The ultimate watermelon growing guide for beginners and advanced growers.
Packed with proven tips, growing strategies, and problem-solving help so you can grow bigger, sweeter watermelons with confidence.
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Time Code
00:00 Intro
01:25 Mulching Watermelon Patch
03:20 Pruning Dying Leaves
04:30 Watering Routine
06:35 Applying Fertilizer
07:55 Pollination Issues
09:30 Pest
#gardening #gardeningtips #gardens Protection
Are you ready to grow big, sweet, and healthy watermelons right in your raised bed garden? In this full-season watermelon growing guide, I’ll show you exactly how to care for your plants from start to finish so you can enjoy juicy homegrown melons even in a small space. Whether you're new to gardening or just looking for a better way to grow watermelon, this step-by-step guide will set you up for success.
One of the most important steps in growing watermelons in raised beds is consistent, deep watering. Watermelon vines have deep root systems, and raised beds can dry out faster than traditional garden rows. By watering your plants regularly and deeply—especially during flowering and fruiting—you’ll help prevent stress, cracking fruit, and blossom end rot. Try to water early in the morning and keep the soil evenly moist, not soggy. Irregular watering often leads to small or misshapen fruit, so consistency is key.
Pest management is another crucial factor in growing healthy watermelon plants. In this video, I’ll show you how to regularly inspect your vines and leaves for pests like aphids, cucumber beetles, and squash bugs. One of the best organic methods is hand-picking pests off the plant as soon as you see them. I also use organic sprays like neem oil or insecticidal soap to keep infestations under control. Don’t forget the power of companion planting—plants like marigolds, nasturtiums, and basil help repel pests naturally while attracting pollinators to increase your fruit set.
To get the biggest and best melons, you’ll need to feed your plants properly. Watermelons are heavy feeders, and I recommend using a balanced organic fertilizer like Tomato-Tone (or my own mix, Bear Brown’s Watermelon Booster). Early in the season, a balanced fertilizer promotes vine growth and healthy leaves. As flowers and fruits start forming, switch to something a little higher in potassium and phosphorus to encourage sweet, juicy melons. If you skip fertilizing or use too much nitrogen, you’ll get beautiful vines but very little fruit—or the fruit will be bland and underdeveloped.
Pruning is another often overlooked but powerful tool. I’ll show you how to safely remove dead or diseased leaves to keep airflow strong and reduce disease pressure. Once your plant starts setting fruit, consider removing some smaller melons so the plant can focus its energy on growing just a few large, sweet fruits. This is especially helpful in raised beds, where root space and nutrients are more limited than in ground gardens.
Don’t underestimate the power of mulching, either. A thick layer of organic mulch—like straw, wood chips, or compost—helps retain moisture, keeps the soil temperature stable, suppresses weeds, and even prevents soil-borne diseases from splashing onto your leaves during rain or watering. Mulch also cuts down on how often you’ll need to water, which is especially helpful during hot summer days when watermelons are putting on rapid growth.
Raised beds offer excellent drainage, warmer soil temperatures, and more control over your soil mix, making them one of the best methods for growing watermelon. But to really thrive, your plants still need the right care—from watering and fertilizing to pruning and pest control. In this video, I take you through the entire growing season, so you can grow the most successful watermelon crop possible in your raised bed garden.
This is one of my most healthiest watermelon plants I've ever grown
in a raised bed. Let me show you what I did to get those explosive vines and so you can do it.
Before I explain how I got this beautiful plant in this nice raised bed I want to let you know
that this video is being sponsored by Quick Tent. That's right that's where the raised bed came from
and if you look down in the description after the video you will see a list of raised beds
that they have and they're a nice quality. The first thing I did once I set up my raised bed
is I filled it with black cow. That is mostly of what's in here. I did add a bag of mushroom
compost because I ran out of my black cow but mainly black cow. In this raised bed I also
added fish at the bottom of the raised bed and I put the lime over to cover the smell so the
animals couldn't get to it. So maybe the roots are hitting that decomposing fish right now and
I'm getting all this. That could be one issue one reason but we got several more to talk about.
Now the next key factor that I made sure I wanted to use I didn't want to fight against the weeds
so it's easy for me to come in here if I see the weeds being blown in by the wind or birds drop
seeds I can go ahead and pull them out but if you look across the area I decided to put some
pine straw because I didn't want the plant to be overgrown by the weeds and all twisted up in them
so I put some black plastic not black plastic I put some black landscape fabric down and you
probably see some on the edge and then I went and bought bales of pine straw and I layered that so
now my plants can grab on to it and they can run without being tied up by weeds so that's one
benefit that I decided to do this time for this area of the garden so that is helping me with the
weeds I don't have to worry about it. Also with mulching I did not do it inside this bed not yet
I'll decide if I'm going to do it but if you want to make sure that you hold some moisture in
especially for the raised beds then you can layer some straw pine straw or you can use any variety
of mulching you want and that's going to help retain moisture that would be another good idea
I did that with my container over there but one other reason is that that container it has a bottom
to it this does not so the roots can go further down into the actual ground after they go drive
through this black cow so I think I'll be okay with mulching or not mulching but it's up to you
I still may decide to do so but I just wanted to let you know that it's still a possibility
all right so the next thing I do is I like to make sure that if I see any and I've already
done some of this two days ago and I still see I got to do this again I got some leaves that are
dying out and they're still taking energy away because they're not they're not dead yet so
I will come through and clip all my dying leaves or they're getting really yellow then I want to
go ahead and get rid of that and so I can put more energy on the plant producing more leaves
and making the vines go even longer all right so the fire truck is gone now but that's why I take
these uh dying leaves off and especially if you are seeing your leaves dying around the stump
you definitely want to make sure you get those off because you don't want it to restrict the vines
and I've heard in the past from other growers that that can uh damage your plant and uh it
could kill your plant if you if you stop all the flow of nutrients going so I'll always make sure
and eventually those leaves I'm probably might may go ahead and cut those just to make sure they
don't die off and drop and uh suffocate the uh the vines because that will be very very bad so
always come in and clip my uh dying leaves because I want to put the energy into the plant
so it can get even bigger now when it comes to watering I'm gonna tell you what my schedule is
but then I will have to look at my plant and it may it may be different in your area but for right
now I'm watering every two days and it's good that you can have it on a timer I got my uh hoses out
right here so that is what um is about to happen with uh my watering on this side my garden over
there is already getting watered by a timer so all I would do is come in I like to come in earlier
in the morning if possible and uh go ahead and add my uh water now this right here is my fish
fertilizer because I do this every other uh watering now it's not gonna hurt if you do it every time
because right now I'm focusing my this plant on being green and so that's why I'm coming in and
watering with the fish fertilizer so it has fish at the very bottom and then it's getting the
nutrients for uh my uh nitrogen so that my plants can stay green all right so I do have like one or
two leaves over there that I'm gonna cut if you can see and it's starting to turn yellow but I'm
gonna go ahead and handle that but that will be a good tip for you you can water every uh every
other uh time add the fish fertilizer not just to conserve how much fish fertilizer you have if you
got a lot if you want to focus on getting it green and you can do it every time it's not gonna burn
your plant so that's the uh benefit for that and I do have the uh compost tea and so you can also
mix that in in your uh I like to do the compost tea once my fruit starts to uh to set and then
that's when I'm gonna hit it with that compost tea boom boom boom and so that is basically my
routine every other uh watering time they get the uh fish fertilizer or the compost tea I almost
forgot I was supposed to add my granular fertilizer because it's been like a month
so I'm gonna go ahead and add the uh I should have did that before I watered so I'm probably
gonna have to water over this again and I'm just putting this around the stump and you know that
it breaks down over time but and that's why the that's why you have the benefit of using the uh
liquid fertilizer because it's immediate this right here is gonna break down over time so I
want to get that in yeah yes this is the fertilizer that I was instructed not to uh talk about just
yet but you can use the uh tomato tone and I have been using that all right so it works great
someone in the comments said that their watermelon plants are also doing awesome because they added
the uh tomato tone this uh this growing season all right so I'll uh water that in I think I ran
out of water and I may put some compost on top of that some black cow all right so that is my uh
feeding regimen that's all I do now see I got I got bees flying around I also got flies coming
around I see the bees going on if you have an issue with a pollination you can hand pollinate
and I like if I do that I like to do that in the morning but I'm not uh doing any hand pollination
um right now because I don't have a need for it but to encourage pollination if you're having
trouble if I was you if you're having trouble you can get a plant from the store uh so I normally
just go to the store and get a plant I see bees on it that's the one I get all right so I think I
used to get the uh lavender it has the uh purple uh flowers at the top and I'll put that down the
bees come in I only get one because I don't want I don't get several because I want them to come in
get on that plant and then they go ahead and start working in the garden so if you having issues
I will suggest getting a plant like that or you can hand pollinate and then you'll be good to go
but to help out with fruit set you want to make sure that you have a balanced fertilizer
and so that if your plants are healthy it's going to put on more flowers male flowers and female
flowers so if it's not balanced you got it one-sided or you just have the uh the um nitrogen
all you're gonna have is the uh green growth but I got flowers all over so having a balanced
fertilizer is going to help you greatly in getting your uh fruits to set so remember that
alone along with making sure that you have your own watering routine don't water one day and wait
two weeks then water again unless that's your routine and it works all right so make sure you
have that along with the balanced fertilizer you're gonna be good to go all right the next
thing I do I come out I try to inspect my plants I look on the back of the leaves to make sure
that I don't have any squash bugs issues and so far so good one thing I would tell you is I know
where my squash bugs are and if you want them off your melons you probably want to keep planting
squash I wouldn't put the squash near the watermelons because they like eating these too
and so my squash I'm having issues with squash bugs and the vine boards but I am getting some
squash so I'm about today I'm going to uh replant some more squash so I can get them out in the
garden so hopefully I can get some more and also so that the squash bugs will focus on that and
I'll try to uh deal with them with my dish soap spray but I don't want them over here and so far
that is working all right so you may want to uh look at that if you're having an issue with squash
bugs plant some squash someplace else and then come out and inspect your plants because you could
have other pests that are trying to uh tear up your watermelon so I strongly suggest that because
right now I don't have any pest pressure hopefully that stays the way it is all right so if you like
the information don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can see what type of melon comes out
of here because I guarantee you it's gonna be a giant all right so look at the uh raised beds
download by quick tent if you're in need of a raised bed if you want your plants to look like
this in your raised bed do what I do and it's gonna happen for you all right I'll see you in
the next video it's either gonna be over here or over there but I'll see you in that video
