Watermelons are fun to grow especially if you have children or grandchildren. They will almost be bewitched in watching a small golf ball sized melon turn into a large delicious mature melon. The best part about growing your own watermelons is that you can grow the varieties that the market does not have available. You can grow melons that are long, oval, or round and their flesh ranging from a crimson red to yellow.
Learning to grow watermelons outdoors is fairly simple; they need the sunniest, hottest area of your garden. The soil needs to be fortified with
organic material plus have an application of vegetable fertilizer. The seeds should be planted about an inch deep in round plots; each plot should have 8 seeds that are spaced about four inches apart. You want to allocate 6 feet between the central parts of each of the plots. When the seedlings in each plot get to be about 2 inches tall, thin them out and leave only the three strongest plants. If you use black plastic mulch under your watermelon vines you can improve your yield and the fruit will remain clean. As the melons mature each week the plants can be contained to a smaller area by gathering them back into their original plot so they will form a mounded maze similar to nesting eggs.
When you
grow watermelon plants you want to keep the area free from weeds. In order not to disturb the roots or accidentally cutting off any of the plants shoots it would be best if weeding was be done by hand. Watermelons do need regular watering but when the weather gets extremely hot you may need to give them extra.
You are probably wondering how long it takes for watermelon to grow. Growing watermelons usually takes around 120 days from the beginning to the end. When to harvest your watermelon is the next question. You may notice the little tendrils that started to form will get crispy and turn brown, the melons color will start to get dull, and the skin will be resistant to your fingernail penetrating it while pressing it. Another way to tell a melon is ready for harvesting is to turn one over and if the bottom is yellow the watermelon is ripe. A very reliable test for the ripeness of watermelon is the thump test. Thumping a ripe watermelon produces a hollow sound that can be hard to describe but once you get the feel it will become more routine than luck.
The best way to
harvest your watermelon is by using a scissors or a knife. Always measure two inches up from where the stem is connected to the melon and clip the stem, thus leaving the two inches on the watermelon.
