growing watermelons?

Hi,

I have question would someone kindly help. Thank you in advance.. Here goes, can anyone tell me what size do a watermelon plant have to be before it starts producing flowers and/or watermelons. Those it have to have grown full size, before producing?

no. Watermelon vines keep growing even after they produce a crop and will keep going until killed by frost, disease, or human intervention. Regular size melons in my experience will start setting melons by the time the vines reach six feet in lenght. By the time melons are ripe they will be about 12-15 ft.

Right, and the male blossoms come on first and later the female blossoms [with the mini fruit on the blossom] set on further out on the vine than the male blossoms. These female blossoms are paler yellow in color and have a greenish center rather than the bright gold centers of the male pollen blossoms.

Does a watermelon "slip" off the vine when ripe or do you have to cut it?

Watermelons do not "slip".

Thank You Farmerdill...I don't have any experience growing melons and don't really know ywhat I'm doing. I have a yellow variety purchased at a home improvement center to fill a spot in my landscape where another plant had been removed. I did not have any real expectations for it however it certainly seems to be happy. I have heard that watermelons don't continue to ripen once removed from the vine so what kind of indicators should I be watching for that tell me it is ready to pick? I have several melons that are approaching 15-18 lbs which I believe was the weight that the plant id tag said they would grow to. Tag is somewhere in there but I haven't found it yet.

Look for the tendril where the stem attaches to the vine. When it becomes dry and brown, the melon is usually ripe. However when in doubt with your first melon, take Indy's advice and wait an extra week. Here is a photo of the tendril on a green melon, that might help you find it.

Here is a closer pic of one of the melons.

Dann_L,

Those leaves look healthy and likely the plant will finish up your melons nicely.
My biggest problem is keeping plant health robust through the whole cycle...a sickly vine will not induce good flavor, texture, or sweetness. I learning, but it has been a hard row.

Thank you framerdill and dannl...i'm very new at this. Since my kids loves to eat tunes of watermelon i decided to plant some, just to see what can come of it. So i do have alot to learn. Never have ever planted any kind of vegetable or fruit.

here is the tendril on one I pulled this morning.

Hi, i have another question...Can someone tell me why do foliage on watermelon plants become dry, mine feels dry when i touch them kind of rough or ashy like.....Another question..

I heard some people say that watering your plants in the late evening, might leave plants wet before night, not being able to dry.....Okay, but what about dew thats on your plants in the night , what does it cause and/or what will be the difference with watering on plants?

thank you

Well, you can't help the dew! ...or rain. I feel that heavy evening watering that leaves the leaves wet is not too good. Now you could water the ground only and that isn't so bad. But the dew would not be a combination of leaf and ground wetness.

I am of the opinion that southern gardeners are more prone to have leaf fungal diseases. Northern gardeners seem to have more soil fungal problems such as fusarium wilt.

If you are talking about watermelons, I don't irrigate them even in drought. They actually seem to do better when it is dry. Georgia is in a serious drought, but I have had excellent watermelons this year. Last year was a relatively wet year, melons were not as large or sweet, and foliar diseases took out most plants after the first set.

Farmer,

My experience seems different than yours. I do not have deeply sandy soil and my watermelon roots do not run deep but they run horizonally . So dryness here might not be so good.

Well, here in Mississippi we were in a severe drought also until about a couple of weeks ago. We have been getting rain about every other day now...By my soil being not so good i'm thinking the rain might be doing my watermelon plants some good. I have mostly clay dirt with a little topsoil mixed in. It probably would be a miracle if my plants produce anything and concidering to that i was late on planting them. I'm hoping for a long summer here in mississippi.