Grow 200 LBS of Watermelon On One Plant! [Complete Guide

What's going on, gardeners? It's Sunday, July 31st, and it is absolutely miserable heat and humidity here on the southeastern coast of North Carolina. One of the few things that we have to look forward to at this time of year to give us sweet relief from this heat are watermelon. The watermelon are becoming ripe. However, watermelon can be a challenge for new growers because there are a few things that you need to know to get good production. That's why on today's video, I'm going to show you six easy tips to have amazing watermelon production, and you can grow up to 200 pounds or more worth of watermelon on a single watermelon plant. 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 spread shop 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. The first tip I'm going to give you to grow hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single plant is to select varieties that have high yields of very large watermelon. And if you want to grow very large watermelon that are 30 pounds in size or more, generally speaking, those very large watermelons are going to be older strains like your heirloom and open pollinated varieties. And that's because back in the day, watermelon were largely bred for size, where now the more modern varieties are mostly bred to be more compact, to better fit inside refrigerators and not take up so much space, and also to be more uniform, to look really good on the retail sales shelves of a grocery store where everything's roughly the same size and not too large and heavy to pick up. Now that's not to say that you can't grow modern hybrids. The modern hybrids are great because they are generally more productive, disease resistant, and will give you more melons if everything goes very well. But the melons tend to be smaller. If you want varieties that can give you very large watermelons, you're going to want to go mostly with the older varieties. Just keep in mind that the older varieties tend to be a lot less uniform. You can get a 30 pound oblong monster and a smaller 12 pound round watermelon on the same exact plant. That's why a lot of those older strains of watermelon have fallen a bit out of fashion. So use that as a guide to choose the varieties that you want that are most appropriate for you and the amount of space in your fridge. Now if you want to grow very large watermelons, some varieties to consider that are older are the infamous Crimson Sweet, which is a watermelon that's very popular down in the South. It's been grown for generations and can get very large. I've also grown an heirloom called Alibaba that can get pretty large as well, although they aren't very uniform. You could grow the largest watermelon in the world, the Carolina Cross number 183, which a single watermelon can get to be up to 200 pounds. Or you can grow this variety that I'm growing right here, which is an extremely productive, very large orange variety called Leelanau Sweet Glow. Now just recently on my second channel, I showed you a video where I harvested a watermelon off this vine, where I will link to above. That was a 30 pound watermelon and it was absolutely delicious. It was a monster and I love the taste of this variety and they're super productive. On this vine right now, I have seven more watermelons. Take a look. On this vine right now, there is one, two, three, four, five, six. And if you look in the corner right here, there's a seventh watermelon right down there that is starting to form that has set. Now if I harvest all seven of them and they turn out to be about 30 pounds, that will mean I will get 240 pounds of watermelon off of this vine. And that's only if no more watermelons decide to form. The vine is in perfect health, so I have no reason to believe that I won't get more flowers and melons off this beautiful variety. So this is definitely one to consider. The second tip I'm going to give you to grow hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single plant is to take a moment and hand pollinate your watermelon. It doesn't matter if you do everything else completely correctly. If the flowers of your watermelon do not pollinate properly, you will not get any fruit. 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 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. The third tip to growing hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single vine is to plant your watermelon vines in ground. Do not grow them in containers if you want a ton of production on a single vine. And that's because when you grow a watermelon, or any plant really, in a container, it's only a matter of time until the roots become root-bound, because there's only so much space in that container for the roots to accommodate. And once they become root-bound, the vines aren't going to grow that much more. When you plant the vine in ground, they have the entire earth to grow roots in, so the root structure tends to be a lot larger. And because of that, the plants tend to be a lot more productive. The other benefit of growing in ground versus in a container is the earth has much more consistent levels of moisture than a container. Containers tend to dry out very quickly in the sun, and then when you water them, they tend to get very overwet. So they go through these moisture fluctuations, which really stress out the plants quite a bit, and that has an adverse effect on the plants. These watermelon vines are growing inside of 20-gallon grow bags, and as you can see, the vines are very stressed out. That is not disease right there, that is just die-off because the vines are stressed. It gets so hot here during the day that the bags get really dry, and then I run the drip irrigation, they get a little wetter than they'd like, and those moisture fluctuations just beat up the vines, and they just don't produce as well. You can see how small these vines are. And believe it or not, that's four plants right there. I have a total of two plants in both of those grow bags. So those four plants give me vines of that size, then this one plant will give you a vine of this size. And as you can see, it's basically completely pest and disease free, the leaves are flawless, and that's just because the vines are not stressed out at all. The fourth tip to grow hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single plant builds on the concept of stress, and that is to mulch your vines very well. Here you can see the vine that is growing in ground. It is under a very thick layer of straw mulch and compost. And that straw mulch and the compost helps keep the soil evenly moist, and it also helps keep the roots cool. And while it's decomposing, it's also adding organic matter back into the soil. I cannot stress how important a compost and mulch layer that is very thick around the roots helps out all of your plants in the garden. It keeps the harsh UV rays off the top of the soil, so it prevents that evaporation. It holds in that moisture. It keeps the roots cool. Everything about it is just fantastic. So always make sure that you mulch your vines very, very well to minimize stress. The fifth tip I'm going to give you to grow hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single plant is to game the system and strategically plant your plant so it's just underneath the shade of a fruit tree that at least protects it from the afternoon sun. Watermelons allow you to game the system when it comes to sunlight requirements. Now heavy fruiters like watermelon need a lot of solar energy in order to make carbohydrates via photosynthesis to make these very large fruits. So the vines themselves need full sun. However, because the vines get so incredibly large, you can actually take your plant and you can plant it in a protected area that gets the shade so the roots stay cool underneath the shade of this persimmon tree right here like I'm doing, and then let the vines sprawl all out into the sun. And that is a great way that you can get the vines in full sun so they get all that photosynthesis and there's enough energy to make these monster watermelons while keeping the stress levels of your roots very low by keeping them protected under the shade of fruit trees. This has worked immensely well and I think that's a big reason why this vine is so incredibly healthy and virtually disease free. You can see how here we're in really nice shade and the roots right here are staying nice and cool thanks to this persimmon tree, but the vines over here are in full sun soaking up 10 hours of sun every day to make my large melons. And the sixth tip that I'm going to give you for growing hundreds of pounds of watermelon on a single plant is to fertilize them adequately. Watermelon vines are extremely vigorous and the fruits are huge, so it should come as no surprise that they are very heavy feeders. They need a lot of fertilizer to perform optimally. So I like to fertilize them on a two week schedule. Every other weekend I like to give them an organic slow release fertilizer and then a soluble immediately fast acting fertilizer. So the organic slow release fertilizer I'm going to give them is just this organic tomato food. It doesn't really matter what the NPK is, anything around 5-5-5 will do. This is a 2-5-3. I bought this because it was on clearance. So as long as you get something where all NP and K are represented, you will be just fine. All we're going to do is we're going to take the granulated fertilizer and throw a nice big generous handful around the root structure of the plants, maybe two handfuls if your plants are very large. Then we're going to water in that slow release fertilizer with a soluble fertilizer that has already been broken down and is immediately available to uptake for the plants. And my favorite fertilizer to use for this is actually Jax 20-20-20, but if you can't find that, another good substitute right off the shelf from any big box store is Miracle Grow Tomato 18-18-21. This will work just fine. So all we're going to do is inside a watering can, we're going to place the manufacturer's recommended concentration of one tablespoon per gallon inside the watering can. And then we are going to supplement that with my secret weapon. We are going to use Alaska Fish Fertilizer, which is fermented ground up fish. And this has all of the nutrients that are inside of the fish that has already been basically pulverized into a paste and digested thanks to the fermentation process. So it's immediately available to the plants. So we're going to shake this well, and then we're going to put about a two second pour inside our watering can, which is probably about maybe three tablespoons or so. And then we are going to stir it, and then we are going to water in the plant with this fertilizer. And we're simply going to do this every two weeks. But wait, there is time for a bonus tip just to make it a lucky number seven. And my seventh tip for you is to grow your watermelon vines, if at all possible, on weed barrier. This black tarp that I have down here is a woven fabric weed barrier, and it is my secret weapon for keeping my watermelon basically pest and disease free. Now recently, I made a video all about my trials with growing watermelon on weed barrier, and I will make sure to link that above. If you want all of the fine details, I strongly recommend you watch that video. However, the summary is this. This weed barrier right here, for whatever reason, pests hate walking across it. Maybe it gets too hot. I don't know what the explanation is, but it keeps my vines pest free. There are no pests hopping along this vine at all. And as another benefit, when it rains, when the rainfall splashes down on the weed barrier, it doesn't splash soil all over the undersides of the leaves, which is primarily how disease spreads. So between keeping the pests off and keeping the splashing water and soil off, it keeps my vines pest and disease free. Now if you're interested in this weed barrier product, I have it linked down in my Amazon storefront link in the video description underneath the garden accessories list. This weed barrier has been down in this exact spot for four years now, and it is just like new. This is 10 year plus weed barrier. It's very inexpensive and it lasts a very long time. However, keep in mind that it will snuff out anything alive that you put it on top of. So if you have a lawn down and you put down that weed barrier, it's going to suffocate your lawn. So make sure you put it down in an area where you don't mind if whatever's growing underneath it gets killed. And that right there is pretty much all of the things that I've learned growing watermelon through years of trial and error in my backyard garden. And believe me when I tell you in the beginning, I had no success at all. It was a total failure for me, but implementing these tips and learning along the way, I now, as you can see, I'm having a ton of success growing watermelon, and I'm sure that if you implement these tips, you will have success too. 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 in general, they are all linked down below in my Amazon storefront. All of those items I use in real life, and that also includes any of the products that I used in this video or reference. And while you're there, check out my spread shop for custom merch if you want to support the channel. Thank you all so much for watching, and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. Well, we just got back from our walk and it was so hot and humid and it's starting to thunder. Dale wanted to run straight to his kennel because all the thunder monsters are outside making booms. But I knew how thirsty he was. I knew how thirsty he was after his hot, sweaty walk. It's all right, buddy. We're safe from the thunder monsters in here. We are safe from the thunder monsters, Mr. Handsome. Just enjoy your water, cool off, and just know that nothing can get you safe inside the Dale cave. It's like the bat cave, but better.