed to revive the plant and make it grow, male flowers bloom no problem, however the female flowers do not bloom, the female flower is produced, but the flower never opens.

I looked online, could not find any info but on other plants if night time temp is too low apparently the plant cannot create the stuff that the female flower needs.


So I took it inside for a few night and wala, 1 female flower bloomed, I hand pollinated it but it failed and didn't grow. So naturally I kept putting the plant inside at night.


However the new female blooms that came after didn't open. Only the 1 opened. Now none of them open again, only male, can anyone help?

Pics below are from start till now.

 

[Susan BBPM]

This man has quite a few videos on growing melons in the UK's cold climate. He's in Essex, which is pretty darn warm compared to most of the UK. I'm pretty sure (but not 100% certain) he finds it necessary to grow them in a polytunnel even in Essex.

 

[Organicfreak]

I know they have to stay pretty warm. I will check his videos out thank you

 

[DirtMechanic]

you guys are north of the usa border so good luck with any tropical plant that has no unique environmental support.

 

[Organicfreak]

Finally got 2 that have opened