Table of Contents
How do watermelons grow?
Not like most crops, watermelons grow on vines that grow out of the preliminary sprout and might grow to be six metres long. The variety of vines determines what number of watermelons there are per plant as every vine can produce between two to 4 melons throughout the rising season.
The place to plant watermelons
Reading: How long for a watermelon to grow
Watermelons grow greatest in a planting web site that has a lot of open area. Watermelon vines ramble, so your crops are going to unfold out round your backyard as they grow. Watermelon crops are additionally heavy feeders, so that you would possibly want to put together compost if you happen to don’t have nutrient-rich soil.
The most effective time to plant watermelon
In case you stay within the Australia’s temperate zone, seeds want to be sown someday between October and December when every day temperatures common round 20-25 °C. If the climate nonetheless isn’t heat sufficient round that point, you can begin your seeds indoors in containers like a small pot or a germination tray.
This manner, you’ll have the option to management how heat the soil can get. Simply ensure that to switch the seedling to your backyard as quickly as you possibly can as bigger seedlings gained’t transplant nicely.
Supreme soil situations for watermelon
You additionally want to put together mounds of soil to sow the seeds in as they are going to drain water sooner than soil on flat floor. These mounds of soil additionally have a tendency to be hotter, which is good for tropical fruit like watermelon. For many varieties, the seeds needs to be sown an inch deep into a 6-12 inch tall mound.
Also Read: What to plant next to each other
Do watermelons want numerous water?
Watermelons require a thorough watering as soon as a week. As soon as the seeds have germinated, give your crops an inch of water each week. Slightly little bit of balanced fertiliser every week will also be good for your crops as watermelons take a lot of vitamins from the soil and compost. It’s additionally a good concept to add mulch to the soil because it helps with retaining moisture and driving away weeds that may intrude with the expansion of your crops.
How long does it take to grow a watermelon?
On common, it takes round three months for a watermelon to grow from seed to mature fruit, with smaller varieties having shorter rising occasions than bigger kinds of watermelon.
Flowering
Round two weeks after your vines begin rambling, your watermelon crops ought to begin flowering, with the smaller male flowers displaying up first and the fruit-bearing feminine flowers showing quickly after.
Typically, the bees in your backyard ought to have the option to pollinate all of your flowers for you. Nevertheless, if you happen to don’t have that many bees, you can too pollinate them your self.
Harvesting watermelons
Realizing when to harvest your watermelons could be a bit difficult as there aren’t any surefire methods of checking whether or not the fruit is prepared for choosing.
For a lot of gardeners, a brown and dried up tendril close to the watermelon is a good signal that the fruit is prepared. You may as well attempt evenly thumping your knuckles on the watermelon to see if it produces the hole sound a ripe watermelon ought to make.
Neither of those methods is an actual science, so it’d take you a little little bit of apply earlier than you possibly can persistently inform when your melons are prepared for harvest.
Rising ideas
Also Read: How long does it take granular fertilizer to work
We all know watermelons could be a little difficult to cope with, so we’ve give you a couple of ideas that may make life a little simpler for you.
1. Use open-pollinated or heirloom seeds
If you’d like to grow the healthiest watermelons, make sure to use these two sorts of seeds as a substitute of the hybrid varieties usually seen in store-bought melons. Open-pollinated varieties are sometimes extra resilient than other forms of seeds, and heirloom seeds have a tendency to produce higher fruit.
2. Sow extra seeds than you want
Because you gained’t get a good plant out of each seed you sow, you’ll be higher off sowing as many seeds as you possibly can and trimming away weaker seedlings.
3. Prepare the vines on a trellis
In case you don’t have a lot of area in your backyard, you possibly can prepare the vines to climb up a trellis as a substitute of spreading throughout your yard. Whereas this takes a little extra effort and time in your half, you’ll unencumber a lot extra space.
4. Frequently prune your vines
As soon as your vines begin rambling, be looking out for rotten components that want to be clipped away with sterilised instruments. If these rotting components stayed on the vines, the micro organism and fungi would possibly unfold and harm the remainder of the plant.
5. Plant useful crops subsequent to your watermelons
Watermelons absorb a lot of vitamins, so soil-enriching crops like beans and different legumes make for wonderful companion crops. You’ll be able to even incorporate these crops into your crop rotation system in order that your backyard could be prepared for watermelons for the subsequent rising season.
How to grow parsley, indoors or exterior
How to lower a watermelon in a single minute
5 superb watermelon hacks
Also Read: How do pineapples grow in the wild
