I planted a watermelon plant late, around early July and it has many long vines. There are multiple flowers and a few baby melons. My question is, since it is so late in the season, would it be best to remove all but one of those long vines so the plant can put all of its energy into one? Thanks for your help.
Watermelon help
- Thread starter Yespat
- Start date
Solution
Meadowlark
Well-known member
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
Welcome @Yespat. I see you are located in 7a so you don't have a lot of time left for them to mature.
The vines through the leaves contribute significantly to the plant's well being and thus I would NOT recommend removing vines. It will not speed up the ripening process and very likely will detract significantly from the health of the plant.
You can increase the size of some melons by pruning smaller or less healthy individual melons. This allows the plant to focus its energy on developing fewer but larger and healthier fruits. However, this practice will not speed up ripening and in fact seems likely to delay it while the individual melons remaining grow larger.
Depending on the variety you selected, the days to maturity can range from 70 to about 90 days. So, if planted in early July you are probably looking at early Oct. for maturity. Depending on your first frost date, it looks like you stand a good chance at enjoying some homegrown melons before frost.
The vines through the leaves contribute significantly to the plant's well being and thus I would NOT recommend removing vines. It will not speed up the ripening process and very likely will detract significantly from the health of the plant.
You can increase the size of some melons by pruning smaller or less healthy individual melons. This allows the plant to focus its energy on developing fewer but larger and healthier fruits. However, this practice will not speed up ripening and in fact seems likely to delay it while the individual melons remaining grow larger.
Depending on the variety you selected, the days to maturity can range from 70 to about 90 days. So, if planted in early July you are probably looking at early Oct. for maturity. Depending on your first frost date, it looks like you stand a good chance at enjoying some homegrown melons before frost.
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Solution
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I know nothing will speed up ripening so perhaps I must have worded my question poorly. Sorry about that. I was mainly concerned that with all the growth, might my plant have a better chance of producing, particularly if in the short timeframe, if some of the vines be cut off and or if some of the tiny melons be removed. I’m really grateful you said to leave the vines alone. And you did mention increasing the size by pruning off the smaller or less healthy melons. So I’m thinking about removing all but 2 or 3 of the tiny fruits in the hope that the watermelon plant will focus its energy on the remaining watermelon. Does that sound like a good plan to you?
Thanks again. I really appreciate your input.
Thanks again. I really appreciate your input.
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Meadowlark
Well-known member
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
Yes, and if removing fruits, keep the very healthiest fruits to mature.
What variety do you have?
What variety do you have?
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Good question. I planted a seed from my seedless black diamond watermelon I purchased. I did that once before and the resulting melon turned out to have yellow flesh and was full of black smallish seeds. It was still tasty. I’m curious to see what comes from this supposed sterile seed.
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The watermelon did ripen. When I harvested it, there was a lovely snap showing that the harvesting was perfectly timed. The color was a bright red inside and I was so looking forward to eating it. That said, the flavor was dead. Not worth eating. I threw the whole thing away. Any ideas of what might have gone wrong? So disappointing.
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Anniekay
Well-known member
- Location
- Quitman, Ga.
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
You just planted it too late and, many people would have cut the vines back because then, all the nutrients coming up through the vine and all the vine's energy that it would waste keeping the long vines alive, then goes straight into ripening and flavoring the melons.
If you have the same issue next year, cut your vines down to three feet and see what happens.
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Anniekay
Well-known member
- Location
- Quitman, Ga.
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
I know, nobody knows it all. Some " general information" doesn't always apply to exceptional situations.I wondered about that. I was advised to not mess with the vines.
.
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I will keep that in mind should I try again. Thanks
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Hello again @Yespat , I've never grown melons here at all, and I expect it wouldn't stay warm enough in our climate to work anyway.
You aren't the only one to have growing disappointments this year you know. Lots of our stuff has been a dead loss. The weather hasn't been on our side, and the slugs just about did all the crops in, or pooped on them so much it took a bar of soap and a ruddy scrubbing brush to clean it off
- then, the other day I brought my two surviving sweet pepper plants in to try to ripen the fruits, and was so pleased when they turned red. When I cut through the horrible things they were all black inside, and they went straight in the bin for compost. It is very easy to be disheartened, but what we have to do, is clear the decks, and try again next year. It's usually through the failures that we learn more!
I took vengeance on my pepper plants and chopped the tops off HA HA! I told them if they wanted to stay out of the bin they would just have to put a spurt on and do better next time.
The plant are now sitting in their pots looking very silly - big pot each and they have about 4 inches of stalk sticking up.......made me feel better!
You aren't the only one to have growing disappointments this year you know. Lots of our stuff has been a dead loss. The weather hasn't been on our side, and the slugs just about did all the crops in, or pooped on them so much it took a bar of soap and a ruddy scrubbing brush to clean it off
- then, the other day I brought my two surviving sweet pepper plants in to try to ripen the fruits, and was so pleased when they turned red. When I cut through the horrible things they were all black inside, and they went straight in the bin for compost. It is very easy to be disheartened, but what we have to do, is clear the decks, and try again next year. It's usually through the failures that we learn more!I took vengeance on my pepper plants and chopped the tops off HA HA! I told them if they wanted to stay out of the bin they would just have to put a spurt on and do better next time.
The plant are now sitting in their pots looking very silly - big pot each and they have about 4 inches of stalk sticking up.......made me feel better!
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Anniekay
Well-known member
- Location
- Quitman, Ga.
- Hardiness zone
- 9a
Hello again @Yespat , I've never grown melons here at all, and I expect it wouldn't stay warm enough in our climate to work anyway.
You aren't the only one to have growing disappointments this year you know. Lots of our stuff has been a dead loss. The weather hasn't been on our side, and the slugs just about did all the crops in, or pooped on them so much it took a bar of soap and a ruddy scrubbing brush to clean it off
I took vengeance on my pepper plants and chopped the tops off HA HA! I told them if they wanted to stay out of the bin they would just have to put a spurt on and do better next time.
The plant are now sitting in their pots looking very silly - big pot each and they have about 4 inches of stalk sticking up.......made me feel better!
You're just like me !! I threaten my plants too !! I tell them that if they don't do right I will grab them around their throats and rip them out of the ground so fast it'll make their roots spin !! 
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