Watch a Watermelon Grow

I looked all over the web for a site devoted to growing a watermelon, in pictures. I couldn't find one so I decided to make one. Here's hoping that baby watermelon grows into an adult watermelon so that this post can be completed.

I decided not to insult anyone's intelligence by posting a picture of a watermelon seed. Or I didn't take any pictures of watermelon seeds. Imagine a watermelon seed.

May 12: I had this great idea to plant a flower garden next to the vegetable garden. Since none of the watermelon or squash plants grew last year, I figured this would be plenty of space for everything. The flowers were planted on the left, and the watermelon in a small space to the right.

Watermelon seedlings emerge! I planted watermelon in three groups, nowhere near as far apart as I was supposed to, and not on a hill or anything. Just plopped them into the ground and crossed my fingers. After the seedlings grew stronger, I pinched one off of each group of three that emerged. Another one showed up in front of the marker somehow (you can see the tip of it in the bottom of this photo).

Skipping ahead about six weeks. The leaves grew nicely but not overly large. I have thus far been able to train the vines to grow in the direction I need them to, which is around the now flourishing flower bed. Several male blossoms popped up along the vine, like this one. Note: you can tell a male blossom is male because there is no fruit at his base.

Female blossoms (see the fruit at its base?) emerge after the male blossoms. I do not know what is "normal" or even if there is a "normal." I have read that it can take up to two weeks of male blossoms to form before females appear. That is certainly the case with my cucumbers, but with the watermelon, it only took a few days. At this point, I pinched off one of the many male blossoms and hand pollinated the three females I could find.

June 20: The day after I hand-pollinated the female watermelons, this one grew significantly. The blossom started to shrink and life became very exciting. According to my mother, you can practically watch a watermelon grow.I think she is right!

June 21: One day later, the watermelon is already larger and greener. Are you supposed to touch them? I don't know. I touched it. It felt almost waxy and kind of gross but also awesome. I also put fencing around the vine so that the dog, the kids, and I would not accidentally crush our little friend.

June 22: Will I take pictures of the watermelon every day?  That would be a little OCD, even for me. However, it is astounding how quickly they grow. Btw, out of the three hand pollinated watermelons, this is the only one that is growing. I still have hope for the other two and I am eagerly waiting to see if there are some that I haven't found that will just grow as nature had intended.

June 25: Three more days of growth and the watermelon is getting so big!  The leaves are getting bigger too and are shielding it nicely against the sun. My sister suggested I place some material underneath it to prevent it from developing any gross spots. I may consider adding a piece of tarp or a plastic lid.

June 28: Sticking with my plan of taking pictures every three days, the watermelon continues to astound. There are now four more that are growing just as well and just as quickly. They are all well-hidden from the sun normally. In fact, two of them caught me by complete surprise when I was obsessing over the garden yesterday! I have to pull the leaves aside to take the pictures.

July 5: Despite the appearance of this picture, the watermelon has grown much larger. I moved it so that the stem was on top instead of on the side. I had no reason to do that except that it was easier to take a picture. The watermelon plants are doing very, very well. I have eight watermelon growing and am very hopeful that they will all reach maturity. I'm doing nothing to them except giving them regular water and lots of it. I did provide epsom salt a couple of days ago as well.

More pictures to come as the watermelon grows.