Watermelon Super Black Skin Red Seedless Sweet Juicy Watermelon Organic 40 Seeds

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How To Grow Watermelon From Seed
Seed is the best way to start for healthy vines, so let’s discuss everything you need to know about planting watermelon seeds!
When To Plant Watermelon
Most watermelon varieties require at least three months of warm conditions to grow. For some of us, that means planting in the spring is just fine. Others may find that right now, at the beginning of summer, is their best bet for great fruit harvests.
I personally prefer to jump-start my seeds indoors prior to planting. You will need soil temperatures of at least 70 degrees (and preferably 80), so you may want to use a heat mat if you’re starting them in the cooler spring months.
Once you’ve hardened off the plant, you can get it in the ground when it’s warmed up. Mid to late May is a popular time for west coast folks, but on the east coast, June to July works quite well too.
Where To Plant Watermelon
This is a constant problem for many adventurous gardeners
because many heirloom watermelon vines can reach lengths of up to 20 feet.
You can train watermelons, particularly smaller varieties, to grow on an angled or vertical trellis. However, many people prefer a large available space so their melons can spread, preferably one where kids and pets won’t trample the vines and young fruit.
One option that many people try out is growing the melons directly in the middle of a lawn. You can make a pile of compost in the center of an otherwise-unused lawn space and plant them right there. The vines will spread out and slowly cover the lawn.
If you are a raised-bed gardener, you can still grow them with some pre-planning. You’ll likely want to pick a plant which has a bushing or miniature habit rather than one with rambling vines. Alternately, you can trellis-train them to keep them in a smaller space.
Did you know that it’s possible to grow watermelon in containers, too? You’ll want at least a five-gallon container so the plant has enough root space, but you can teach your watermelon to climb upward!
However you choose to grow your watermelon, be sure it has full sun. While your plants may accept a little shade, especially on the tips of creeping vines, they perform best in full sun conditions. This is not a plant to tuck along the shady side of your house.
How To Plant Watermelon
If you’re starting plants indoors, use 3-4″ coconut coir or peat pots. Larger watermelon vines transplant poorly, so you’ll want to plant these outdoors while they’re still young without disturbing the roots too much.
Use a well-draining potting soil in the pots, and plant 3 seeds per pot at least 1/2″ beneath the soil’s surface. Keep the soil temperature at a minimum of 70 degrees until the seeds germinate. Once the plants have germinated, keep the healthiest sprout and remove the others.
Starting from seed outside? Make a hill of well-draining soil that’s rich in compost, and plant 8-10 seeds per hill at a depth of 1″ below the soil surface. If you’re going to allow your plants to spread out, space these seeds in clusters of 2-3 around the hill. Hills should be 4′ apart.
Once your plants have germinated, select the strongest three plants per hill to save. If you’re going to trellis them, you might want to have only one plant per hill, but you can place hills about 1.5 to 2 feet apart.
We’ll cover how to transplant young watermelon plants a little further on!
Caring For Watermelon Vines
As much as we’d like to think otherwise, watermelons won’t just miraculously appear overnight… and even if they did, they might not be as tasty as those grown in optimalAs for humidity, watermelons are happy in both semi-arid and humid conditions. However, the higher the humidity, the higher the risk of fungal diseases such as powdery mildew or downy mildew. Keep a watchful eye out for dangers such as these. conditions. So let’s discuss how to grow watermelo
Sun
Watermelons love the sun! If you’re just learning how to grow watermelon, you’ll need to know that they are definitely sun-worshipping plants. They create their own shade beneath their leaf cover for the vine and its fruit to stay protected.
Watermelons require 8 hours a day of sunlight to thrive. They will grow in shadier conditions, but the fruit may be smaller or less sweet.
Temperature and Humidity
When learning how to grow watermelon, temperature is a factor but not a major one to consider.
Watermelons grow best when the temperature is 70-90 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and 65-70 degrees at night. However, watermelons are tolerant of hot summer temperatures, and can easily grow even in hotter conditions once established.
The time at which your watermelon vines will be most sensitive is when they’re still young, as they’re still vining and spreading out. Until the leaves create a canopy to shelter the vine beneath, you may want to use a shade cloth to cool the plants down if the heat spikes.
As for humidity, watermelons are happy in both semi-arid and humid conditions. However, the higher the humidity, the higher the risk of fungal diseases such as powdery mildew or downy mildew. Keep a watchful eye out for dangers such as these.
Watering
To make those juicy melons, watermelon vines need quite a bit of water. After all, a watermelon is made up of 92% water! But how do you know how often to water them?
Simply put, check the soil. Watermelons have deep roots, so you will need to check down deep. If it’s drying out in the top 2″ or so, you likely need to water again. Maintaining consistent moisture at all times will encourage sweet, delicious fruit later!
You’ll want the soil to be damp for at least 6″ below the soil’s surface when you finish watering. Using a drip irrigation system is usually the best way to achieve good permeation of water without putting the plant at risk of mildew or other fungal diseases.
Watermelons like to be watered deeply a minimum of once per week. Hotter weather means more watering. A good rule of thumb is that you should water them at least an inch per week during mild weather, and double the frequency in hotter weather.
If you plan on mulching, either with black plastic or wood chip mulch, you may not have as much evaporation from the soil and may be able to use less water. The goal is to keep the soil consistently moist but not soggy – watermelon roots, vines, and fruit are susceptible to disease.
Soil
Soil is an important part of how to grow watermelons, so let’s go over the optimal soil blends for them!
Hard-packed soils tend to be problematic as your plants will be struggling to stretch out their roots. It’s better to have a loamy, well-draining soil amended with compost. Aged manure or seaweed are also good additions, as watermelons are heavy feeders.
The optimal pH range should be 6.0-6.5, but your vines can handle up to 6.8 and maybe even 7 pH. Just be aware that anything below a 6 may result in yellowing leaves or vine stunting.
Watermelons are susceptible to manganese toxicity, especially if the pH range is not favorable for your plants. It’s always a good idea to have your soil tested at the local agriculture extension prior to planting so you can amend as needed.
Fertilizing
There are two stages of fertilizing which apply to watermelons: young plant, and fruit development.
A young plant is going to require a high nitrogen boost to do its growth spurt. So for the initial stage at and after planting, using a high-nitrogen fertilizer is best. That will provide all of the nutrition your watermelons need to develop their foliage.
When the vines begin to flower, it’s time to switch to a lower-nitrogen, but higher-phosphorous and higher-potassium fertilizer. The combination of potassium and phosphorous is necessary for stimulating flower production and for healthy fruiting.
Be sure that you make the switch, though! If you stick with the high-nitrogen fertilizer, your vines will continue to bolt everywhere, but you may not produce much, if any fruit at all. And the whole point of growing watermelon is to eat it, right?
Propagation
The best way to grow watermelons is from clean watermelon seeds. Plants grown from seed are typically healthier and have more vigor than those which aren’t. In addition, you can use a seed treatment such as beneficial mycorrhizae or other seed inoculant that way if you’d like.
Watermelon can also be grown from cuttings. You will need to examine your vine and take a cutting just past one of its leaf nodes. Ideally, you need a 9-12″ cutting. Place your cutting into sterile potting mix, burying at least a couple inches of the vine.
Keep the soil moist, but not wet, and ensure it remains in the 70 degree range. Also, keep your cutting out of direct sunlight until it starts to actively grow again, at which point it has developed roots.
Cuttings may have difficulty fruiting if they’re taken too late in the season. It’s usually far easier to just grow from seed in the first place.
Transplanting
Watermelons are notoriously finicky when it comes to transplanting. As these plants put down a sizeable taproot, it can start to coil around the inside of the pot and cause the plant to become rootbound quickly, which complicates transplants.
I highly recommend planting any watermelon seeds you wish to pre-start in a plantable pot, such as a pot made of peat or coconut coir. You can gently cut the bottom of the pot just before planting to allow easy access for the roots to stretch out.
Older watermelons do not transplant well at all. They develop a deep and intricate root system that can stretch out nearly a foot and a half from the vine’s base, and it seriously complicates any effort to move them. Since they’re a single-season crop, it’s not really necessary.
If you do need to transplant a watermelon seedling from a plastic pot, please be extremely gentle so as to not damage its main taproot. You can plant it at or just slightly above where it was planted before, as the vine will develop more roots along its length.
Pruning
Pruning watermelon vines can be tricky, because it may impact fruiting.
Watermelon vines are monoecious, meaning that they produce both male and female flowers on the same vine. While that means they’re self-pollinating, it also means that pruning may accidentally remove flowers you need to produce fruit.
Typically, male flowers tend to appear first on your vines, and female flowers will show up further along the vines later. There should always be some male flowers around when the vine is producing female flowers.
If you have the space to just let your vines grow at their own rate and size, then by all means you can! However, be aware that there are drawbacks to this method.
The more fruit that a particular plant is working to develop, the less sweet each fruit becomes. In addition, the quality of the melon will decline in other ways. The rind may be less solid, or the fruit inside may have a slightly mushy texture. Shelf life decreases as well.
Multiple vines emerge from the same plant. For the best, sweetest melons, you’ll want to decide on a maximum number of melons that each plant will produce. For smaller varieties, that might be 8-10 melons, but for larger melons, it may be 4-6.
If you’re trying to produce a prizewinning massive melon, you may want your plant to devote all of its time and energy to making one single melon. However, you don’t want to prune off all the other vines, as the plant needs leaves both to gather sun energy and to shade itself!
Once each vine from the plant base has a maximum of two fruit, it’s good to trim off the vine tip beyond that point, leaving enough leaves that the plant can continue to thrive.
People who are growing their watermelons on a trellis may be limited by the space available on the trellis, and should wait until some fruit starts to form. Again, try to limit it to a maximum of two fruit per vine. Then trim off excess growth to keep the plant in check.
As with any pruning, sterilize your pruners between cuts to prevent the spread of disease.