My father in law , who lived on a farm, grew the best biggest watermelons i have ever seen & best tasting! Also a big tall corn field and best tomatoes and every other vegetable. He lived in Crockett Texas. This was 30 years ago. He had very sandy soil. He had a green thumb for sure! When you are young you don't pay attention to such great information I wished I knew his secret. He could grow anything. plum trees, peach trees ! You'll are of course very smart & talented growers/farmers. I hope to be one of these days.thanks for your videos. ttyl
@@littlewing5682 you can get a load of compost or sand brought in from the local areas. Keep your leaves and grass clippings and make your own and mix it in where you plant your plants! You can do it!!
I experimented this year and put some homemade biochar down in my rows this year and amended it with a little dolomitic lime later when I saw some evidence of blossom end rot on a couple. They're doing so well we've had one harvest already and they're setting fruit again so I'm going to see if we can get another wagon full before our first frost date! 😆 Love this video!
I definitely learned how important temp is for seed germination. I tried germinating watermelon seeds inside on a heading nat with a grow light and humidity done and got nothing. But the watermelon seeds I thought were bad (water float test) I tossed in a bowl of sand on my back porch about 2 weeks before it hit 70 degrees outside and after a week of consistent warm weather I had a bowl full of watermelon sprouts!! I didn’t even know what they were at first cause I had forgot about them lol.
Thanks for the tip. Last year my crop was so-so. I’m hoping to get a good crop this year so my wife can supply us with lots of watermelon rind pickled relish.
Great tips. i Amend the soil then hill the watermelon rows and cover it with weed fabric for those weeds. This works great for me and got some big ones despite of heavy rains. There is still problems with high ph (7.2).
So informative! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us here on youtube- my sugarbaby watermelons will no doubt be just as appreciative as I am! Happy harvesting 🍈
Friend of mine and myself looked for years for a old variety of watermelon which was grown in my area of SC. Finally found some seeds in a old guy's freezer, we brought back the garrison variety. Looks like a like a Georgia rattle snake, but white seeded and sweeter. It will also grow in my wet black dirt gardens where Charleston gray would blow apart after each rain.
That's awesome! Congrats to you! You should preserve them and try to sell some on a Seed Exchange if you haven't already! I love collecting watermelon seeds. Still trying to successfully grow them, though!
Picked my first crimson sweet today. The tendril was 100% brown tip to end, there was no yellow spot but I rotate it daily so i wasn’t expecting one. The melon was a little small but gave an impressive pop when cut and I thought I had something special. 😂 Was half pink half white inside. Now I’m scared to pick another
I’m no expert but pruning the suckers and side vines some can help. Need to decide how many melons per plant you want though if you go that route so you know how much to cut off. But it’s really all those side vines that make it take up an aircraft hangar’s worth of space I think
I'll subscribe because of this. Nice n SHORT, with everything I need to know. Zinc Boron Sulpher. Got it. I am planting a hundred or so watermelon and cantalope here in a few days. I'm doing it on a friends' farm where the soil is questionable. It was a hog pen a year or so back. Now I have been taught to plant my cantalope in mounds so I'm looking for something like that on utube. Really wanto learn how to grow and preserve cantalope and watermelon likd mad. I could eat a cantalope everyday for about a month, til I get tired of them. Will let you know how it turns out. The seeds I planted less than a week ago are coming out strong, but the patch of dirt I am planting on really needs to be tilled and broken up.
i have some watermelon with about 2 leaves, in the ground. we keep on having a couple days of mid 40's all this month. Zone 9a. Is this going to permanently stunt the plants? Will planting new seed, out perform these? Later in the year.
I have six melon plants. I'm getting the micro boost you mentioned for them and I have 13-0-0 blood meal for nitrogen . Is that blood meal ok and if so how much of each should I mix together for the six plants I have? That would help me alot. Thank ya neighbor .
I just planted 6 jubilee watermelon seeds and they are growing so fast! I'm worried about my success transplanting them from inside to outside in my garden. I live in Kansas and it's been really windy and rainy. Trying to find out when I should transplanting them
Check out our watermelon growing guide for our recommendations. growhoss.com/blogs/growing-guides/watermelon?_pos=1&_psq=+watermelon+growing+&_ss=e&_v=1.0
I live in SC I have just purchased Chilean nitrate but can’t find any instructions : is it too late to use once vines are already fruiting ? I don’t have drip lines just sprinklers for a large area - I’m not sure what quantities- should I just side dress? If so how much ? I can’t find any specific directions anywhere ! Thanks
The application rate for Chilean nitrate fertilizer depends on the type of crop and whether the fertilizer is dry or liquid: Fruit and vegetables Apply 3.5 lbs of dry fertilizer per 1,000 sq ft every 10-14 days, or apply liquid fertilizer alongside the plants at a rate of 1 cup per 10 ft. Field corn, popcorn, or sweet corn Apply 3.5 lbs of dry fertilizer per 1,000 sq ft at least 2-3 times during the plant's life. For liquid fertilizer, you can dissolve 5 lbs of water per gallon to make a 6-0-0 liquid concentrate, then dilute further for application.
So I have what I feel like is a dumb question lol. How do you know what your soil temp is? Is it generally "x" amount lower than the ambient temperature? What's a good guide, other than going out and actually measuring it?
I always add a small handful of organic lime around roots of any vegetable that is prone to end rot disease. Since I started doing this, I never saw a single end rot on any on my veggies.
Hi...i have a question..im planting watermelon and cantaloupe near cucumbers..will they cross pollinate if i want to save seeds from watermelon..im searching online and im getting different answers..thx
Thanks for the video! 👍🏻😃…. I have a couple of questions…… first is weed control when the vines start running……that watermelon patch is CLEAN ! Do you move the vines and till or cultivate around them ? I recently acquired a plastic mulch layer. Last year I tried spacing the rows apart wide enough to run my 5’ tiller through them. It worked great until the vines got thick then the weeds took over ( I work 2 jobs ) . My Hispanic friends grow their watermelons in narrow rows and spray a pre emergent herbicide prior to transplanting them. My grandaddy used to get up at 0400 and work the melons with a hoe until lunchtime, then nap and work a little more in the evening ( 2-3 acres of watermelons and cantaloupes , he lived to be 95 ) Any weed control suggestions for a busy Paramedic would be greatly appreciated.
We use drip irrigation, so the water is only applied to the plants and not in the middle. It help keep the weed pressure down. We run the wheel hoe regularly until the vines run and we can't. We the pull the weeds by hand or use a small hoe until the vines completely cover the ground. it is a labor of love and no special secrets, just dedicated schedule. It really only takes a few minutes a day to pull a few weeds. As owners of the business we work 12-14 hour days and tend to the garden late in the afternoon and on weekends. Maybe the secret is a nap. Sometimes Greg goes missing right after lunch and the rumor is that he may be taking a nap.
Landscaping fabric is the easiest way but pricey for quality just till remove weeds put down fabric and stake it down cut whole for plants you should only have to weed in the whole you cut until the crop shades it good
I pulled up each plot of fabric and re till every year so I can crop rotation and reuse the fabric it has lasted 3 yrs so far but I garden in a double city lot so not too big of a garden like our grandparents had
Tip paint what type of crop on fabric so you don't forget about which sheets are for what and number them so you can put them back together in the same order so you don't have to worry about spacing being incorrect
Good day hoss ....need help some type of worm is attacking my watermelon stems and the plant is wilting and dying need your help please on how to get rid of them .....
My watermelons started producing and then the leaves and vines started dying. The leaves turned black and shriveled up and now a wagermelon has a round black spot on one side. ☹️ what can i do to save them?
Probably a Disease. I would apply a fungicide such as hosstools.com/products/vegetable-fruit-flower-and-ornamental-fungicide?variant=45579376984374 This will only keep it from spreading , not curing it. Next year spray as a preventive. Greg
Well-drained. Kills one idea I was considering, but it's good to know before I did it. I am considering the two-wheel hoe. Being on disability my income is tight so I have to make every penny count-my property os old farm country but, apparently it was used to store equipment. Has, just under the topsoil, a layer of gravel covering much of it. Does the hoe have something that can cut thru that? I can do it using a pickax and shovel easilly but it is an acre of full land to use-can't afford to mechanize it, don't have a horse to pull a plow so it is Manual Labor.
please review the attachments, each one describes how they can be used and what soil they work best in. hosstools.com/product-category/garden-tools/wheel-hoes/hoss-wheel-hoe-attachments/
We do have some organic options. It will say in the description of the product if it is. Links below hosstools.com/product-category/pest-control/ hosstools.com/product-category/fertilizers/
@@gardeningwithhoss what size container, how many plants? I have plenty of room for the vines, but no room to rotate. Had some issues with a neighbor overspray last summer. Do I thought I would try using the containers
@@gardeningwithhoss I had them in 3 inch square nursery pots and added half a teaspoon of Roots Organic Foundation Grow fertilizer. Then, they immediately started to wilt. Maybe they're getting too much water and the fertilizer has nothing to do with it? Idk...
This was my first year trying to grow some watermelons. I did ice box, orange crush and another one that is purple on the inside. I ordered the orange and purple from eBay. So I didn’t do a whole lot of research so I only ended up with 4 of the ice box. The purple ones I have in a container and plan to bring them in my house and grow in my grow tent in the basement cause I’m in Ohio and it’s September and the are barely past the seedling stage. I didn’t fertilize correctly so it could have been better but now I know for next year. Now this is the reason I even did this comment. The orange crush looked great. I only had two of them.when I went to bed the night before last there was two then I got up the next morning and there is one missing. They probably weigh 5 lbs. I’m so mad. There is a ground hog that lives in the culvert by my house and my wife has been feeding his fat little a** for like two or three years now and I have a feeling that I am now feeding him too!!
This is the kind of guy I like to get my planting tips from.
I bought 2 bunk pink watermelons last year. I was all upset.So I'm growing my own this year.
My father in law , who lived on a farm, grew the best biggest watermelons i have ever seen & best tasting! Also a big tall corn field and best tomatoes and every other vegetable. He lived in Crockett Texas. This was 30 years ago. He had very sandy soil. He had a green thumb for sure! When you are young you don't pay attention to such great information I wished I knew his secret. He could grow anything. plum trees, peach trees ! You'll are of course very smart & talented growers/farmers. I hope to be one of these days.thanks for your videos. ttyl
What I would give for a nice sandy soil! I’m in Delaware and it’s a very heavy clay. We get no rain then a few inches at time and it just sits on top.
@@littlewing5682 you can get a load of compost or sand brought in from the local areas. Keep your leaves and grass clippings and make your own and mix it in where you plant your plants! You can do it!!
@@themaximusone yea.... I have added sand...... I would need a truckload of it to do my whole garden. One bag was enough for a few potato hills..
Last year I had bad pollination. This year I've got a whole year of flower obsession to get my pollinators in.
@@joshholschuh1847 just a bunch of random flowers Or are you preferring some over others
I experimented this year and put some homemade biochar down in my rows this year and amended it with a little dolomitic lime later when I saw some evidence of blossom end rot on a couple. They're doing so well we've had one harvest already and they're setting fruit again so I'm going to see if we can get another wagon full before our first frost date! 😆 Love this video!
Use calcium for end rot also helps with splitting. It produces a hard shell.
I would love to see the progress of the new garden.
coming soon
I definitely learned how important temp is for seed germination. I tried germinating watermelon seeds inside on a heading nat with a grow light and humidity done and got nothing. But the watermelon seeds I thought were bad (water float test) I tossed in a bowl of sand on my back porch about 2 weeks before it hit 70 degrees outside and after a week of consistent warm weather I had a bowl full of watermelon sprouts!! I didn’t even know what they were at first cause I had forgot about them lol.
Thanks for the tip. Last year my crop was so-so. I’m hoping to get a good crop this year so my wife can supply us with lots of watermelon rind pickled relish.
Thank you. I'll try them next year. I'm full up and still have to make room for my peas.
Great tips. i Amend the soil then hill the watermelon rows and cover it with weed fabric for those weeds. This works great for me and got some big ones despite of heavy rains. There is still problems with high ph (7.2).
So informative! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us here on youtube- my sugarbaby watermelons will no doubt be just as appreciative as I am! Happy harvesting 🍈
You are so welcome!
Friend of mine and myself looked for years for a old variety of watermelon which was grown in my area of SC. Finally found some seeds in a old guy's freezer, we brought back the garrison variety. Looks like a like a Georgia rattle snake, but white seeded and sweeter. It will also grow in my wet black dirt gardens where Charleston gray would blow apart after each rain.
That's awesome! Congrats to you! You should preserve them and try to sell some on a Seed Exchange if you haven't already! I love collecting watermelon seeds. Still trying to successfully grow them, though!
Awesome help! Thank you for clear and organized teaching.
You're very welcome!
Picked my first crimson sweet today. The tendril was 100% brown tip to end, there was no yellow spot but I rotate it daily so i wasn’t expecting one. The melon was a little small but gave an impressive pop when cut and I thought I had something special. 😂 Was half pink half white inside. Now I’m scared to pick another
Thank you for this tip. I love y'all channel and show and your son's also. I'm in 8b, South Georgia😁🌱💚🌿Blessings 🙏❤️
That was brilliant, thank you can we have more of that!!
It looks like your dog is happy too.
Thanks for the advice very nice video.
Thanks for the tips! Sorry about the bee sting.
Thanks for uploading, very helpful info.
How do you handle weed control?
My little patch gets out of control every year.
I’m no expert but pruning the suckers and side vines some can help. Need to decide how many melons per plant you want though if you go that route so you know how much to cut off. But it’s really all those side vines that make it take up an aircraft hangar’s worth of space I think
Search videos on pruning. Charles Dowding has a good one thats easy to see what he's doing. Keep only 3-5 max melons per plant
I've been waiting on a watermelon video!!!!
Hey Mr Greg. I found out that boron is more like Nitrogen. It does need to be replenished every now and then.
I feel like watermelons would be happy if I quit trying to grow them 😢
😅
@@41degreesN12degreesE lol! I know how you feel!! 😅
Great tutorial thank you
You’re welcome 😊
I'll subscribe because of this. Nice n SHORT, with everything I need to know. Zinc Boron Sulpher. Got it. I am planting a hundred or so watermelon and cantalope here in a few days. I'm doing it on a friends' farm where the soil is questionable. It was a hog pen a year or so back. Now I have been taught to plant my cantalope in mounds so I'm looking for something like that on utube. Really wanto learn how to grow and preserve cantalope and watermelon likd mad. I could eat a cantalope everyday for about a month, til I get tired of them. Will let you know how it turns out. The seeds I planted less than a week ago are coming out strong, but the patch of dirt I am planting on really needs to be tilled and broken up.
I cook green beans just like she does, except with don’t cook them as long and I also add chopped onions
....and chopped bacon.
i have some watermelon with about 2 leaves, in the ground. we keep on having a couple days of mid 40's all this month. Zone 9a. Is this going to permanently stunt the plants? Will planting new seed, out perform these? Later in the year.
yes, can cause growth issues. I would start some more.
Ouch! Sorry about your lip, I got hit on the lip before by a wasp, boy did that hurt!
I have six melon plants. I'm getting the micro boost you mentioned for them and I have 13-0-0 blood meal for nitrogen . Is that blood meal ok and if so how much of each should I mix together for the six plants I have? That would help me alot. Thank ya neighbor .
Have never used Blood meal. We use complete organic- chicken manure
I just planted 6 jubilee watermelon seeds and they are growing so fast! I'm worried about my success transplanting them from inside to outside in my garden. I live in Kansas and it's been really windy and rainy. Trying to find out when I should transplanting them
Make sure you harden them off before transplanting.
How many melons can I depend on on a single plant? I planted 5 plants and they're full of blossums.
2-4 per plant
Evening y’all
What about the type of fertilizer omce they fruit
Check out our watermelon growing guide for our recommendations.
growhoss.com/blogs/growing-guides/watermelon?_pos=1&_psq=+watermelon+growing+&_ss=e&_v=1.0
I think its nematodes...they are some what clear and range fro 1" inch to about 2.5" inches.......some have a pinkish head
I live in SC I have just purchased Chilean nitrate but can’t find any instructions : is it too late to use once vines are already fruiting ? I don’t have drip lines just sprinklers for a large area - I’m not sure what quantities- should I just side dress? If so how much ? I can’t find any specific directions anywhere ! Thanks
The application rate for Chilean nitrate fertilizer depends on the type of crop and whether the fertilizer is dry or liquid:
Fruit and vegetables
Apply 3.5 lbs of dry fertilizer per 1,000 sq ft every 10-14 days, or apply liquid fertilizer alongside the plants at a rate of 1 cup per 10 ft.
Field corn, popcorn, or sweet corn
Apply 3.5 lbs of dry fertilizer per 1,000 sq ft at least 2-3 times during the plant's life. For liquid fertilizer, you can dissolve 5 lbs of water per gallon to make a 6-0-0 liquid concentrate, then dilute further for application.
So I have what I feel like is a dumb question lol. How do you know what your soil temp is? Is it generally "x" amount lower than the ambient temperature? What's a good guide, other than going out and actually measuring it?
Your local agriculture weather station should be able to tell you. Google weather temp for your zip code.
I always add a small handful of organic lime around roots of any vegetable that is prone to end rot disease. Since I started doing this, I never saw a single end rot on any on my veggies.
I grow Jubelee
Hi...i have a question..im planting watermelon and cantaloupe near cucumbers..will they cross pollinate if i want to save seeds from watermelon..im searching online and im getting different answers..thx
No, cucumbers and melons typically do not cross-pollinate because they are different species
@@gardeningwithhoss great..thx for your help
👍
Thanks for the video! 👍🏻😃…. I have a couple of questions…… first is weed control when the vines start running……that watermelon patch is CLEAN ! Do you move the vines and till or cultivate around them ? I recently acquired a plastic mulch layer. Last year I tried spacing the rows apart wide enough to run my 5’ tiller through them. It worked great until the vines got thick then the weeds took over ( I work 2 jobs ) . My Hispanic friends grow their watermelons in narrow rows and spray a pre emergent herbicide prior to transplanting them. My grandaddy used to get up at 0400 and work the melons with a hoe until lunchtime, then nap and work a little more in the evening ( 2-3 acres of watermelons and cantaloupes , he lived to be 95 )
Any weed control suggestions for a busy Paramedic would be greatly appreciated.
We use drip irrigation, so the water is only applied to the plants and not in the middle. It help keep the weed pressure down. We run the wheel hoe regularly until the vines run and we can't. We the pull the weeds by hand or use a small hoe until the vines completely cover the ground. it is a labor of love and no special secrets, just dedicated schedule. It really only takes a few minutes a day to pull a few weeds. As owners of the business we work 12-14 hour days and tend to the garden late in the afternoon and on weekends. Maybe the secret is a nap. Sometimes Greg goes missing right after lunch and the rumor is that he may be taking a nap.
Landscaping fabric is the easiest way but pricey for quality just till remove weeds put down fabric and stake it down cut whole for plants you should only have to weed in the whole you cut until the crop shades it good
I pulled up each plot of fabric and re till every year so I can crop rotation and reuse the fabric it has lasted 3 yrs so far but I garden in a double city lot so not too big of a garden like our grandparents had
Tip paint what type of crop on fabric so you don't forget about which sheets are for what and number them so you can put them back together in the same order so you don't have to worry about spacing being incorrect
how do you harvest watermelons and not stepping on vines. Looking for ideas.
Very carefully. Usually all are almost done making when harvesting and the vines are not as important to be disturbed.
👍👍😊
Good day hoss ....need help some type of worm is attacking my watermelon stems and the plant is wilting and dying need your help please on how to get rid of them .....
I would go with Bug buster ll
@@gardeningwithhoss thanks for the reply 🙏🙏 will try and locate some .
@@gardeningwithhoss any idea where i can purchase?
From us,
growhoss.com/products/bug-buster-ii?_pos=1&_fid=37aa7de64&_ss=c&variant=45579368890678
My watermelons started producing and then the leaves and vines started dying. The leaves turned black and shriveled up and now a wagermelon has a round black spot on one side. ☹️ what can i do to save them?
Probably a Disease. I would apply a fungicide such as hosstools.com/products/vegetable-fruit-flower-and-ornamental-fungicide?variant=45579376984374
This will only keep it from spreading , not curing it. Next year spray as a preventive. Greg
Well-drained. Kills one idea I was considering, but it's good to know before I did it. I am considering the two-wheel hoe. Being on disability my income is tight so I have to make every penny count-my property os old farm country but, apparently it was used to store equipment. Has, just under the topsoil, a layer of gravel covering much of it. Does the hoe have something that can cut thru that? I can do it using a pickax and shovel easilly but it is an acre of full land to use-can't afford to mechanize it, don't have a horse to pull a plow so it is Manual Labor.
please review the attachments, each one describes how they can be used and what soil they work best in.
hosstools.com/product-category/garden-tools/wheel-hoes/hoss-wheel-hoe-attachments/
Are these formulas considered organic?
🙏👍🌻
We do have some organic options. It will say in the description of the product if it is. Links below
hosstools.com/product-category/pest-control/
hosstools.com/product-category/fertilizers/
I have a raised bed 4x8 so I just pee in the soil once a week. Seriously.
@@JohnH.Winstead huh? Why lol
@@seven-in2je There's a natural nitrogen content that it provides.
Please help ...dont wanna lose any more of my watermelon plants..
Can I grow the watermelon/cantaloupe in containers??
yes the smaller ones like sugar baby will work
@@gardeningwithhoss what size container, how many plants? I have plenty of room for the vines, but no room to rotate. Had some issues with a neighbor overspray last summer. Do I thought I would try using the containers
The smallest I would go would be a 45 gallon grow bag with 2-3 plants.
Whenever I fertilize, even lightly, my melons die. What am I doing?
What are you using and how much are you putting per square feet?
@@gardeningwithhoss I had them in 3 inch square nursery pots and added half a teaspoon of Roots Organic Foundation Grow fertilizer. Then, they immediately started to wilt. Maybe they're getting too much water and the fertilizer has nothing to do with it? Idk...
as per usual, the video doesn't cover what the lay weekend farmer gets tripped up on dosing and frequency of fertilization.
I love water melons 🍈
My watermelons keep splitting in half.
What pesticide can i use
These darn ads.
Borax will also kill a lot of insects
👍
This was my first year trying to grow some watermelons. I did ice box, orange crush and another one that is purple on the inside. I ordered the orange and purple from eBay. So I didn’t do a whole lot of research so I only ended up with 4 of the ice box. The purple ones I have in a container and plan to bring them in my house and grow in my grow tent in the basement cause I’m in Ohio and it’s September and the are barely past the seedling stage. I didn’t fertilize correctly so it could have been better but now I know for next year. Now this is the reason I even did this comment. The orange crush looked great. I only had two of them.when I went to bed the night before last there was two then I got up the next morning and there is one missing. They probably weigh 5 lbs. I’m so mad. There is a ground hog that lives in the culvert by my house and my wife has been feeding his fat little a** for like two or three years now and I have a feeling that I am now feeding him too!!
Oh no
When it comes to planting, always trust the guy in the overalls.