How I grew my 207.6 lb Watermelon
By Jane Hunt, Sec/Tres. GVGO

*Below: Watermelon: Over-the-Top Inches With Estimated Weight

I must start by telling you I've only been growing Giant Watermelons for about 5 years now. My husband Phil & good friend Marv Mitchell have been a great help in my quest to beat the Canadian Record. Bill Donkers of Brights Grove, Ontario, held the previous Canadian Record of 207.5 lbs. He was kind enough to provide me with the seeds that broke his record. Thanks Bill.

Growing Giant Watermelons is more associated with the hot, dry weather of the Southern US, than it is with our typical Canadian summers. The summer of 2005 was an extremely hot and dry and had a real impact on our pumpkin plants. The heat burned the leaves and stunted the growth of the pumpkin plants. On the other hand, our watermelon plants loved it.

We start with an area of 10' x 20' for each plant. We have been working on our soil for many years and feel that we are getting close to having it in great condition for watermelons. Over the years we've added copious amounts of aged manure and other organic materials. Our Organic Matter was at 24% & the PH level was 7.2 to start the season. We would prefer the PH level to be lower (6.7 or lower is best), but this is what we had to work with. At each planting site we dug a hole 2' x 2' & 1.5' deep and added a mixture of cow & sheep manure, peat moss & compost and covered it with clear plastic to warm up the soil.

We start our seeds @ the 15th of April and file the edges to help them break out of the hard casing. We have found that germinating the seeds can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. We soak the seeds for up to 6 hours in a mixture of water & 3% peroxide, which is diluted to about 5%. Just enough peroxide to kill any diseases the seed might be carrying. We place the seeds directly into a 2-litre pot filled with Miracle-Gro potting soil and place the pot in our germination cooler. In the bottom of the cooler is a germination pad that keeps the temperature @ 85 degrees F, until germination occurs in a few days. They are slow to start and sometimes take up to 2 weeks to break the surface. Once they break through the surface we put them under artificial light to keep them from getting too leggy. Keep the light close to the top of the plant, so they're not reaching for the light and move the light up as the plant grows. We found that putting them in the window causes the seedling to become leggy as they reach for the sunlight.

We transplant the seedlings into the ground @ the 3rd week in May or whenever the conditions permit. We put them in the middle of our planting mounds and protect them with a mini greenhouse. Fertilize with a light solution of water soluble 10-52-10 to help promote root growth. Once they are established and starting to vine, we switched to a more balanced water soluble 20-20-20.

The main vine was growing out to about 8 ft when I mistakenly cut the vine trying to thin out the plant. This caused the plant to shoot out more vines from the stump of the plant. We allowed these vines to grow out to the full 20 ft before we terminated them. We also trimmed the plant's secondary vines to help keep the plant from getting out-of-control. The plant will root at each leaf nod. We don't bury the entire vine, as we found that it promoted disease and killed the plant the one time we tried it. We do however place a little dirt at every 4th or 5th leaf node to promote root growth. This will keep the vine flat on the soil and allow the roots to form at the other leaf nodes that aren't covered.

Pollinating the fruit is a bit of a challenge as well. The flowers are small and very fragile. We hand pollinated them and covered them up afterwards. We found the best time to do this was after the dew had dried from the plant (about 8-9am). For some reason or another the pollen never formed on the female flowers until then. We took the male flowers, peeled the peddles off them and gently rub the male all around the female flower. You must make sure you see pollen on the flower or it won't take. Once the female has been pollinated cover it up with a small bag or cup. Don't try to cover it like you would your pumpkins because the flowers are too fragile.

Once the fruit begins to grow, watch the shape very closely. You want to make sure that it is growing straight. The shape of a bottle of water is what you're looking for. During this early period we gave the plant about a gallon of water a day, just enough to keep the soil damp, not soaked. As the fruit grew we increased that amount. During the peak periods we were giving each plant about 5-8 gallons of water per day, more if it was really dry. We continue to fertilize with 20-20-20 right up till the end of the season. We also foliar fed the plant with Neptune's Harvest Fish/Seaweed mix every two weeks.

Disease & pest control are a must. We sprayed with Sevin to control bugs and used Benemyl as a fungicide. We had trouble with moles and mice as well. The moles were digging throughout the whole patch. We tried mothballs to keep them out, but this didn't work all that well. Next year we need to find something better. Mice were chewing on the vines in search of water. Our solution to that was to place a container of water in the patch for them to drink. Beside it we placed a bag of mouse poison to kill them off. This seemed to work fine.

Once the weather starts to cool (September) we covered the plant completely at night. This helped keep the plant warmer. We also covered the fruit at night with a small blanket and put Styrofoam under the fruit to keep the cool damp soil off bottom the fruit to keep it from rotting.

Over time you will be able to fine-tune your own techniques that suit the area where you grow. These directions are only meant as guidelines. We will be handing out seeds from Jane's Canadian Record watermelon during the GVGO's 2006 Membership Drive. Seeds will also be available through the GVGO. Email us at gvgo@sympatico.ca or contact us at: GVGO, C/o Jane Hunt, 4376 Hwy 35 N, Cameron, Ontario, K0M 1G0. Supplies are very limited; so only ask us for seeds if you really want to grow them.

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