Growing Watermelon

[Snowdog]

I've been wanting to grow watermelon for years now but never got around to it.  This year, I plan to purchase some Crimson Sweet watermelon seeds from Gurney's Seed & Nursery.  It's an icebox type that supposedly grows to between 20 to 25.

Does anyone have any tips that might help prevent me from killing my melons?
I understand mixing some sand and topsoil with tiny strips of black plastic bag material helps. 

http://gurneys.com/product.asp?pn=15154&bhcd2=1173941659

[Leatherneck]

They like full sun and warm soil. Make sure when it gets hot that you control pests; there are several varieties of insects that love to munch on the leaves, and they can kill a vine in one or two days.

Ain't nuthin' as good as a sun-warmed melon right off the vine. Enjoy!

TC

[Snowdog]

I've been looking into the pests that commonly attack watermelon.  One such pest appears to be the cucumber beetle. There doesn't appear to be a consensus on how to best combat the little buggers.

I don't want to use a commercial pesticide such as Sevin (carbaryl) since my wife and I plan to eat these things.

What a mess...

I also purchased some "Crimson Sensation Hybrid" watermelons and Marketmore cucumbers. 

[Leatherneck]

I don't like using pesticides much, either, but those beetles will undo all your work quickly. I haven't relly tried any of the "green" anti-pest solutions, so I can't attest to their effectiveness. But I have used Sevin without problems--it washes off the melon, and as far as I know, it doesn't enter the "bloodstream" of the vine or the melons when applied per instructions.

TC

[El Tejon]

Nothing rids a garden of pests like a praying mantis.

You can buy the egg cases now through April and have a natural solution to any potential bug problem.

http://www.insectlore.com/xinsectucational_stuff/instructions/mantis_egg_case.html

Got to be careful as a mantis destroys everything including helpful bugs like bees.

[mtnbkr]

That's good info to know El T.  I'm thinking about replanting my Earth Boxes this year (took a break from them last year).  I didn't know you could introduce mantises (correct plural?) like that.  We get them naturally and I see one in my yard just about every year.

Chris

[El Tejon]

Mantises are everywhere naturally, but sometimes it helps to introduce more of them into your property.  They will spread out as mantises are lone wolf killers.

When I say they will kill everything, I mean everything, lizards, bugs, worms, even birds,  http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyardbirds/hummingbirds/mantis-hummer.aspx

[charby]

I plant a lot of marigolds in my garden, seems to keep some pests at bay. I have never used pesticides in my garden and I do have to deal with pests and I usually remove them mechanically (such as tomato worms) and squish the little bastards.

There all sorts of non pesticide ways to control pests, just do a little Google search. You won't find a panacea but you may have to try a combination of things. Also I tend to over plant my garden so even if I have a lot of pests I still have lots of nice veggies.

[Leatherneck]

Re: mantises. Right now is an excellent time to go afield and harvest some egg cases yourself. Look along meadow edges and hedgerows with tall standing dead weeds and such. As soon as they're warmed (for a couple of days IIRC) out will spring jillions of micromantises and you're in business.

As a kid I used to collect them and sell them to bio supply houses for a penny apiece. And I KNOW that they hatch at bedroom temperatures! 

TC

[El Tejon]

Cool way to make ammo money as a kid, leather.

[Larry Ashcraft]

IIRC, Sevin isn't actually a pesticide.  It doesn't kill anything, bugs just don't like it.  You can dust your dog with it, and the fleas will just jump off and go somewhere else.  I've sprayed liquid Sevin on my lawn for grubs.  The grubs squirm up out of the lawn and birds swarm in and eat them with no ill effects (I checked).

Marigolds will help.  I used them last year and they kept the Mexican bean beetles away, mostly.

My problem is, my garden is surrounded by hundreds of acres of truck farms.  When the farmers spray, the cucumber beetles attack my garden en masse.  As soon as I see the first one, I get out the poultry duster and dust everything with Sevin.  The next rain will wash it off.

[mfree]

Larry,

Sevin will slaughter bee colonies. Just a FYI. Everything else, yeah, it's more of a repellent.

[Larry Ashcraft]

mfree, that's good to know.  I only use it when needed though.  Last year I didn't use anything but marigolds.  As an experiment, I planted a 50' row of green beans, next to it I planted a 25' row of marigolds and a 25' row of dill.  The beans next to the marigolds had noticeably less Mexican bean beetles on them.

One year, the cucumber beetles swarmed my garden so bad, they would have wiped it out in a matter of hours (they eat everything, not just cucumbers).  I ran up to the farm chemical store and caught the owner, a high school friend of mine, just before he closed.  He handed me a partially full bottle of something and said "Use one ounce of this".  My garden is about 50x60 and that stuff got rid of every beetle for the rest of the season.

FWIW, I don't grow watermelons.  Seems like you want watermelon on July 4th, and the ones in the garden aren't ready until September.