Help with Watermelon Strategy

[Raymondo17]

I've seen some good advice on watermelons in this forum, so I'm seeking some help devising a watermelon strategy.

I'm growing Sugar Baby bush watermelons in grow bags and training them up a cattle panel trellis. I fertilize them with fish emulsion every ten to fourteen days. They're doing well with robust vines and a good number of baby watermelons. However, they get to about baseball size, assume an odd shape (flattened on one side instead of round), and stop growing.

From what I've read, I need to limit the number of melons to maybe two. Is that per plant or per vine?

I'm thinking that maybe I should just remove the handful of baseball-sized melons I've got going, then select two baby fruits that are around grape-size and denote them as the winners, removing any other fruits that may form on that vine/plant. That sound about right?

Should I let the vines continue to ramble, serving as solar panels for the repining fruit? Or are they using too much energy, and I should cut the vines off shortly after the spot where the melon attaches to the vine?

Any other advice for this watermelon noob is welcome. Thanks!

 

[oneeye]

I've seen some good advice on watermelons in this forum, so I'm seeking some help devising a watermelon strategy.

I'm growing Sugar Baby bush watermelons in grow bags and training them up a cattle panel trellis. I fertilize them with fish emulsion every ten to fourteen days. They're doing well with robust vines and a good number of baby watermelons. However, they get to about baseball size, assume an odd shape (flattened on one side instead of round), and stop growing.

From what I've read, I need to limit the number of melons to maybe two. Is that per plant or per vine?

I'm thinking that maybe I should just remove the handful of baseball-sized melons I've got going, then select two baby fruits that are around grape-size and denote them as the winners, removing any other fruits that may form on that vine/plant. That sound about right?

Should I let the vines continue to ramble, serving as solar panels for the repining fruit? Or are they using too much energy, and I should cut the vines off shortly after the spot where the melon attaches to the vine?

Any other advice for this watermelon noob is welcome. Thanks!

Do you have your melons in full Sun all day?

 

[Raymondo17]

My yard is a bit on the shady side. I’d say the garden gets roughly six hours of sun a day.

 

[oneeye]

My yard is a bit on the shady side. I’d say the garden gets roughly six hours of sun a day.

Its better to plant those melons in full Sun and get at least 8 to 10 hrs of full Sun.

 

[Raymondo17]

If I had the option to, I most certainly would. But alas, I gotta deal with the available sunlight.

 

[oneeye]

If I had the option to, I most certainly would. But alas, I gotta deal with the available sunlight.

Not getting enough Sun light is a good reason melons will stay small or not bloom.

 

[MiniOrchardDude]

I've seen some good advice on watermelons in this forum, so I'm seeking some help devising a watermelon strategy.

I'm growing Sugar Baby bush watermelons in grow bags and training them up a cattle panel trellis. I fertilize them with fish emulsion every ten to fourteen days. They're doing well with robust vines and a good number of baby watermelons. However, they get to about baseball size, assume an odd shape (flattened on one side instead of round), and stop growing.

From what I've read, I need to limit the number of melons to maybe two. Is that per plant or per vine?

I'm thinking that maybe I should just remove the handful of baseball-sized melons I've got going, then select two baby fruits that are around grape-size and denote them as the winners, removing any other fruits that may form on that vine/plant. That sound about right?

Should I let the vines continue to ramble, serving as solar panels for the repining fruit? Or are they using too much energy, and I should cut the vines off shortly after the spot where the melon attaches to the vine?

Any other advice for this watermelon noob is welcome. Thanks!

It looks like you have a micronutrient deficiency. The leaves look great in size and bushy. The color looks like it is lacking that dark green.

MOD

 

[Meadowlark]

6 hours of sunlight is NOT sufficient to grow big melons. Your soil is probably fine...just not enough direct sunlight.

 

[Raymondo17]

It looks like you have a micronutrient deficiency. The leaves look great in size and bushy. The color looks like it is lacking that dark green.

MOD

Is there an organic fertilizer you'd recommend? I've been using fish emulsion pretty regularly, and just recently switched over to Morbloom.

 

[Raymondo17]

6 hours of sunlight is NOT sufficient to grow big melons. Your soil is probably fine...just not enough direct sunlight.

Well that would be a bummer. Not much I can do about the available sunlight. I was hoping growing small Sugar Babies would get me a hall pass, but apparently not.

 

[MiniOrchardDude]

Is there an organic fertilizer you'd recommend? I've been using fish emulsion pretty regularly, and just recently switched over to Morbloom.

I use Espoma plant-tone and Milorganite at planting. However, fertilizer alone does not always supply enough micronutrients. Compost always helps with the micronutrients.

MOD

 

[Raymondo17]

Thanks for the suggestion. I do amend the soil in my grow bags with plenty of compost at planting time. Good stuff.

 

[FromCali]

In addition of sunlight, how important is watering? Would suboptimal water cause smaller fruits?