Grow Melon and Watermelon from Seed - How to plant, grow & pollinate

I've been growing and pollinating melons and watermelons using bought and saved seeds in the UK for the past five years, and in this video, I'll show you how I grow them in my back garden at home.
I'll show you how and where I plant them and look at the differences between the male and female flowers, how to pollinate a female flower so we know that pollination has taken place and finally, the conditions needed to grow healthy plants vertically.
If you want to see exactly when and how I planted them, this video in my YT channel explains it:
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⚒️ The items and tools I use
Here is a list of the items and tools I use on my allotments, polytunnel and greenhouse.
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[@Sue-xl2ok]

Thank you for your advice brilliant help.

[@veggieplot]

Thank you Sue, I'm glad it was helpful.

[@franknessi8053]

Fantastic information, love your videos thanks from down under.

[@veggieplot]

Thank you for the lovely feedback👍🏻

[@robinmiller1783]

3rd year doing melons. I’m growing sugar baby watermelon, hale’s best cantaloupe and new this year kaho an orange flesh watermelon. I’m near Chicago so we do get warm summers and they grow outside. Started seeds in April a bit later than normal but it was too cool.
Loved the detailed pollination explanation. I sometimes have to pollinate when bees have not woken up in numbers early spring.

[@veggieplot]

Ah wow, Chicago, YT sure shrinks the planet. Kaho sounds like my Orangelo which is new to me this year too. I struggle with pollination in the polytunnel although I do get the occasional bee pop in for some lunch.

[@TheGrowUpChannel]

What a great video and I really needed this video! Many thanks. Danny 🌱

[@veggieplot]

Hi Danny, I’m glad it helped 👍🏻

[@sandrinefresne6575]

Not a pro here either , but it is nice to have a go … Charentais is what I’m growing this year … it is a struggle though , the start of the season was too fresh 😢 we’ll cross our fingers.

[@veggieplot]

I agree, you don’t know until you try and occasionally you find something special that you just enjoy growing every year. Good luck with yours this year 🤞🏻

[@glassbackdiy3949]

only my 2nd yr of mellon growing, last yr bought 4 random plug plants off ebay, 3 produced nothing, but 1 turned out to be Charentais and produced 13 of the sweetest mellons I'd ever had, grew them outside underneath sweetcorn (E.Mids UK) this yr I've got a greenhouse so growing up strings planted in the ground (and outdoors under sweetcorn again) not tried pollinating by hand but I've got marigolds and borrage in the GH and plenty of bees comming in n out, I've not cut the runners off, been twisting them up the outside of the main stems on the strings, 2 got away from me before I got string on them so I've left them as ground cover between the peppers, I am cutting the tendrils off so they don't strangle anything else, I noted pro growers in the states cut the tendrils off when growing on string. Only feeding once per week with comfrey extract. your fruits look well developed compared to mine, guess that's because my plants have much more mass, mite start cutting the runners off about now, a pro grower in the states said pinching out the growing tips encourages the plants to fruit.

[@glassbackdiy3949]

update, just been in the GH tried to hand pollinate from a dozen male flowers couldn't see any trace of pollen, then found either a small beetle or larve under the cluster of stamen, looked at the aborted flowers and each one had a beetle under the stamen, bit of a google later seems they're 'pollen beetles' that can be a pest on rape seed, they're attracted to yellow flowers (or yellow anything it seems) maybe this is why I have few fruits setting, same on the tomatoes, lots of flowers very few fruit, my garden boarders a field with rape in atm... crumbs

[@veggieplot]

13 melons 🤯 that’s amazing and I know what you mean about sweetest as mine at home are like that too. I haven’t tried growing outside amongst sweetcorn but I might next year if we going to keep getting these hot summers. I pinch out the tips when they reach the top of the polytunnel and have 1-3 melons on and the side shoots too when I have enough melons on.

[@veggieplot]

Yes, the pollen beetles are a pain although I don’t really suffer from them in the polytunnel. It’s mainly on the allotment with the squash flowers that they are a nuisance as I believe they eat up the pollen! Good luck with yours this year.

[@sandrad2506]

Do you top the main stem of your melons? I’m letting four melon develop on each plant, but the main stems are going across the top of the greenhouse. I’m removing unwanted side shoots. Thanks for the great video.

[@veggieplot]

I do top mine when they get to the top of the strings. Four to a plant is superb 👏🏻