Planting Instructions for Watermelon

To get robust melons like these, you'll need to plan and prepare carefully.

You can grow juicy, delicious watermelons in your back yard, which can also save you money. Although relatively easy to grow, watermelons do require some basic maintenance and preparation so they grow sucessfully. Additionally, due to their long maturation and size, you'll need to plan carefully to take advantage of optimum growing time and space requirements in the garden.

Things You'll Need

• Powered tiller, shovel or hoe
• Manure and compost
• Rake
• Fertilizers (nitrogen-based and phosphorous/potassium-based)

Instructions

1. Choose a location for your watermelons. Watermelon plants require full sun to grow luscious foliage and juicy melons. Because standard watermelon plants grow on long, twisting vines, pick an area where they will be able to spread out without infringing on other plants. Watermelon plants prefer areas where the soil is well-drained, so avoid soils with a high clay content.

2. Work the soil in the area where you want to plant your watermelons. When the soil is not too wet, plow the area by hand with a shovel or hoe, or use a powered tiller for larger areas. Remove any large stones you encounter. Add manure, compost and leaves to the top of the soil and mix the organic material in. Rake the soil until it is smooth and lies evenly.

3. Sow the seeds once the danger of frost is well past, but keep in mind that the largest watermelons may require more than 100 days to reach maturity. You can choose to grow watermelons in either hill or row formations, depending on your space restrictions. Space hills 8 to 10 feet apart on every side. In rows, you can grow the plants as close as 4 to 6 inches apart. Space rows 10 feet apart. If you chose the hill method, mound the soil into a small hill with your hands, and drop three to four seeds into the top of the mound. Cover the seeds with soil. For rows, there is no need to mound the soil--just drop the seeds in and cover them. Water the area thoroughly.

4. Thin the seedlings a week after they germinate. If you have chosen to plant your watermelons in a hill formation, choose the healthiest two seedlings in each hill, and pull out the rest as if they were weeds. For row formations, thin seedlings so you have 10 to 12 inches between plants.

5. Care for the plants throughout the growing season. Watermelons do not tolerate drought, so supplement rains with watering to keep the soil consistently moist. While the plants are still young, remove any weeds from around the plants.

6. Add a nitrogen-based fertilizer regularly to the soil until the plants bloom. Then, begin to work in a phosphorous- and potassium-rich fertilizer.

Tips & Warnings

• If you live an especially cold area, you can add days to your growing season by starting the plants indoors. To do so, take your seeds and drop three or four at a time into a peat pot filled with soil. Once the seedlings have developed their second or third set of leaves, drop the entire peat pot into your hill.

• Watermelons suffer from a host of different pests, the most notorious of which is the cucumber beetle.

References

• The Gardener's Network: How to Grow Watermelon

Resources

• The Owlcroft Company: Watermelon