Do yous like watermelon? Who doesn't, right? But for all their sweet taste and crispy flesh, y'all'll accept to grapple with many issues when growing these juicy orbs. And problems is a mild way to put it. Every bit it turns out, when growing watermelon in your garden, many things could become wrong.

Watermelon Growing Problems

I think it'southward safety to say that there are as many watermelon problems every bit the number of varieties and cultivars you can grow of that delicious fruit. Not to mention the plethora of diseases and pests that attack these delicate vines and which crave a dissever article of their ain.

Hither are some of these mutual issues and what tin you do to remedy and prevent these situations.

Watermelon Seedlings Dying

Right off the bat, the watermelon seedling has a surprise for you. It'due south damping off. You lot accept a closer wait at the sapling and yous discover the stem wilting right where it emerges out of the basis. Give the seedling a pull and information technology comes out with a spider web of shriveled and rotten roots. And then what exactly happened here?

Many plants endure from damping off at an early on phase in life. Unfortunately, watermelons are no exception. And the culprit, in this case, is a family of fungi called Pythium. They strike when the soil is moist and cold and attack young and fragile seedlings.

How to Fix information technology

One of the all-time means to prevent damping off is to avoid sowing watermelon seeds directly in the soil. Instead, outset them indoors in a modest pot or a bulb tray. This allows you to provide warm temperatures for the fragile seedling. When the soil outdoors becomes warm plenty, you can transplant the bulb.

Another solution is to eliminate the fungi with a fungicide that contains azoxystrobin and metalaxyl. Turn the soil earlier yous apply the fungicide and permit it sit nether the lord's day for a couple of weeks before you transplant the watermelon seedlings.

Watermelon Dropping Blossoms

The average watermelon vine grows both male and female flowers. The male flowers are the first to bloom and virtually two weeks afterwards, the female person flowers open up. You tin can tell the deviation betwixt the 2 types of flowers since female flowers have a short stem and a bulbous swelling near the bottom of the flower.

Male person flowers are expendable. They but accept 1 chore, to produce the pollen to pollinate the females and after that, they fade and driblet. Just sometimes they would drop long before the female flowers have even bloomed. Although that might sound serious, it'due south actually quite normal for male flowers to drop earlier fulfilling their mission in life. This should non be cause for alarm unless you lose a lot of male person flowers at once.

Female flowers on the other manus don't tend to drop since the fruit will develop literally at the center of the flower. If your female flowers beginning to driblet, that could hateful the flowers didn't go pollinated in time. And that's a existent problem that means y'all'll have few if any watermelons this yr.

How to Set it

There are many means you can prevent female flowers from dropping. Hither are a few suggested fixes.

  • Pollinate the flowers manually: If your garden doesn't attract many pollinators, then it'due south upwardly to yous to pollinate the flowers yourself. Pick a male flower and make certain the pollen-laden stamen is sticking out of it. Drop the stamen inside the bloated part of the female flower and requite it a few shakes. Rub it against the inside of the pistil for expert measure. Repeat with the other female person flowers using different male person flowers. Who said gardening wasn't fun!
  • Fertilize: The vine might exist malnourished and to conserve free energy and resources, it starts to shed off the flowers early. Feed the plant with wearisome-release organic fertilizer correct effectually the fourth dimension the first buds start to emerge.
  • Attract Pollinators: Make full your garden with plants that attract bees and collywobbles such as lavender, pussy willow, blueish borage, crocus, marjoram, lilac, and abelia. The more pollinators you have in the garden, the better the chances of pollinating female flowers before the male ones drib.

Watermelon Dropping Blossoms

Watermelon Plant Not Flowering

But what if the watermelon vines are non flowering at all? That'southward a big trouble. Considering without flowers, you won't accept whatever fruits, and let'south face up it, the vines are not ornamental enough to justify all the trouble y'all go through. So what can you do most that?

Showtime, check that your vine is growing in optimal atmospheric condition. These conditions include

  • Plenty of sunlight. At least 6 hours of sun every day.
  • The air temperature is between eighty to xc degrees Fahrenheit.
  • The soil is loamy, rich, and well-drained.
  • The soil pH is mostly neutral hovering around 6.0 to 6.viii.
  • Mulch liberally to retain the moisture in the soil and foreclose weeds from competing with the vine over resources.

How to Fix information technology

If you get through the above checklist and you still tin't find the crusade for the lack of flowering on your vine, bank check the fertilizer y'all're using. Loftier concentrations of nitrogen trigger an flare-up of foliage and root growth at the cost of flowering. Use a fertilizer high on phosphorus and low on nitrogen to encourage flowering. Side dress with meal os in the early on spring. If none of these fixes the trouble, consider growing a different watermelon variety or cultivar.

Watermelon Hollow Heart

Y'all worked hard all flavor, you fought off pests and wildlife and you spared no try to go on your watermelon vines growing successfully. And here it is at least. The beginning ripe watermelon of the season is on the tabular array and your knife is cutting it in halves. Only to your shock, you discover that the watermelon is hollow inside. What exactly happened hither?

The problem of hollow middle is common in seedless watermelons in item. One theory goes that the growing conditions around the vine especially during pollination were not optimal and that causes this issue. This theory points the finger squarely at the pollinators. Information technology claims that not enough pollen fertilized the female flower which impacts the development of the fruit well into the concluding stages.

Another side to the problem has to do with the nutrition in the soil. Boron is an important element for watermelons since information technology enhances the development of healthy seeds. Boron deficiency tin prevent seeds from forming within of the fruit which leaves a gap in the centre of the ripe watermelon.

How to Set up it

Before we wait into ways to ready the watermelon hollow middle upshot nosotros need to stress that this problem is non acquired past a illness. The watermelon is good for you and safe to eat despite the gaping hole in the heart of it. Then how do you fix this trouble?

  • Make sure the vine has plenty male person flowers to pollinate the females. If you're growing a multifariousness that doesn't grow both male person and female flowers, then plant other vines to provide the pollen. If the pollinators fail you, pollinate the flowers yourself as we explained higher up.
  • Side dress the vine with boron as a plant food supplement. You lot should apply it around the blossom time and long before the fruits accept adult.

Stunted Watermelon Growth

Watermelons as we all know come in different varieties. The fruits themselves vary in size and range from 4 pounds to 70 pounds. So when you grow a cultivar that averages 10 pounds but only to get a fruit that weighs 5 pounds, you start to suspect something is not correct with these vines.

And your suspicions volition be proven right at a shut inspection of the watermelon vine. Under the green foliage and entwining tendrils, pathogens are wreaking havoc on the plant.

  • Inadequate Temperature: As a warm zone plant, watermelon thrives in temperatures between 85 to ninety degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 60 degrees F at dark. Cold spells or unforeseen conditions conditions that cause the temperature to drop beneath these platonic levels could stunt the growth of the vine and the fruits it produces.
  • Wrong Soil: If you try to abound the vine in dirt or heavy soil, you'll get undesirable results which include small fruits. Brand sure the soil is loamy, rich, and well-drained. Yous tin can grow it on mounds about a foot high to meliorate drainage.
  • Root Impairment: The roots of the vine might have been damaged if you lot installed a trellis virtually the growing establish. Also, check if in that location are other plants in its vicinity that might be competing for resources and nutrients.
  • Non Enough Pollination: Poorly pollinated female flowers will produce stunted fruits. Ensure your garden is buzzing with pollinators and that the vine has enough male flowers.
  • Pests: Different pests and diseases affect the size of the watermelon fruit. Aphids are known to feed on the sap in the leaves and stems which feeds the fruit. They also carry pathogens that crusade diseases.

How to Fix it

Make sure that the vine is growing in a healthy mode and that its root system is intact. If the temperature drops at night, yous can wrap the vine with a tarp to proceed the soil warm. Get rid of the pests and make sure there are no competing plants about the vine.

Watermelons Splitting In Garden

This problem happens to the watermelon fruit later on it has grown to its total size only hasn't ripened withal. The perfectly healthy fruit has a deep crack in the side. The chief reason behind it is inadequate watering patterns. If you let the soil dry out then overwater information technology, the fruits will split up open up under the force per unit area of the excessive water. This might too happen subsequently heavy rainfall which leaves the soil waterlogged.

Watermelon splitting might also happen due to a sudden increase in the temperature. The oestrus creates pressure inside the unripe fruit causing the hard vanquish to crack.

How to Set up it

The get-go matter to practice is to observe the watering patterns of the watermelon faithfully. This is another reason why you lot should grow watermelon in loamy and well-drained soil. Even if information technology rains heavily, the soil volition absorb the water earlier the roots of the vine could take in as well much moisture to cause the pressure imbalance within of the fruit.

Equally for the sudden spike in the soil temperature that causes the watermelons to split open, you tin employ mulch. Comprehend the soil around the wine with a thick layer of mulch to act as insulation and protect the juicy orbs.