Kajari Melon Seedling

We wanted to share a few tips we’ve learned on how to grow the best, more flavourful watermelons.

1. Location: Situate your plant in full sun. Watermelons want all the heat and sun you can give them.

2. Soil: Skip fertilizers and instead amend your watermelon bed with lots of organic matter. Well amended soil will yield the best results. As a reference, we don’t till, nor do we recommend it. Our watermelons did fabulously in our sandy, no-till beds, which we layered with 4-6” of well-rotted, locally-sourced sheep manure, on top of cardboard.

3. Go easy on the water: Contrary to what their name suggests, once watermelon vines begin to mature, you’ll want to minimize watering. This stress on the plants helps concentrate their fruit sugars. Water the plant as usual until the fruits begin to mature (once they’ve reached full size but before they’re ready to be picked)

4. Harvest at the right sage: Admittedly, this is easier said than done. Here a few signs to use as a reference for if your watermelon is mature and ready to pick or not.

   1. The tendril nearest to the fruit is completely dried.

   2. The side of the watermelon that was laying on the ground had changed colour from white to buttery yellow

   3. When you knock on the melon, you hear deep ‘thumps’. Try knocking on an unripe melon as a reference.