Your Watermelons Will LOVE You For This: How To Grow GIANT Watermelon!

what's going on gardeners it is saturday july 16th and it is as hot as it ever gets here on the southeastern coast of north carolina but that can only mean one thing it is almost watermelon season that's why on today's video i'm going to show you the best way to grow watermelon in your backyard garden that pretty much changes everything about growing watermelon in your garden and the amazing thing is i found this out completely by accident if you're new to the channel please consider subscribing and hitting the bell to receive new video notifications and check out our amazon storefront and spreadshop in the video description for a list of the gardening products i use and awesome custom designed apparel and other gear your support is greatly appreciated i've been growing watermelon for five years here on the southeastern coast of north carolina and every single time i try i learn something new the very first year i grew watermelon on top of a compost mound in a house that i was renting and i let the vine sprawl all over the grass and while that was a great use of efficient space it was an absolute disaster because pests in the lawn overwhelmed the vines and it was at that point that i noticed i could never grow watermelon sprawled out on grass again the second and third seasons that i tried growing watermelon i moved into my new house which is the yard that you see right here however i was only able to build a small garden that first year a fraction of the size of the garden that you see right now so i had to be very judicious with my space i could not plant them out in my garden because watermelon vines would have sprawled and taken over the entire garden so what i did was i took 20 gallon grow bags and i grew the watermelon in those containers and i let the vines sprawl all over the weed barrier that you see right below my feet right now and that had an amazing effect that i didn't know would happen for whatever reason this weed barrier kept my watermelon vines completely pest free there were no insects ever crawling on any of my watermelon vines and i'm not quite sure why i've done tests and this weed barrier does create a very hot microclimate it also again removes the organic matter for the pests to crawl through so for whatever reason they just don't like crawling all over this weed barrier so i realized that if i drew the watermelon vines on the weed barrier i could have basically pest free watermelon but there was a bit of a problem with that and that's because the watermelon would be quite small when grown in containers and that's simply a consequence of growing anything in a container when you restrict the size of the root ball the plant can't grow as large and they can't fruit as heavily and as we all know watermelon are some of the biggest fruits that exist out there so obviously if you're going to restrict the size of the root mass you're going to have overall smaller fruits so i decided that last year i was going to try planting my watermelon in my raised bed garden now that it was a lot larger and this is what happened when i did that i decided that i was going to grow my watermelon and pumpkin vines in the raised beds right here and i was going to let the vine sprawl all over the garden in this wider area right here while it did have the intended effect of making the fruit much larger because the roots were planted directly in ground and could tap into the earth underneath my raised bed and could basically get unlimited in size other than that it was a total disaster because the vines overwhelmed this area and it just became overwhelmed with squash bugs as well because for whatever reason the squash bugs like being in the raised bed dirt and they just wound up decimating the crop so i had a big mess on my hands i had pumpkin and watermelon growing through my fence trying to pull the fence down and just bugs galore so i decided this year i was going to go back to what worked the best and that is move them back to containers out in my big wide open wee barrier area totally isolated from my garden so i went back to the drawing board and i planted my watermelon vines once again in these 20 gallon fabric grow bags and overall they have been quite successful as you can see i have multiple watermelon that are growing and they're starting to get to the point where i hope that they will be ready for harvest however as you can see these watermelon are quite small once again and that is again a consequence of growing in these grow bags they restrict the size of the roots the other problem that i'm having is i'm getting a good bit of disease and stress related die die-off on my watermelon vines and that is because these grow bags have a limited capacity for both fertilizer and for water so when it's really hot and sunny like it is it dries out these bags too quickly and then i have to soak them back down so they get too wet and i think that just creates a stressful environment overall for the vines so they will kind of take some damage that is a little bit of a caveat to growing in the grow bags however completely by accident i came up with an incredible way to grow the watermelon that is blowing my mind and working out so much better than this and that's because i accidentally sewed too many seeds and i had not enough room in my grow bags and i had an extra plant that i just couldn't bring myself to throw away so i decided to take that one leftover watermelon plant and stick it right here in between my persimmon tree and my fig tree and i figured the roots of the fig tree and the persimmon tree will probably choke it out it won't grow well but i don't want to waste it and if it happens to grow i'll just let the vines sprawl all over my weed barrier that's exactly what i did and what happened just blew my mind just wait and take a look at the size of this watermelon vine that is all one single plant that watermelon vine is bigger by far than all the other three or four watermelon plants that i'm growing in containers it took off like a rocket now i'm finally growing watermelon in the perfect environment i'm growing it in ground where it can have unlimited space to grow the roots i'm not having to deal with fluctuations in the moisture levels and the fertilizing levels inside the containers because the big root system is tapping into the whole earth and it's not having those big temperature and fertilizer fluctuations i'm getting huge fruit listen to this thing this is the biggest watermelon i have ever grown to date and i'm so excited i can't wait until i can harvest this thing but looking at the tendril it still has a little bit of time to go and because i'm growing it on the weed barrier i am getting all of the pest protective effects of the weed barrier they are completely pest free i haven't seen a single bug ever crawling around any of these vines and because they're growing in ground they are totally disease free they have no leaf spots on them and they don't look stressed out at all and because they're isolated in the corner of my yard here they're not creeping into the rest of my garden and strangling out the rest of my crops this is completely perfect this is the best environment that you can grow a watermelon in in your backyard garden so to recap here are my three tips for growing the best watermelon possible in your backyard garden number one grow your watermelon vines in ground if at all possible watermelon obviously have enormous fruits and as a result they have an enormous demand for water and fertilizer and when you plant them in ground your in-ground soils just have a more stable source of nutrients and moisture than growing in a container so when you grow them in ground your vines will undergo less stress and they will generally be healthier if you must grow them in containers i recommend that you grow small fruited watermelon types or bush varieties like a bush sugar baby they will grow better in containers number two grow your watermelon vines isolated in the corner somewhere and not around the rest of your garden your watermelon vines will take over the entire area and they will crowd out other things so it's very important that you give them enough space to grow they will perform much better they will fruit better and they will be healthier as a result now planting them underneath my fruit trees i think i accidentally scored big time because the fruit trees and all the mulch shade out the roots so it keeps the watermelon roots and the core of the plant very cool but the vines are able to crawl out into the full sun and get all of that solar energy that they need to produce the large fruits so this is a little bit of a hack that you can do with vining plants you can plant the core of the plant in a shady area that stays cool and then let the vines go out and seek out the sun so the vines can be in full sun while you keep lower stress cooler temperatures on the core of the plant and the roots itself and number three let your watermelon vines if you can grow out on a weed barrier because the weed barrier for whatever reason pushes all of the pests away the pests don't want to be anywhere near it and if you put weed barrier down you can grow your watermelon in a relatively pest free environment now if you need weed barrier i have some link down on my amazon storefront link in the video description under the garden accessories list so i have options there alternatively you can also grow it out on a very large tarp and let all of the vines sprawl all over the large tarp just be aware that if you put a tarp or weed barrier down it's going to snuff out anything growing underneath they're going to have to sit in that spot for three or four months in order for the watermelon vines to grow and the fruit to mature so don't put it down on a nice area of your lawn or it will snuff it out and kill the lawn now you may be thinking well your vines look healthy and all but big deal you're only growing one watermelon and i don't want to go through all that work to grow one lousy fruit well that's for a very good reason when you grow anything in containers they become root bound very quickly so because the plants can't grow roots anymore once they become root bound they have no choice but to put all of their energy into vines and fruiting so container grown things generally fruit earlier because these vines have the entire earth right here to grow in they will put much more energy into growing roots longer and you'll wind up with a bigger root mass and as a result that will delay the fruiting process because the plants don't really want to fruit until they feel they have a great foundational root system so they take more time when planted in ground to grow the roots so that's going to delay fruiting now that the vines have become large i'm actually getting little baby watermelons all throughout them and remember this is all on one single plant so all of these individual watermelons are forming on basically one root structure and using this apple as a benchmark next to the watermelon you can see just how big this monster fruit is now remember watermelons are part of the cucurbit family so while they are self-fertile they have individual male and female flowers this little baby watermelon right here this is a female flower that's why there is a flower attached to the baby watermelon and that must be pollinated by a male flower in order for this watermelon to persist and to grow if it doesn't get pollinated naturally by a bee it is going to fall off so if you don't have a lot of bees in your garden what you can do is you can take one of these male flowers and you know it's a male because it is a flower that has no watermelon attached to it at all you simply take a q-tip or a blush brush and you dip it into the male pollen and then you dunk that brush or q-tip back into the female flower alternatively you can also pull off the male flower you can peel back the individual petals and then you can just open up the female flower very gently and dust the insides of the male of the female flower with the male pollen and simply by doing that you will wind up pollinating the individual watermelon and this will turn into a full-size fruit and that's how you can get many watermelons on one single vine just remember that there is only a certain amount of energy in the root system so the more watermelon you allow to persist on a single plant the smaller they are going to be so you're not going to get huge watermelon if you want a lot of them so just keep that in mind and that right there is how you grow giant watermelon in your backyard garden that is virtually pest and disease free so everybody i sure hope you found this video helpful if you did please make sure to hit that like button subscribe to the channel and ring that notification bell so you're notified when we release more videos like these if you're curious about any of the products that i use in my garden they are all linked down in my amazon storefront in the video description check it out if you want to see what i use in my garden for real and while you're there check out my spreadshop link for custom merch if you want to support the channel thank you all so much for watching and hope to see all of you again on the next video oh my poor daily boy he's been so sad all day mommy had to leave for a work trip early this morning and he's just been lying around down in the dumps all day he's already had a rough weekend because of all the fireworks and all the thunderstorms which were way worse than either the fire than even the fireworks over the past few days and now he's bummed because mommy's not around for a few days but it's okay buddy mommy will be coming home soon she'll be coming home soon and we'll have all kinds of fun family activities make mr handsome feel better

Channel: The Millennial Gardener

Views: 169,058

Keywords: growing watermelon, growing watermelons, how to grow watermelon, grow watermelon, watermelon tips, watermelon growing, planting watermelon, giant watermelon, grow giant watermelon, watermelon, watermelons, melons, garden, gardening, fruit tree, fruit trees, gardening tips, garden tips, vegetable garden, organic gardening, raised bed, gardening tips and tricks, gardening hacks, garden hacks, food forest, edible landscaping, grow, growing, organic, how to, diy, millennial gardener

Id: ux4OZ1DhtAk

Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 22 2022