How to Grow Watermelons

YUMMY WATERMELON!

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The ultimate summer treat! Great for sitting on the back porch and spitting seeds. Perfect chunked up and mixed with other summer fruits for a cooling fruit salad. The creation of seedless watermelons has opened up the field. They're still a messy treat, but not nearly as bad as they used to be.Still, finding a nice non-hybrid watermelon variety, like Moon and Stars, gives you an excuse to teach your kids how to spit the seeds, then how to care for the plants that have resulted. There's something extra sweet about a watermelon that has come from your own garden.Another benefit of growing your own watermelon is that you have a rainbow of varieties to choose from. Seeded, seedless, short season, long season, plants with enormous vines and plants designed to be relative space savers. Orange, yellow, red, pink, tiny, small, medium, huge--the sky's the limit once you start looking at seed catalogs.If you don't want to plant seeds, you can find seedlings at your local nursery or garden center. Any of these will come with directions that you should follow, but there are some good general rules that apply to all watermelon growing. This should get you started.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Watermelon seeds or seedlings
At least nine square yards of space for a small patch, in an area with full sun
Garden rake
Boards, 1 foot square (optional)

Step1

Dig 81 square feet of space thoroughly with a spading fork to loosen the soil. Do this as soon as the soil has warmed enough to dig. Do this several times, watering in between to further loosen the soil. Add soil amendments as needed for texture and plant nutrition.

Step2

Get a headstart! Start your seeds now, in peat pots. Keep them fairly warm, and make sure they get plenty of light and moisture. If you start them as soon as the soil is workable outside, they'll be a perfect size to transplant just as the soil is the right temperature for them (You can also wait and just put your seeds directly into the soil).

Step3

Use a rake to pull the loosened soil into five "hills," one in each corner, and one in the middle. Your hills should be almost one foot high, and about two to three feet in diameter.

Step4

Hollow out a six inch deep basin one foot wide in the top of each hill. Throw a couple of hands of compost or other fertilizer into each basin and mix it completely into the soil.

Step5

Plant two seedlings each in three holes in the basin.. Bury them just to the top of the soil level they had in their pots. If you are using seeds, plant three holes with three seeds each in each bowl, about one inch deep. Tamp the soil down firmly with the back of the rake or a shovel.

Step6

Water each depression until it is full. Allow it to drain, then water as needed. You don't want the soil to dry out too much, but you don't want the plant roots or leaves sitting in water, either.

Tips & Warnings

It's best to water by filling the basins at the top of each hill. This will protect against soil borne diseases. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. Some days this will mean no water at all.
In a hot weather growing spurt, you may have check and water two or three times a day.
Watermelon needs feeding at least monthly with a good vegetable fertilizer. Watch it grow and take over your garden.
Don't step on the hills, only in between.
Don't step on the plants.
Put a board under each growing fruit for protection from anything underneath, such as damp soil and fungal problems.