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By eHow Home & Garden Editor
Dig plenty of organic matter into the soil to provide the conditions watermelons need: a light, sandy, fertile loam that is well-drained yet retains moisture. A near-neutral pH is best, but watermelons will tolerate soil as acid as 5.5.
Prepare the soil well at planting time, even if you've added plenty of organic matter earlier. For each plant, dig a hole two feet in diameter and a foot deep, and add at least a shovelful of compost or well-cured manure and a trowel or two of bone meal.
Set hardened-off transplants into the ground at the depth they were growing in their pots. Sow seeds an inch deep in hills. (See "How to Harden off Transplants" and "How to Start Vegetable Seeds Outdoors.") Water thoroughly with compost tea.
Cover the plants with floating row covers to keep the air warm, and give young plants an inch of water a week.
eHow Home & Garden Editor
Comments
philb00 said
on 10/26/2008 yeh me tooo i got lots of big huge vines but sadly only couple little melons started to grow yhen the cold came.... all over
texasclaw said
on 8/9/2008 Any idea on how to combat "Blossom End Rot" and or splitting of melons before maturity?
Tinaj said
on 7/5/2008 This is my first time trying to grow watermelon and I live in Ohio, The plant's have flowers on them just want to have some tips on how to keep plant's healthy and on how much to water. I am just so happy that they grow at all. Thanks
Sp1d3r said
on 5/5/2008 I love watermelon :P
hereticzero said
on 8/6/2007 PS:
A trap baited with the squash vine borer's sex pheromone would be a useful tool in determining when the moths are active. This pheromone has been identified but is not yet commercially available.
The stage most susceptible to natural enemies is the egg stage, which is attacked by parasitic wasps. Larval and adult ground beetles (Family Carabidae) can attack larvae of squash vine borer, but do not appear to cause significant mortality.
Destroy vines soon after harvest to destroy any larvae still inside stems. Disk or plow the soil in fall or spring to destroy overwintering cocoons. Cover vines at leaf joints with moist soil, to promote formation of secondary roots that will support the plant if the main root and stem are injured. A trap crop of very early-planted Hubbard squash can be used to alleviate pest pressure from other cucurbits.