Watermellons in the greenhouse

A couple of weeks ago I was doing the watering for a neighbour whilst he was sunning himself overseas ; as a thank you he gave me one of the watermellon plants that I had been looking after for him.

I should have said no, but Im a sucker for a challenge so its been in my greenhouse, where its in the process of taking over:

--
(that was at the weekend - its got bigger since)

Im thinking I should take out the growing tip when the first flowers open so that it concentrates on making mellons rather than world domination ; anyone had any experience they would like to share ?

 

awesome, this is one challenge i want to do if i ever get a greenhouse

i've never had any experience growing them so can't comment on pinching the shooting tip

one thing i can advise on though and you probably already know this, create a hammock for the fruit. It needs to be off the ground and supported. They also require a lot of feeding. They grew these on the allotment challenge on the BBC

 

I only grew them once - we'd eaten them abroad, of course, and they are IMO just a marvellous-mouthful-of-nothing, so only really grew them out of curiosity. I let mine trail along the ground, under everything else. Might be quite a commitment supporting a fruit "off the deck"

I grew mine like Melons - primary for "a bit" then pinch out, secondaries for "a bit" (about 4 leaf pairs from memory), and then pinch out - plus anything else that comes after that, to encourage flowering and fruiting. I hand pollinated mine - break off male flower and insert into female, rather then transferring pollen with small brush etc.

 

I support Melons off the ground, but Watermelons would be too heavy I think.

 

would you suggest maybe a straw bed? anything to stop it sitting in damp conditions really

 

Yes, probably best it isn't sitting on the soil. If it is going to sprawl everywhere (similar to Squash outside) it would be a good idea to cover the soil with weed suppressing membrane - because getting in & amongst to weed a fully grown Squash is going to crush some of the vines :( so better not to have to weed at all

If in a pot I reckon it will need at least 20L size.

Lots of water too

 

hmm - yes - thinking about it, letting it grow up the wall was probably a mistake, it is going to make supporting any fruit a bit of a challenge !

It does have a second limb appearing from the bottom so maybe I can get that one to run along the front of the tomato pots just in case my knots dont hold !

Watering is going to be a challenge - Ive been experimenting with leaky hose & 5L water bottles to see if I can knock something up to keep it moist while Im away (off to Utah for a week at the end of the month) - I guess I could ask the neighbour who started all this to come over & water the thing while Im away since its his fault Im growing it but that seems a little petty

Thanks for the ideas - will keep you informed.

 

The fruit will be on the laterals, so training [some of] them along the deck and making sure fruit on them gets pollinated should do the trick

Up-turned 5L bottle, with bottom cut off (as a funnel) and a small hole in the lid / neck should last a day or two, but more importantly be easy to fill up periodically. You might have to bury the neck a bit to make it stable.

 

why not move that potting bench in the background to underneath the plant. The fruit can then sit on that

 

Thats screwed to the wall (its actually a couple of bits of old decking that I rescued from next door when she remodelled - but I do have a stash of old timber so I could knock something up if I needed too.