Watermelon quantity per planted vine?

[Chick-N-Picker]

Hello, I planted 788 planter cups with charleston grey and crimson sweet watermelons. Mostly charleston grey.

I planted these on March 23. I planted them in cups so I could get them to make in June. Which is 3-4 weeks early.

My question is this. They are already in the ground now. Have been for 3 weeks. I planted anywhere from 1-3 seeds per cup. So some hills have 1 plant and some 2 and some 3.

Does anyone know roughly how many melons I should make? Is it 2-5 per each plant/vine or just 2-5 per hill. I've been told both ways. Either way it's a lot, I'd just like to know.

[rainbowgardener]

Close to 1000 watermelon plants?!! OMG! I hope you have a market to sell them...

[Chick-N-Picker]

Close to 1000 watermelon plants?!! OMG! I hope you have a market to sell them...

Thank you for the reply. It's 788 hills with 1-3 plants to a hill. So it's over 1000 plants technically and I'm trying to figure out how many melons.

Will it be 2-5 melons to a hill or 2-5 melons to a plant?

I hope I can sell them all haha. Heck I'll sell them for $1 to keep them from going bad.

[jal_ut]

Chick-N-Picker, Good question. It may depend some on your location. Here at my location the answer could be from none to 5000. A quirky frost might get them. At any rate, you could end up with a bunch of melons? Oh, it is common practice to thin to one melon to a plant so that the melons will get larger. Good Luck.

Oh, you might put your location on your profile. It helps us to help you if we have an idea of your location. Gardening things vary a good deal across the country.

[Chick-N-Picker]

Chick-N-Picker, Good question. It may depend some on your location. Here at my location the answer could be from none to 5000. A quirky frost might get them. At any rate, you could end up with a bunch of melons? Oh, it is common practice to thin to one melon to a plant so that the melons will get larger. Good Luck.

Oh, you might put your location on your profile. It helps us to help you if we have an idea of your location. Gardening things vary a good deal across the country.

Sorry about that. I'm from the very southern part of Cleveland County, NC. About .5 mile from SC line.

Let's say, I have just 750 good hills with 1-3 plants. We'll say average of 2.5 plants because I think I have more with 2 and 3 than 1.

If I make 2-5 melons per hill it would be 1500-3750 melons.
750x2=1500. & 750x5=3750

If I make 2-5 melons per plant it would be 3750-9375 melons.
750 x 2.5 x 2=3750 &
750 x 2.5 x 5=9375

I highly doubt all hills or plants will only make 2 and I doubt all will make 5 so if we take the average I'm looking at

Approx. 2625 melons if it's per each hill method
Or
Approx. 6562 melons if it's per each plant method.


Now do y'all see my dilemma and why I would like to if it's by hills or plants?

[rainbowgardener]

I think jal_ut answered your question and I think the answer is you decide. Thin to one melon per plant and have fewer, larger melons. That seems like a better market strategy - not such a glut of them to sell and probably more desireable, fetch a better price, because larger. OR don't thin as much and have more smaller melons.

Watermelons are big consumers of fertilizer and water! This will be an expensive proposition and you will need to sell a lot to break even.

In the summer, I often see people sitting by roadsides with a truck full of watermelons, trying to sell them. It never seems like they are doing much business.

[imafan26]

Expect one good sized melon per plant and if you are lucky you will get two smaller ones. Rainbow is right. Melon are space and water hogs, but if it rains at the wrong time they will be ruined, if you get vine borers ditto.

[Chick-N-Picker]

I think jal_ut answered your question and I think the answer is you decide. Thin to one melon per plant and have fewer, larger melons. That seems like a better market strategy - not such a glut of them to sell and probably more desireable, fetch a better price, because larger. OR don't thin as much and have more smaller melons.

Watermelons are big consumers of fertilizer and water! This will be an expensive proposition and you will need to sell a lot to break even.

In the summer, I often see people sitting by roadsides with a truck full of watermelons, trying to sell them. It never seems like they are doing much business.

What? Expensive. I have maybe $50 in them if that. Seeds, dirt, cups, miraclegrow. That's it.

I've sold produce my whole life and have never had problems selling yet. I've just never planted this many melons so I've never thought to pay attention to if its by vine or plant.

I planted some with one plant to get bigger ones and some with three to get more but smaller. Not everybody wants a 25-30 pounder.

You seem very annoyed but maybe I'm reading you wrong. I guess they'll make what ever they make. I was jus trying to get a close idea.

[jal_ut]

Charleston Gray has been a good melon for me. I tried a bunch of varieties before I found this one that actually works here at this high and cool area. I think you can figure 1 or 2 melons per plant. As I said before, thin to one per plant for larger melons.

[applestar]

So it sounds like if you figure by

If I make 2-5 melons per hill it would be 1500-3750 melons.
750x2=1500. & 750x5=3750

You'll arrive at the same or similar numbers as 1-2 per plant. Still a pretty respectable number.
Good luck!

-- jal_ut has the gravity fed from a reservoir irrigation system in place, and if you get regular rain, I guess watering isn't a problem. For me, anything that needs a lot of water requires me to water from the faucet pretty regularly since we almost always have drought in the summer when it doesn't rain for weeks at a time, not even passing showers. I do what I can to conserve moisture and sequester all the rain and irrigation water so most is retained for the garden and not run off.

Soil fertility is a whole another variable.

[Lindsaylew82]

Here in upstate, SC, I usually get 1 or 2 per vine. I've grown several types of watermelon. The larger fruiting varieties usually put on 1-2 melons per vine for the first round, and then after they're picked, I get 2-3 really tiny ones. Like large canteloupe sized. I don't thin them to 1 plant per "hill".

I will tell you. in the heat of summer, when it's 100 degrees, they require daily irrigation to keep the plants from wilting. The better you keep up on the watering, the closer to normal sized melons you'll get.

Mulch helps with the watering.

I have to put a plate or something under every single melon I grow here, or some jerk critter will either hollow them out, or chew a tiny hole in the rind from beneath, which rots the melon. You won't know till pickin time... If you leave them on the ground you may or may not want to account for loss from jerk critters.

I think since you already have them planted out, you should prolly just relax and enjoy the harvest!

[Gary350]

Planting 3 melons in the same spot is no different than 3 tomatoes or 3 bell peppers in the same spot. I find melons do much better if I do not crowd the roots. I plant my melons 3 to 4 feet apart and only 1 plant at each location. I only plant 3 plants for a 30 foot diameter circle or plant 1 plant in the center of a 50 foot long row. Give the plants pellet lime to prevent blossom end rot. Cover the vines with dirt ever 3 ft so they take root the more roots the vine has the more water they take in and the larger the melons get. If you do not cover the vine with dirt to make them root then cut the vine off keep it very short so it only grows 1 large melon. I usually get about 15 melons per vine. At my location I have trouble with soil being too wet I have to put a cement block under each melon to keep them off the wet soil other size they all rot. 3 melon plants will give me about 45 melons. Melons need full sun all day. Keep all weeds and grass away. Melons are like apple trees if an apple tree does not get enough sun you will have apples that never get ripe.

[rainbowgardener]

Sorry, don't mean to be telling you things you already know. If you have grown for market for years, then you know a lot more about it than I do.

It's just we frequently have people writing in here who have never grown so much as a houseplant and then they get the big idea that they are going to make a fortune, planting a thousand watermelons (or whatever). Those people we try to slow down a bit and get them to think it through.