How Long Do Sugar Baby Vines Grow?

Sugar Baby watermelon is a sweet early melon.

The Sugar Baby watermelon is a 6- to 10-lb., personal-sized melon. Watermelons need plenty of space to accommodate their runners or vines. Sugar Babies can be grown over a sturdy trellis in minimal spaces. A Sugar Baby melon starts out striped and ripens to a dark rich green.

Vine Length

Sugar Baby melons can grow a vine that is nearly 13 feet long. It is one of the shorter vines in the melon family. Another variety, Stone Mountain, can grow a vine nearly 20 feet long.

Cooler Season Melon

As a short-season watermelon, Sugar Baby is ideal for more northern areas where the growing season is shorter. The fruit is ready about 80 days after seeding and can be ready sooner if you start the plants indoors in early spring.

Pruning

Watermelons need to be pruned to give the most healthy fruits a better chance to thrive. Puny melons should be pruned off early and prune off unproductive vines after the plant has set fruit. Vines that are not producing, just draw energy from the plant that could be used to build a juicy melon.

References

• Gardening Tips: Sugar Baby Watermelons
• University of Illinois-Watch Your Garden Grow: Watermelons
• North Carolina State University; Vine Length of a Diverse Set of Watermelon Cultivars; Grant Neppl and Todd Wehner; 2001