I have never bothered to hand pollinate watermelons, or for that matter, any type of melon. However, if you wish to hand pollinate, it certainly would not cause any problems to do so. - Millet (602-)

Phil, you really know how to hurt a guy. Your melons (and even you grass & trees) look excellent. I'm so envious. Today is May 23rd, and here in Colorado the weather is still so crappy, that we have not been able to plant anything in the ground yet. Some of my grape vines and plums trees have already leafed out, but were all killed back three days ago from a freeze. (Global warming???.... BS). - Millet (602-)

Very disappointed with the watermelon plants. The plants are very healthy, but the fruit grows to one half inch and then rots from the blossom end! Every single fruit for the last four weeks! I only have two water melons developing and I planted eight vines. What a horrible failure! The vines are green and healthy but the fruit does not stand a chance and rots before it even grows an inch! Panic mode so today I added some lime to the soil! Maybe a calcium deficiency or too much nitrogen? It has been very hot and dry here but I have watered the vines consistently.

Could it be that the mulch might be too hot in the afternoon and this kills the fruit? There are no weeds just the watermelon vines. Very very disappointing.


The possible explanations for this failure:
1) Maybe I added too much sand to the soil and the nurtrients leach very quickly?
2) Maybe I fertilized too much? I used miracle grow liquid fertilizer. The plants show no signs of fertilizer burn at all. Could this kill the fruit though?
3)Maybe I did not water enough? I did water very thoroughly and deeply when the soil two inches below ground got dry. I did not water more than once a week and there has been less than one rainfall since March.


Today I added some lime to the soil around the watermelon vines to see if this makes a difference.


Anyone ever have this horrible problem?

Most of the vines are 12 feet long now. Only two of them have fruit developing. How long does the vine grow before the melons normally start to develop without rotting? 20 feet? 30 feet? 50 feet? I will give them another two weeks and then dig them up if they do not start developing some melons. They have plenty of flowers but every melon for the last month grows no more than one half inch before rotting on the blossom end. I plan to start over though.

I never thought blossom end rot would be this severe! From what I have read normally the fruit grows to large size before the rot starts. Mine rot even before they grow one half inch!

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/pp/notes/oldnotes/vg19.htm

illet (591-)

We had 102F this week. Way hot for several days. I'll look forward to the Estes Park, CO weather first week in July.

Looks like I'll have at least one moon and stars watermelon. I also found a nice black diamond. The jubilee have set lots of small fruit also. I can't remember where the orange Burpees are planted.



Looks like I'll have to keep the vines off the citrus:

That is a nice watermelon Mr. Texas! I have more small melons that were pollinated recently. Some of them have grown to more than 1 inch so hopefully at least a few will set. It has been so dry here and maybe I am not watering often enough. The soil the melons are planted in does not hold moisture for long. It has also been really really hot here with temperature near or over 100F and the heat index is 105 to 110F. I have my AC set on high cool and it still feels too warm! It would certainly be unpleasant to have a broken AC now.


You can stand in the shade for 20 minutes and get soaking wet from all the perspiration. This heat wave is potentially dangerous. The UV index at noon is over 11 so make sure you apply sunscreen and wear a wide brim hat. Sunburn is very high risk this time of year even for short periods outdoors.

There is a swingle rootstock growing back after the pong koa froze out somewhere here:

I got back today from the YWCA camp in Estes Park, CO with wife and 4 kids(2 are fostered). I hiked about 40 miles over 6 days and did a 3 hour horseback ride with my 10 year old daughter. I was very glad to have that over with and I had saddle sores a few days. We got swooped on by a nesting raptor on one trail! Quite exciting.

I found around a dozen mature watermelons out in the citrus patch on my return. Quite a bit of luck on my first try planting watermelons The two largest were 35 and 41 pounds. About 6 had split. Someone told me that there was a good rain while I was gone. A bunch of the vines had dried up that were green and lush before I left.

The best tasting/thinnest rind I grew have been the Black Diamond. The Moon and Stars were also good but had a thicker rind. The Burpee Orange Tendersweet ended up yellow with a very thick rind. The big 41 pounder is a Jubilee and I haven't tasted this variety yet.

I believe I planted a little late as the fruit set was light. All the melons have been much juicier than any store bought ones I've had. All have been mildly sweet. They got plenty of watering as there were inter-planted with my citrus trees and we have been having quite a drought here in SE Texas.

Next year I'll plant some Black Diamonds, both red and yellow and some more Jubillee, but earlier. The Black Diamond seemed to be earlier than the Jubilee.

Millet, I believe I drove by your town on my return, Bennett, CO?

We came by Raton Pass but ran into road construction and the horrible traffic at Colorado Springs even on a Saturday. The return was via eastern CO, I70 and 287 thru Amarillo, TX and all the way back home to Beaumont, TX. Wow that is a lonely farming zone and it would not be a great place to have a broken down car!