• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

Watermelon in Pots?

patrick

patrick

Is it possible to get fruit? I can grow the plant I just don't know if it will produce any melons.

Here it is in a 10-15 gallon pot. I planted the seed in April and it's been outside in this pot for about two and a half weeks. It was less than six inches tall at that time.

Here's the plant:

IMG_5343re.jpg


And I believe this is the beginning of a flower. Should I pinch it? There are two of them on the plant.

IMG_5348cre.jpg


Any and all help would be appreciated immensely.
 
You should be able to grow it in a pot -- I think Ive read somewhere to grow one watermelon to a vine to get the melon a good size and mature. I havent grown them for years
 
+1 I've seen this done, but you should only let it set 1 fruit I'm thinking, max of 3. If you let it set more, they'll never get over the size of a football.
 
Thought I would post an update of this melon. This is 10 days after the previous pictures.

IMG_5463re.jpg


I know I'm supposed to keep it minimized since it's growing in a pot. I'll prune it soon but for right now I'm enjoying the crazy growth it's currently going through.

IMG_5464re.jpg


I repotted this eggplant two days ago. I know this is hard to believe but it has almost doubled in size in those two days. I'm talking an insane amount of growth.

IMG_5461re.jpg


IMG_5466re.jpg


Hope you liked.
 
Dude, I wouldn't prune the vines. I'd let them run! The more leaves you get, the more sugars the plant will make, and the sweeter your melon will be (and bigger too!)
 
Patrick,

I too like doing nothing! Personally, I wouldn't pinch any blooms unless you are trying to grow a prize-winning melon. Your pot has every bit as much room for roots as growing the plant in dirt would, and those plants don't seem to have a problem getting several big melons.

Mike
 
Vine looks good mate. I'm going to take another approach and say you might want to keep a good eye on it as the pot will only limit the growth so much but if you don't monitor it on a daily basis you will find one day that it had grown over most of the plants you have and it's not fun untangling a watermelon vine.....

I grew baby watermelon in pots last season and they were great. I grew 2 different colours (red and orange) and at full size the fruit was still about 7 - 8 inches round!!! The flovour was awesome and with the fruit being smaller, you can have heaps of fruit on the vine at once....

The pot I used was a long rectangle self watering pot. The watermelon likes lots and lots of water and doesn't mind it's roots being a bit wet.
 
Thanks guys. I plan on letting the vines run along the driveway on the grass. The peppers will be on the other side.

We've had constant rain here the past couple of weeks so the growth isn't too surprising. They don't mind wet feet eh? I'll make sure to keep it well watered then. I've read that they really like manure/compost as opposed to other ferts so plan on doing a side dressing every couple of weeks with some composted manure.

Thanks for the help.
 
Yeah they are big feeders and love organic.

I can't wait till Summer again. I really enjoyed the baby watermelons last season.
 
So MB did you have a dwarf species or were they just undergrown? If this is successful I plan on doing it again next year. Might have to expand the types.

I've also got a yellow variety going but it's just starting.
 
Pat, They are a dwarf style and each vine arm will grow to no more than about 2 meters or 6 feet. you can get them in red, yellow and orange.

They are super sweet and a great size to cut in half and just scoup the fruit out with a spoon.

Pic in the link gives an idea of fruit size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjapoodles/2721847088/

In an area with good temps and pollination you will get up to 8 or 9 melons on one plant at a time and get 2 or 3 harvests. I had 3 plants and was giving fruit away....
 
Time for an update.

I cannot believe the growth on this watermelon. It is truly running amuck.

Since this is my first time growing them I'm not exactly sure so I'll rely on someone with experience to tell me; is this a watermelon bud?

IMG_5539re.jpg


A couple more of a flower.

IMG_5543cre.jpg


And flowers.

IMG_5554re.jpg


There are several flowers on each vine, should I do some pruning and maybe just keep one or two flowers per vine? Could I leave them all on if I kept after this plant with plenty of fertilizer, water, and sun shine? I've got an unlimited supply of composted cow manure available.

Thanks guys.
 
Hope nobody minds but my tomatoes have been getting jealous of all the time spent on the peppers and watermelon so I thought I'd show one of my Celebrity ladies off.

IMG_5552re.jpg
 
You can sex the flowers? Get out of Dodge! How about the first pic, is that a watermelon bud? Going to have to do some reading up on melons I guess.

Thanks 5*.
 
Yeah, patrick I'd never really paid much attention till this year. But some thread on THP involved cucumbers and whether flowers were male or female. I didn't even notice the difference for years. Here's a crappy pic I found on the interwebs, but shows the difference nicely...

LyraEDISServlet


In this, the small flowers on the far left, and far right as well as the large flower on the right are male flowers. The others are female, and you can tell because they have the carpels, ovaries, and the receptacle (fancy words for all the parts of the flower that will become the fruit!) The male flowers just make pollen, and consist of just a peduncle and a corolla of petals.



So the bud in the first pic looks like a female, and the closeup in the second pic looks like a male because of all the pollen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top