Watermelon Growing

Its always nice to hear from you because you are so clearly a watermelon expert. As I read your post I kept saying “now I remember” because you have told those things before but I’d forgotten them. Great information- every bit of it- so thank-you, Ray!

@Matt_in_Maryland - Ray is right in his concern about cooler temps. They don’t really “kill” the seed but they will stop many if not most from sprouting on a timely basis. If it warms back up pretty quickly the seeds will be fine. But if they lay in cold dirt that is wet, they will eventually start to rot and in that sense they are “dead” because they won’t sprout after an extended period of time in the damp earth. I, too, have already planted a lot of melon and its cool here too. Good luck!

EDIT: @rayrose -we typed our responses at the same time and while mine was unnecessarily wordy, we said about the same thing about how seeds will rot if they lay there too long. Always nice to get confirmation from an expert! :slight_smile:

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I’m not sure, but I think my watermelon vines (all two of them, lol) have been struck by the squash vine borer. I noticed about two weeks ago there was a big vertical slit up the vines at about root level. But now two weeks later, the vines are still alive and green and the slits look scarred over. Do I need to take any further action?

On pumpkins you would take a sharp knife and try and cut the svb grub out then burry the vine in dirt, idk if this works on watermelon

Cold soil isn’t good for melons. I try to keep it above 60F at a minimum. And in areas where it rains a lot and is cloudy it can be a real concern. But what’s the worst that can happen, you plant again. We were 28F Sunday morning and I have Savor melons set on my vines. We’ve had only a few nights stay above 60F so far this spring. Still lots of lows in the 40s.

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@rayrose

Ray-- Have you ever eaten the Hokkaido Black melon aka Densuke from Japan? What is your opinion of it?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsGNpY-mrA

No, I’ve never heard of it.

If the seeds do germinate despite the cold spell, those plants will be fine? Or will they be stunt and not grow as well?

That’s the problem. The seeds will have a very poor chance of germinating,
at all. It’s better to just replant.

In my experience, cold soil may very well result in non germination, but if they do germinate and come up, they will so no signs whatsoever of having had a cold start. In other words, if they DO come up, they will do just as well as any other seed planted in that location at a warmer time-assuming the weather does warm up and of course it will eventually. But like Ray said, might as well replant. Why wait a week or more for seeds that may be doomed at this point, when you could plant new ones and they can be developing and growing during that time for sure.

BTW…while it is 100% definitely true that planting watermelons in cool soil can often lead to them rotting before they germinate, what blows my mind is that every spring I get a lot of volunteer watermelon plants out in my patch. That means that those seeds laid there in my garden while the melon they were in completely rotted away, then they laid there in the cold, wet winter soil for about 6 months…then all of a sudden they sprout up in the spring. Its crazy. Life finds a way. BUT there are thousands of seeds in my patch at the end of the year and only a few dozen sprout, so it wouldnt pay to play the odds or count on seeds in cold soil to sprout.

Plus I am always amazed about the ability of seeds to stay alive for years (as you answered to my question, thank you very much btw.) though stored absolutely dry and without any nourishment.

I totally agree. I have planted 3 year old seeds myself with no problems. amazing. I once saw a frog of a national geographic show that lived in a desert area and when the annual rain stopped he would go into a state of suspended animation and then a year later when rain returned he (they) would just wake up, live a month durring the rain, and go back to “hibernation”. Life finds a way!

Look for the “spoon” and “tendril.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kTKCPQTK4Lw

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What variety of melons are those?

Is baker creek the best place to buy orange glo? 2 years ago i planted wm they were seedless.water from well went out so they died.going to give wm another try.probably plant a good 300 ft row.

You need to go back and read this thread.

I made my second planting today. One hill each of Super 45, Sugar Queen, Gold Strike, Orange Crisp, Big Stripe, and another seedless. That makes three each of seedless, diploid watermelon, and cantaloupe types.

This was the first good day for hand pollination. Most nights have been too cold, mornings too low humidity, or too windy. There were only about 8 male watermelon flowers but as many females. I’d be happy with one fruit each on seedless and seeded.

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Matt,
How are your wm seeding going? You planted them in ground, right?

We have extended cold temp so I have planted seeds in peat indoors. So far, 100% germination of both Blacktail Mountain and Orangeglo.

I read about 10 mins worth.there’s almost 400 posts lol.probably do a Google search heh.

I tried to scroll for ya…all I found was baker creek and that Willhites I believe doesn’t sell it anymore…sorry I couldn’t scroll any longer…lol.

From the links…it looks like rare seeds haa it also

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I suspect that Ray was referring to this post and the ones that follow it.

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