My experience with growing watermelon in the wild.

[ASpicyPepperKid]

So behind my house there is a mini forest. I decided hmm watermelons growing there would be cool. (It didn't work well.) Me being frustrated obviously got another watermelon plant and some good soil and tried again. I was so paranoid that I put a wooden wall and roof. Now I don't know what I was thinking, because PLANTS NEED SUN . It was raining a lot and so I decided that I shouldn't water it because I might overflow the soil. So me being who I am (an absolute idiot) rarely checked it and when I finally checked the wood wall fallen it was ripped apart the small 6 square inch melon that did grow was torn to shreds and eaten my plants were Blackish-Brown . I was upset and just stopped trying.

[catdaddy66]

I had a similar experience with watermelon about ten years ago. Placed it in my back yard near the tree line. Had it looking pretty good and had a melon the size of a nerf football one day... The next it was half eaten by deer/rabbit and I was so disappointed I haven't tried since. Until this year, anyway!

I've produced about two dozen plants from seed that have been very strong, so I put them in a large container in my FRONT yard this time, closer to my porch. Hopefully the wildlife will be scared off this year lol

[imafan26]

My experience with watermelon was a little different. There's a lot of sun so that was not the problem. The main problem is that a standard watermelon vine takes over a yard. I did grow sugar baby watermelons. It is more manageable with bowling ball sized water melons (about 8-10 lbs), a better size if you aren't having a party. The vines only go 6 ft so it is more contained. The bad part about that is that even though it sets a fair number of fruit only a couple ever reach maturity between the fruit flies, pickle worms and the fruit and flowers dropping off because the plant can't support a lot of fruit.

[catdaddy66]

My experience with watermelon was a little different. There's a lot of sun so that was not the problem. The main problem is that a standard watermelon vine takes over a yard. I did grow sugar baby watermelons. It is more manageable with bowling ball sized water melons (about 8-10 lbs), a better size if you aren't having a party. The vines only go 6 ft so it is more contained. The bad part about that is that even though it sets a fair number of fruit only a couple ever reach maturity between the fruit flies, pickle worms and the fruit and flowers dropping off because the plant can't support a lot of fruit.

Yeah, I've heard a plant can support only 2-4 fruits each. I watched a YouTube video where a guy had a 2' x 12' raised bed with almost 25 young melons! He would clip the vine a few inches past the fruit to limit growth... Idk, but I was inspired to try it

[imafan26]

I think I had like 20 flowers with tiny watermelons on them but only 2 grew to any size. Some were stung, but most just dropped off. The watermelon was good with a thin rind and not a lot of seeds, but it did not seem worthwhile for such a small yield.