oakieskipper
Newly Registered
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 10:02 pm

Flowers on watermelon vines??????????????

I no the fruit starts from the flower, but should I pull some off so there are not so many and what I have will grow better and tast better. I would also like to thank all of you who have helped me with all my questions in the past. Because of all of you my garden is the best in town. If I could figure out how to post pics on this websit I would show it off to all of you. But I just cant seem to figure out how to do it...........

cynthia_h
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Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

Helpful Gardener's Tips and Suggestions for New Members:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=23

re. photos and other ideas.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

TWC015
Senior Member
Posts: 207
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:43 am
Location: Jefferson Co., Arkansas

I've never heard of anyone removing flowers from any vine crop.

You should not remove the flowers. The male flowers bring bees to the plant and are necessary for pollination (unless you want to do it yourself). In my opinion, the more flowers open on a watermelon, the better chance for good pollination to grow the fruit. The plant knows how many fruit it can handle at a time.

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Well, yes and no... you certainly wouldn't want to remove any flowers until you have a few fruit established and growing, for the reasons TWC gave. After that, I think flowers are often removed from pumpkin and watermelon vines, especially by the folks that are working on growing giant varieties. By getting the plant to focus all its energy on just a couple fruit, it produces larger ones. (Are they tastier? I don't know).

TWC015
Senior Member
Posts: 207
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:43 am
Location: Jefferson Co., Arkansas

I forgot about the giant pumpkins and watermelons.

I don't grow these and don't know anyone who does so I was not thinking about these specifics.

If you are not trying for extremely large watermelons, I would not remove flowers.



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