The best melon we ever grew, we forgot about. The leaves were hiding it, and we didnt find it til the end of the season when the leaves started dying back. That melon was HUGE! It took both of my boys to carry it into the house. They were so proud, finding it and bringing it to me. It was about 18 inches long and 10 in diameter. Had to be 30 pounds. I think it was a Georgia Rattlesnake. It was so perfectly ripe that it pretty much split on its own as soon as the knife went into it. We will forever remember that perfect, forgotten watermelon. It was like finding hidden treasure.
I didn't have a ground to plant watermelon. my parents have a rooftop garden with potted plants. Last summer I randomly decided to sprout some watermelon seeds and planted them in a pot. I had 0 knowledge about gardening. I watered it every day and 1 or 2 months later I had my first watermelon. It was tiny, but it was very delicious. This year, I'm doing a little research before planting them. wish me luck!
This was my first year growing watermelon. I didn't realize I'd be so emotionally invested. I had one that I thought was done and it wasn't and completely white inside, 2 others burst, a few little ones that just didn't make it, etc. Out of the 9 potentials, I ended up with 4 of the most incredibly sweet watermelons ever but I just don't think my nerves can take it again.
You get numb to it. Try to figure out what's going on, what caused it, and try to mitigate the chances, but in the end, you have to get used to some losses. It's totally worth the occasional emotional damage to eat so good
Watching the video I was like… I would be so in love with my plant I would almost feel guilty eating it lol 😂 I was emotionally invested just watching.
@@maryj7035 you don't eat the plant you eat the fruit. Which is the whole point of growing it. I've become invested in eating a water melon that I grew. What is it with people. You become emotionally invested into why you are doing something not the something itself.
ITA Even if you could have bought something cheaper or more amounts from a store. Everything I make from my garden is epic culinary as I also am a student of GORDON RAMSEY cooking! lol
@@uchennaW I've been more successful growing zucchini cucumbers & yellow squash. Tried mini watermelons but got a sad shriveled fruit but I'm working with not the best soil as I've not been careful building up nutrient mulch.
@Anu Breed I'm more into the taking time and mulching composting which when I did a small amount 2-3yr ago had a great harvest that year but I have had issues PANDEMIC & health making maintaining a good pile and prepping my small plots. I'm going to move to more Pot plantings too.
I’m actually growing sugar baby watermelons 🍉 right now. I have two that are the size of golf balls and today I noticed two other female flowers the size of a marble and just manually pollinated two other female flowers. I’m so excited. My first time ever growing any fruit… I’m so excited for my watermelon! Can’t wait until I can harvest and it eat. Thanks for the video.
I love how excited you get when you harvest that finished product. I recognize the feeling. The proud excited feeling of accomplishment and thankfulness. It's so cute to see. Thank you for sharing, long time viewer/ subscriber here.
The best part of these videos is Kevin’s excitement for what he’s grown. Also you can save the seeds and roast them like pumpkin seeds, they’re really good.
@@victoriavasquez1937 I have just saved them from melons I bought from the store, but health food stores or Amazon sells roasted melon seeds. You can do it with any melon I believe, not just watermelons.
That looks so so good! I am growing watermelons this year and they are going crazy. I only planted 5 total plants I bought from a nursery. They must love the soil and the sunlight because they’re doing awesome. Thanks for the tips on how to know when it’s ripe and how to care for it. Appreciate you!!!
I grow mine on an arched trellis with sling supports for the fruit. Takes up a lot less space that way. This is my first successful year growing them. yay go me!
I grow ALL of my melons & squash vertically using the Square Foot Gardening method. Unless they will get bigger than "Eric" did, I don't even sling them. The vines are usually strong enough to support them on their own. Spaghetti squash does REALLY well vertically. It's one of my favorites to grow. 😊
@@gwendyrose8905 I do my squash that way too! I love spaghetti squash and I have some pie pumpkins and acorn squash the same way. I habent needed to sling them either but the melon vines are not as hardy as the squash. At least for me.
Could someone explain to me more about using a trellis for watermelons/pumpkins? I can only imagine that it would put too much stress on the vine to have the fruit suspended in the air. I'm planning on growing some next year and I want to save as much space as possible but I would like to know how it's going for you guys who have experience with it.
@@emmecalvert6691 I have cattle panels that are arched over my raised beds. I plant the vines at the end of the bed & train them to grow up the panel. Most squash vines are very thick where they meet the fruit. You have to typically cut them off the vine with a knife. Melons can be a bit more challenging since the vines aren't quite as thick. However, I had a 10 pound (ish) watermelon that I cut last year. (Melons are still growing this year.) If they are a variety that gets over 10 pounds or so, then you use a sling/cradle to help relieve some of the weight from the vine. But, plants can handle a lot more than we think they can. Most vines in nature climb up, not out. 😉
We had the same, dumbfound excitement in our garden last year when we somehow managed to grow a couple giant watermelons and it definitely hits different when you grow it yourself. Congrats man!
Amazing! This is my first year growing watermelons and they’ve been my most successful crop so far. One thing you didn’t address is watermelon blossom end rot, which I struggled with. Apparently, fertilizing with a high-calcium fertilizer solves for this. I didn’t realize you could overwater later in the growth cycle, so that’s a great tip!
The tendril method is what my neighbor told me to use. Of course we have had a crazy wet year here in southern Mississippi so every watermelon has split open when it got to softball size. Then Ida comes and dump even more water on my already overly watered watermelons. “We’ve had too much rain this summer.” Words a San Diegoan has never uttered. Maybe I can get some watermelons next year.
New subscriber here. Love that you get right into your information that your title depicts. So many channels get into talking about themselves or other topics and you get the information you were looking for in the last 5 minutes of the video. Thank you!
The history of watermelons is actually Really interesting. There was Centuries of effort to get watermelons sweeter and red as apposed to light green and almost flavorless. Watermelons also originated in Africa
I'd actually say they were grown for different purposes instead. They were initially grown for the seeds not the fruit flesh. Modern watermelons have somewhat had a similar evolution as other fruits like bananas. Where the fruit flesh is more important than the seed.
@@happymama2793 They were first domesticated in Africa as that's also where they originated. Grown for different purposes meaning some cultivars or types were grown for the seeds to consume like you would peanuts or pumpkinseeds. They also started to be cultivated for the flesh and water content especially for areas that experience very dry seasons. This all happened thousands of year ago. Then in the last few hundred/thousand years Different varieties were then transported across the world often through trade, like the Moors did to Spain. So like I stated they were grown for different purposes starting thousands of years ago.
A few years ago I tried this crop for the first time. It was going well until the bugs came along. I'm still a newbie gardener and what I thought was simple stink bugs on my plants turned out to be a horrible infestation of vine garden pests! By the time I figured out what they were, I had already lost 4 or the 6 watermelons growing as well as the whole cantaloupe patch. Those bugs ate through everything. This year, I'm using a mixture of castille soap and neem oil and have killed 2 of them so far. Once I started the neem oil mixture, I haven't seen anymore! 🤞 Thank you for these tips! Next year I hope to have at least a 1/4 acre garden with lots of edible goodies and will be using your videos as I go! Have a wonderful growing season! 💚
I'm a newbie and am trying all different kinds of crops just to see what works and what doesn't - two of which are watermelon and cantaloupe. First question, what exactly is a vine garden pest (is that a generic term for pests that eat vines)? And secondly, what was the ratio for the castille soap and the neem oil? Thanks so much.
The 4th tip to picking ripe fruit is actually the better way to go. That tendril turning completely brown ALL the way back to the vine for me is the best way to know ripeness. Maybe it varies for the type of watermelon but i usually do crimson sweet and it works.
This video is right on time! I'm struggling with my watermelon. I hope my melons come out well. (Goes back to watching the video). Just watched to the end an am all smiles! I'll definitely be a bit more patient with my watermelons and use your tips on picking when they are ripe! The hum at the end, golden!! 🎉
I have two melon plants I started indoors hydroponically from a single seed each, transferred each to one of two 3 gallon pots outdoors on the deck when I felt they were ready for the heat of the deck (90 to 100 degrees). I stretched a bungee net (attached to the deck) over the two containers so they can tie into it and support the fruit load. Each plant is at the flowering stage right now, with 4 to 5 yellow blossoms each. I'm going to assist them in what they seem to want to do, no pruning, just nutrients, water and some conversation. This melon species only produces one to two melons per plant for most people, but I'm going to try for more. Wish me luck, I'm a newbie gardener.
@@cheetah3036 Last year (first year mentioned above) was the handsized Tiger Melons, potted up, grew about 9 melons until the excessive rains caused fungus. The variety was mostly seed, mild in taste and not worth the effort at all. But... This year I grew two new varieties New Orchard F1 and Golden Midget in an above ground planter. Almost ready to pick them now, 4 from New Orchard and 2 from Golden Midget. My mistake this time was putting the plants to close to each other and the New Orchard F1 almost killed the output of Golden Midget. Otherwise, next year, it's strawberries and watermelon again. I'm still a newbie.
@@cheetah3036 Also the potted plants underneath a deck webbing worked out well, until after harvest, I almost broke my foot a few times not avoiding the screw-in eyebolts on the deck. I removed them a bit late. Ouch.
I was going to buy seeds from a random place but remembered you said you sold seeds. I didn't know your channel name so I just typed in watermelon garden and you are the first video to pop up. Awesome.
Thanks for the tips mate. I have my first crop of watermelons and I have no idea when to harvest them. Talk about heat and the summer, we had a record 6 days straight of over 40c which equates to about 104f, my water bill was huge but the watermelons have thrived. I think I’m still a few weeks from harvest, can’t wait. All the best from Western Australia 👌
Reading this comment and seeing "6 days straight of over 40°C" and I thought 'sounds like Perth haha' then continued reading and saw 'Western Australia' Going to try sugarbaby watermelons in Perth this summer. Hopefully I get just one tasty melon
i grow my watermelons in extreme heat for a whole summer and they still produce like tempereatures up to 40 degrees celcius but the production is low in july and august
I planted watermelon for the first time this year. Slow start and then they took off. I was pretty excited, even had several fruits growing (one was larger than my hand) until some field mice came through and destroyed all of my vines and all 6 of my fruits 😭
Same for me! The wee baby watermelons were small but strong. I was so excited thinking of getting to taste my very own fresh homegrown watermelons. Along came the mice….
@@epicgardening I too am about to build a fence and a ratwall to keep out pests and squirrels that are destroying my crops every single year. It's making gardening not even fun anymore to come out and see the damage to all of the fruit. They always eat half or 25% of each fruit and leave the rest to rot. It's now beyond frustrating. Maybe I can do live traps? Idk what to do.
I hear you!! Grew a 31 pound Ali Baba last year - the flavor and smell/color was unbelievable. Knowing when to pick is so tricky. I have two growing this year- one tendril is hard but not dried. The other one has a tendril that is still green and soft. Hoping in 2-3 weeks I can pick the bigger one. 🤞🏾🍉👩🏾🌾
We Love Eric's!!!!!!!!! Great video. I love gardening and small farming. What I have found out about melons is to not rush them and try and not pick them early, because the inside wont be as soft throughout.
🤤 That watermelon looks incredible. I grew some Sugar Baby watermelons vertically this year. Only a few because I didn’t have a lot of space but it was a great experience.
Eric it is. So 80 degrees F is like 26degrees C for normal people who don't have snow. In Australia yeah 26 plus is good However Watermelons are grown where ever in plastic glass houses but Commercially (all year round) mostly near Cairns and NT, which are never below 31 C. Fun fact: pumpkin tomato water melon and many southern grown vines and plants when grown in the tropics actually just don't stop growing. It is possible to keep the same vine growing year after year. with water and love.
My first year growing them. Luckily I checks how much space they need. I'm having trouble deciding when ripe. We've had so much rain for the last two weeks and they look fat now. This vide made me happy, time to pick a watermelon!
If you get heavy rains during the ripening process, you'll want to cover your plants. Like he mentioned, the excess water will lessen the concentration of sugars in the melon.
You are right about eating food that you grew yourself. I picked some tiny tomatoes from an experimental farm 20 years ago, froze the seeds, and just planted them this year. The tomatoes (which didn't have a name, just a number back then) grew, flourished and are presently feeding the multitudes! Oh, and from a dyslexia point of view, Kevin and Eric have the same vowels in the same order. Throw in the title Epic (again with the vowels) and it is an easily made transfer.
Omgarsh I just found you as I'm finishing up caring for my greenhouse friends! I am growing sugar baby watermelon, in my GH. They are growing off the hook ! I was life , I'll have 50 when I'm done. Lol After waiting your video I see a few things wrong . I already have one soft and she's not gonna make it. Darn! They are crowded and are in long boxes up off the ground . I wish I was gonna get 50 , but some of the tiny ones are dying off already . I'm going to watch again , and I subscribed! I'm so glad I found you ! Have a lovely weekend!
I was able to grow a delicious 20 pound seedless watermelon in my yard. It is very gratifying growing edibles in my own yard. I also grew yellow squash that was so big it made the grocery store yellow squash look so puny. Nobody told me about the vines growing from watermelon or yellow squash, so yes they do need a bit of space.
You can save alot of space by growing the squash vertically. I use cattle pannels as an arch and tie them to it. ( bonus being it helps keep the powdery mildew at bay with some pruning)
I have 5 fruits out of 1 plant last year, each fruit was 25 to 30 lbs. They all tasted really sweet. The reason i let them fruits that many is because the seed package said it was small variety, maximum 10 lbs per fruit 😅
That's the way we ate them after picking them out at my great grandfather's farm ... "field warm", sitting on the porch steps and spitting the seeds in the bed next to the porch. Sweet memories.
I have never grown them due to the space needed. But when my development was first built they only built 15 of 99 lots and for years melons would grow in the lots that they did not build on. Was never sure what the land was used for before but it gave me a good idea. But it was nice for a few years to just walk around and find them.
My first successful watermelons. All these points are spot on. Dont over water when they get to size. Yep I did. Dont crowd them. Did that. Wrong fertilizer. Did that too. But when it's right they are much better than store bought.
Did a test garden this year. Got two watermelon starters, and a few others plants. The watermelon went crazy. The vines have spread over 1/4 of the garden. We've had 2 so far, 8 more still on the vines. It was a super-hot year, but it's starting to cool fast, so hopefully they all finish soon.
This was my first year growing watermelon too. I grew some "space-saving" style ones --- Golden Midget and BlackTail. They both didn't take much space and they tasted amazing! Next year I plan to grow some larger ones like the star and moon type too.
That’s one of the ones I’m growing this year! Got my seeds from MIgardener! 😆 My grandfather used to grow watermelon in our backyard so I know how good homegrown is- hoping my baby will this year.
Our favorite watermelon here in our not-so-little garden in our little southern Wisconsin town is Blacktail Mountain. So sweet and delicious. I had 6 volunteer watermelon plants come up this year and one of them has a big watermelon coming on. I think most of them must be Golden Midgets because they're the only ones, except for one Ali Baba, that we lost a few of last year because we were out of town when they came to ripeness. But the one with the big fruit coming on I thought had to be an Ali Baba based on location and it's light color, but yesterday when I went out to check the garden (a happy evening rigtual for my husband and myself), it had darkened up a lot literally overnight, so now I'm a bit confused. We shall see when we harvest, I guess. I've got both "mystery melons" and "mystery 'maters" in my garden this year and that it so fun for us! Thank you, Kevin, for your videos. Blessings to you and yours and your audience!
@@theBoonarmies you must be doing something wrong. I live on the central coast NSW and have had great crops without doing anything really special. Maybe planting when too cool. Good luck!
Amazing Eric! Thanks for the tips! Your backyard is looking great too by the way. Here in Australia we have a lot of challenges with animals-possums, turkeys, and native rats eating everything. Just planted out some watermelons today. Wish me luck 🍀
2021 was my first ever attempt to grow watermelons. I live in a suburban house with about 4000 square feet of backyard. I used about 500 square feet for my garden. I grew Sugar Babies from seed in tiny peat cups until they were about 3 inches tall (7 to 8 cm). Half of them died young, but I had started out with 6 so it was okay. When they were almost ready to transplant, I made a long hill about 1 foot high, 2 feet wide, 18 feet long by scraping up bare dirt I had solarized over the winter, and covered it and adjacent areas with weed control cloth. Under the very bottom of the hill, I had buried some weeds and some of the wild clover that grows abundantly in my yard, to act as a slow-release natural fertilizer. I put in 3 of the peat pot watermelons 3 feet apart on the downhill end of the hill, and 3 cantaloupe seedlings on the uphill end, all at the top of the hill through x-shaped holes I cut in the cloth, and ran a drip hose on one side of the elongated hill. To help the 6 seedlings get started in the hill, I gave them _point source irrigation_ with 1 pint (1/2 liter) plastic drink bottles with the bottoms cut off, and a small hole punched through the bottle cap, about 1 millimeter or 3/32 inch diameter. The bottle tops were just pushed into the dirt next to the peat pots far enough to make the bottle stand up stably. I would top off the water in the bottles once or twice per day, which would slowly filter out into the dirt over the course of 2 or 3 hours. I also put in just a few granules (about 2/3 of a tablespoon or 10 cc) of 10-20-20 slow release fertilizer through the x-cut cloth at planting, and 2 or 3 weeks apart 2 more times. A few times I dissolved a very small amount of generic MiracleGro in the water headed for the plastic bottles. I did not prune the vines at all, I just moved them to keep them on the weed control fabric, so 3 feet either side of the hill. *They got a bit crowded and could have used more like 6 feet either side, but even so, I harvested a dozen beautiful Sugar Babies.* The cantaloupes did much less well, almost all bursting open from too much water from a late season tropical storm that hit North Carolina. I grew corn and butternut squash and climbing beans (the Three Sisters) a few feet away, which helped attract bees, mostly bumblebees, away from the wild clover. Pollination was never a problem. I also grew tomatoes and leeks in my container garden, in pots where I transplanted some of the wild clover to act as living mulch (and nitrogen donor). Those container plants got the same fertilizer treatment, except for adding some garden lime.
I planted 5 in my mound but my son spilled some on the side of the mound and thankfully he did cuz only the one I planted grew but 6 grew from the area he spilled them!!
Have to admit I had an ear to ear smile watching u cut then taste ur fruit for the first time. I can’t wait!! I’m going to grow the small watermelons in laundry baskets lol. Space is an issue. Getting excited. What kind did u grow?
I did sugar baby watermelon for the first time last year and I watched so many videos on how to make sure it’s ripe. I went based off the yellow spot and the dry tendril. I also took note when it stopped growing which is when it indicated to me to check the tendril. Home grown watermelon does not ever beat store bought! It was so fresh and juicy and delicious! Thanks so much for the video!! I love your channel. 🥰
Nice video Epic!! I would like to add, it is always good to plant some bee loving flowers within your garden to help with the pollinating. Also, the best fertilizer is a healthy soil at the beginning of the season, adding compost, worm castings, fish emulsion, bone meal, etc... is better than adding chemical fertilizers. Also, spray in fertilizers make for a bitter tasting fruit. 😉
I tried the watermelon "sugar baby" this summer, it's a small variety. Yesterday I ate the first one, it was really sweet. Can't compare to the big ones in the supermarket, love mine :) I built a trellis to save on the space I don't have for them on the ground. Next year I will try 1 more different location: 1 one the ground, 1 again on the trellis. Hopefully the summer will be better and not so rainy.
Love this season! I just made a little video on how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, too (for me and my 9 lovely followers!) - in my experience the bonus tendril test is the most important
I’ve been watching you for a long time. I circle back sometimes to videos of things I want to grow. For the longest time I thought your name was Eric. You look like an Eric. But it was only about 6 months ago I realized it was Kevin! 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️. Either way… you have helped me get some prolific harvests. Thank you KEVIN!
Eric, i mean kevin is not lying when he says that these things take up a lot of space. It is crazy. These things make pumpkins look like parsley plants that being said, i planted a cosmos a little too close to a watermelon plant. The cosmos pretty much swallowed it completely. Sad stuff.
There are varieties where I live, that usually give 3-4 watermelons per plant of 110-15 kilos each; and they are planted at half a meter distaance from each other. As little water as possible is the best tip for growing watermelon. It is a desert plant after all.
4 of my seedings have sprouted :D I have them in a huge bucket but it's hard to move it into full sun, so I'm gonna carefully dig them up and put them in smaller pots to a more sunny spot. I live with my family on 12 acres and 2 are currently being converted to a giant garden. I may use the giant pot to grow some potatoes (since we have root-loving moles digging around) Happy growing!
This is only my second year gardening, and I have a nice big garden bed this year since we moved! My brother helped me start clearing it out, and my husband will likely help me finish that. We were planning out what would go where, and when we got to the last space, we chose between watermelon, cantaloupe, and sugar pumpkin. We picked watermelon, but the space I have left is 3'x8'. Is that enough space for a good mound? And would I still need to do so many seeds and thin it to a couple plants? I love your videos! Heard about you from a friend and will definitely be watching a lot more.
You’re videos are awesome very straight forward. I’m Almond farmer in the Central Valley starting a little garden in my backyard for fun appreciate the tips!
1:41 i had some of my small watermelons exposed to direct sun (it was also hot out pretty hot outside) and they blackened and rotted away when i had it under the leaves it was growing and doing Very well it was actually growing and progressing
I've been growing watermelon for a few years now. I made the mistake of over watering them last year and they weren't as sweet. This year though the summer is hot and they get watered about once a week. I have 2nd generation Sugar Baby's in the ground of all different sizes! They're grouped together a little tight but, it's okay, I've had success with different distances between mounds! I'm extremely excited for my crop this year and intend to make dehydrated watermelon jerkey and sweet pickled watermelon rinds🥰👍🏻
I intend to growing watermelon right now. Quick question... how many days do I need to plant a seed before transplanting. ? When nursing the seeds do I cover them with plastic nylon or expose them to sun during nursing the seeds. What type of fertilizer do I apply to watermelon? Please your immediate response will be highly appreciated. Thank you!
I've got five seedlings growing right now and hoping for just one to make it this season. Your enthusiasm is infectious and I hope I can have a similar reaction to the joy you felt when you cut yours open. :)
That nitrogen tip works for a lot of plants.I over nitro some tomatoes on time and the Friday got them before any of the tomatoes got ripe. They were beautiful 8 ft tall plants loaded with tomatoes, but they took so long to make tomatoes they didn't have time to ripen most weren't even golf ball size yet.. Telling when melons are ripe is the hardest part for me. Thanks for the info .
Great work! Have a read into which plants contain chemicals designed to inhibit the growth of other plants. In my experience sunflowers make terrib8le companions.....just an observation and some food for thought.
My son (8) and I are currently growing watermelon. We have 3 growing. They have a diameter of about 7 inches. We are so excited. When I was a kid we spit the seeds off the porch and BOOM one day we had watermelons growing lol total surprise. Anyways, I smiled when you smiled because I know that excitement of growing something that you get to actually enjoy and didn't kill. lol
So happy you just dug into half a watermelon with a spoon like we do. I also felt like I got to share your joy in unavailing that watermelon. Thanks for the tips! Wish us luck!
I can almost taste that; can’t wait til mine grow! And…definitely Epic/Eric; I made that same mistake…while talking about one of your posts to a fellow gardener…then said hold on a second, I don’t think his name is Eric…wasn’t it Kevin 🤣
Great video man, thank you. I planted mine watermelons early but they needed a lot of time to just grow wines, now they did get pollinated and they are growing but summer is almost over and I'm afraid that they will not ripe... What can I do to make them grow faster at least wines earlier in the year so they can grow big and strong while summer is still kicking?
Great Video! I just planted 5 watermelon seeds this week and I don't have a green thumb lol. Hoping at least one or two will sprout and bring me some watermelon. One question though, how can you differentiate a male flower from a female flower?
So glad I came across this much needed video. And although I’ve been following you for a while now, I do keep thinking your name is Eric not Kevin lol. It’s because Epic Gardening, my eyes see “E” and then the “I” and “C” and I just auto correct to Eric and I’m like that his garden. Crazy I know. Thanks for these tips. Which fertilizer at that point would you recommend? I look for a video on that
![Grow 200 LBS of Watermelon On ONE PLANT! [Complete Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BAqEzLuHy5s/mqdefault.jpg)
The best melon we ever grew, we forgot about. The leaves were hiding it, and we didnt find it til the end of the season when the leaves started dying back. That melon was HUGE! It took both of my boys to carry it into the house. They were so proud, finding it and bringing it to me. It was about 18 inches long and 10 in diameter. Had to be 30 pounds. I think it was a Georgia Rattlesnake. It was so perfectly ripe that it pretty much split on its own as soon as the knife went into it. We will forever remember that perfect, forgotten watermelon. It was like finding hidden treasure.
Was it juicy
What did it taste like?
That sounds amazing!❤
Same here. Best melon plants ive ever done were all accidentally. Just random ones by trees or in the yard. Left them alone and got great yields
Rattlesnake?
I didn't have a ground to plant watermelon. my parents have a rooftop garden with potted plants. Last summer I randomly decided to sprout some watermelon seeds and planted them in a pot. I had 0 knowledge about gardening. I watered it every day and 1 or 2 months later I had my first watermelon. It was tiny, but it was very delicious. This year, I'm doing a little research before planting them. wish me luck!
Good luck.👍🍉
😅p
Cooooool!😂❤
This was my first year growing watermelon. I didn't realize I'd be so emotionally invested. I had one that I thought was done and it wasn't and completely white inside, 2 others burst, a few little ones that just didn't make it, etc. Out of the 9 potentials, I ended up with 4 of the most incredibly sweet watermelons ever but I just don't think my nerves can take it again.
You get numb to it. Try to figure out what's going on, what caused it, and try to mitigate the chances, but in the end, you have to get used to some losses. It's totally worth the occasional emotional damage to eat so good
Weak!
Just remember food is da best part of life so if u even managed 2 grow a few, it da end it was worth it 2 hav eaten some
Watching the video I was like… I would be so in love with my plant I would almost feel guilty eating it lol 😂 I was emotionally invested just watching.
@@maryj7035 you don't eat the plant you eat the fruit. Which is the whole point of growing it. I've become invested in eating a water melon that I grew. What is it with people. You become emotionally invested into why you are doing something not the something itself.
I can't explain how nice it is to see someone who is as passionate about watermelons as you.
It's the humming at the end for me.😄 It's so rewarding when you get to eat something you've grown from scratch. Absolutely satisfying!😌
ITA Even if you could have bought something cheaper or more amounts from a store. Everything I make from my garden is epic culinary as I also am a student of GORDON RAMSEY cooking! lol
@@klyanadkmorr definitely priceless 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
@Anu Breed wow that's awesome! I love watermelons but never grown them.
@@uchennaW I've been more successful growing zucchini cucumbers & yellow squash. Tried mini watermelons but got a sad shriveled fruit but I'm working with not the best soil as I've not been careful building up nutrient mulch.
@Anu Breed I'm more into the taking time and mulching composting which when I did a small amount 2-3yr ago had a great harvest that year but I have had issues PANDEMIC & health making maintaining a good pile and prepping my small plots. I'm going to move to more Pot plantings too.
I’m actually growing sugar baby watermelons 🍉 right now. I have two that are the size of golf balls and today I noticed two other female flowers the size of a marble and just manually pollinated two other female flowers. I’m so excited. My first time ever growing any fruit… I’m so excited for my watermelon! Can’t wait until I can harvest and it eat. Thanks for the video.
I've got to imagine everyone is seeing "epic" and mistaking in for eric
WELCOME TO ERIC GARDENING WE'RE HERE TO GARDEN AND I'M ERIC HELLO AND WELCOME TO ERIC GARDENING
Something like that!
I was thinking you were Eric too. Maybe that's it! I honestly don't know why I thought that. Sorry! Lol.
That’s what I was thinking too lol
That's exactly what I was doing in my early days of watching. It's an easy transition to go from epic to Eric.
I love how excited you get when you harvest that finished product. I recognize the feeling. The proud excited feeling of accomplishment and thankfulness. It's so cute to see. Thank you for sharing, long time viewer/ subscriber here.
The best part of these videos is Kevin’s excitement for what he’s grown. Also you can save the seeds and roast them like pumpkin seeds, they’re really good.
How interesting! I'm going to try that! 🍉
What watermelon seeds do I buy? And where do you get yours?
@@victoriavasquez1937 I have just saved them from melons I bought from the store, but health food stores or Amazon sells roasted melon seeds. You can do it with any melon I believe, not just watermelons.
Never hear of this, will try soon, thanks for the tip!
You mean Eric?
That looks so so good! I am growing watermelons this year and they are going crazy. I only planted 5 total plants I bought from a nursery. They must love the soil and the sunlight because they’re doing awesome. Thanks for the tips on how to know when it’s ripe and how to care for it. Appreciate you!!!
I grow mine on an arched trellis with sling supports for the fruit. Takes up a lot less space that way. This is my first successful year growing them. yay go me!
I've done my pumpkins this way by accident 😅 they started growing up a felled tree beside the garden instead of taking up my garden space!
I grow ALL of my melons & squash vertically using the Square Foot Gardening method. Unless they will get bigger than "Eric" did, I don't even sling them. The vines are usually strong enough to support them on their own. Spaghetti squash does REALLY well vertically. It's one of my favorites to grow. 😊
@@gwendyrose8905 I do my squash that way too! I love spaghetti squash and I have some pie pumpkins and acorn squash the same way. I habent needed to sling them either but the melon vines are not as hardy as the squash. At least for me.
Could someone explain to me more about using a trellis for watermelons/pumpkins? I can only imagine that it would put too much stress on the vine to have the fruit suspended in the air. I'm planning on growing some next year and I want to save as much space as possible but I would like to know how it's going for you guys who have experience with it.
@@emmecalvert6691 I have cattle panels that are arched over my raised beds. I plant the vines at the end of the bed & train them to grow up the panel. Most squash vines are very thick where they meet the fruit. You have to typically cut them off the vine with a knife. Melons can be a bit more challenging since the vines aren't quite as thick. However, I had a 10 pound (ish) watermelon that I cut last year. (Melons are still growing this year.) If they are a variety that gets over 10 pounds or so, then you use a sling/cradle to help relieve some of the weight from the vine. But, plants can handle a lot more than we think they can. Most vines in nature climb up, not out. 😉
His reaction to the red of the inside when he cut open the watermelon is what the love of gardening is all about!
We had the same, dumbfound excitement in our garden last year when we somehow managed to grow a couple giant watermelons and it definitely hits different when you grow it yourself. Congrats man!
Amazing! This is my first year growing watermelons and they’ve been my most successful crop so far. One thing you didn’t address is watermelon blossom end rot, which I struggled with. Apparently, fertilizing with a high-calcium fertilizer solves for this. I didn’t realize you could overwater later in the growth cycle, so that’s a great tip!
The tendril method is what my neighbor told me to use. Of course we have had a crazy wet year here in southern Mississippi so every watermelon has split open when it got to softball size. Then Ida comes and dump even more water on my already overly watered watermelons. “We’ve had too much rain this summer.” Words a San Diegoan has never uttered. Maybe I can get some watermelons next year.
I thought mine were gonna drown. East Texas saw 35 inches of rain this spring.
You need to add more fertilizer for frequent heavy rains . That's what I did and I had zero problems
From San Diego: What is this 'rain' that you speak of?
@@domesti-city water actually falls from the sky where I live. 🤣
@@cheerios0522 if next summer is as wet as this one, I will definitely give that a try.
New subscriber here. Love that you get right into your information that your title depicts. So many channels get into talking about themselves or other topics and you get the information you were looking for in the last 5 minutes of the video. Thank you!
The history of watermelons is actually Really interesting.
There was Centuries of effort to get watermelons sweeter and red as apposed to light green and almost flavorless.
Watermelons also originated in Africa
Bradford Watermelons - Brix 12.5
I'd actually say they were grown for different purposes instead. They were initially grown for the seeds not the fruit flesh. Modern watermelons have somewhat had a similar evolution as other fruits like bananas. Where the fruit flesh is more important than the seed.
@@happymama2793
They were first domesticated in Africa as that's also where they originated. Grown for different purposes meaning some cultivars or types were grown for the seeds to consume like you would peanuts or pumpkinseeds. They also started to be cultivated for the flesh and water content especially for areas that experience very dry seasons. This all happened thousands of year ago.
Then in the last few hundred/thousand years Different varieties were then transported across the world often through trade, like the Moors did to Spain.
So like I stated they were grown for different purposes starting thousands of years ago.
THATS RACIST
@@jspyrogram Just discovered their history last week and bought some seeds. Can't wait to plant them!
A few years ago I tried this crop for the first time. It was going well until the bugs came along. I'm still a newbie gardener and what I thought was simple stink bugs on my plants turned out to be a horrible infestation of vine garden pests! By the time I figured out what they were, I had already lost 4 or the 6 watermelons growing as well as the whole cantaloupe patch. Those bugs ate through everything. This year, I'm using a mixture of castille soap and neem oil and have killed 2 of them so far. Once I started the neem oil mixture, I haven't seen anymore! 🤞
Thank you for these tips! Next year I hope to have at least a 1/4 acre garden with lots of edible goodies and will be using your videos as I go! Have a wonderful growing season! 💚
I'm a newbie and am trying all different kinds of crops just to see what works and what doesn't - two of which are watermelon and cantaloupe. First question, what exactly is a vine garden pest (is that a generic term for pests that eat vines)? And secondly, what was the ratio for the castille soap and the neem oil? Thanks so much.
Kevin always gives me Property Brothers vibes! I can totally see a collaboration of sorts, hopefully one day soon
The Garden Brother
@@epicgardening Perfect name 😍 It will be EPIC!! 😉🥰
@@justakym No...It will be ERIC!! 😉🥰
If he can't interest you in a watermelon, he's got some fixup property on the side.
He is the secret third brother 😂
The 4th tip to picking ripe fruit is actually the better way to go. That tendril turning completely brown ALL the way back to the vine for me is the best way to know ripeness. Maybe it varies for the type of watermelon but i usually do crimson sweet and it works.
I grow Black Diamonds and follow the same method…wait for the tendril to be completely brown plus 2-3 days
This video is right on time! I'm struggling with my watermelon. I hope my melons come out well. (Goes back to watching the video). Just watched to the end an am all smiles! I'll definitely be a bit more patient with my watermelons and use your tips on picking when they are ripe! The hum at the end, golden!! 🎉
Glad it helped!
2:30 def expected you to say "he's Eric, I'm Kevin, show us respect so we can flourish" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have two melon plants I started indoors hydroponically from a single seed each, transferred each to one of two 3 gallon pots outdoors on the deck when I felt they were ready for the heat of the deck (90 to 100 degrees). I stretched a bungee net (attached to the deck) over the two containers so they can tie into it and support the fruit load. Each plant is at the flowering stage right now, with 4 to 5 yellow blossoms each. I'm going to assist them in what they seem to want to do, no pruning, just nutrients, water and some conversation. This melon species only produces one to two melons per plant for most people, but I'm going to try for more. Wish me luck, I'm a newbie gardener.
Hey! Checkin' in, how are ya? How'd the melons turn out/go? :D
@@cheetah3036 Last year (first year mentioned above) was the handsized Tiger Melons, potted up, grew about 9 melons until the excessive rains caused fungus. The variety was mostly seed, mild in taste and not worth the effort at all.
But...
This year I grew two new varieties New Orchard F1 and Golden Midget in an above ground planter. Almost ready to pick them now, 4 from New Orchard and 2 from Golden Midget. My mistake this time was putting the plants to close to each other and the New Orchard F1 almost killed the output of Golden Midget. Otherwise, next year, it's strawberries and watermelon again. I'm still a newbie.
@@cheetah3036 Also the potted plants underneath a deck webbing worked out well, until after harvest, I almost broke my foot a few times not avoiding the screw-in eyebolts on the deck. I removed them a bit late. Ouch.
I was going to buy seeds from a random place but remembered you said you sold seeds. I didn't know your channel name so I just typed in watermelon garden and you are the first video to pop up. Awesome.
Thanks for the tips mate. I have my first crop of watermelons and I have no idea when to harvest them. Talk about heat and the summer, we had a record 6 days straight of over 40c which equates to about 104f, my water bill was huge but the watermelons have thrived. I think I’m still a few weeks from harvest, can’t wait. All the best from Western Australia 👌
Reading this comment and seeing "6 days straight of over 40°C" and I thought 'sounds like Perth haha' then continued reading and saw 'Western Australia'
Going to try sugarbaby watermelons in Perth this summer. Hopefully I get just one tasty melon
i grow my watermelons in extreme heat for a whole summer and they still produce like tempereatures up to 40 degrees celcius but the production is low in july and august
I am growing mine in 20 gallon plant bags that are growing up a arbor trellis. Works great
I planted watermelon for the first time this year. Slow start and then they took off. I was pretty excited, even had several fruits growing (one was larger than my hand) until some field mice came through and destroyed all of my vines and all 6 of my fruits 😭
😭😭😭
Same for me! The wee baby watermelons were small but strong. I was so excited thinking of getting to taste my very own fresh homegrown watermelons.
Along came the mice….
I have 3 path of watermelon with 2 almost the size of a bowling ball but was destroyed by rats 😡😡
@@epicgardening
I too am about to build a fence and a ratwall to keep out pests and squirrels that are destroying my crops every single year. It's making gardening not even fun anymore to come out and see the damage to all of the fruit. They always eat half or 25% of each fruit and leave the rest to rot. It's now beyond frustrating. Maybe I can do live traps? Idk what to do.
@@Citizennumber9 try tule fabric to keep out the mice..
I hear you!! Grew a 31 pound Ali Baba last year - the flavor and smell/color was unbelievable. Knowing when to pick is so tricky. I have two growing this year- one tendril is hard but not dried. The other one has a tendril that is still green and soft. Hoping in 2-3 weeks I can pick the bigger one. 🤞🏾🍉👩🏾🌾
This season is my first time trying sugar baby watermelon and this video is great to know what are my mistakes, thanks Kevin (Eric) 😁
I’m currently growing a Sugar Baby for the first time! It’s so exciting to watch it grow. How did yours turn out?
We Love Eric's!!!!!!!!! Great video. I love gardening and small farming. What I have found out about melons is to not rush them and try and not pick them early, because the inside wont be as soft throughout.
🤤 That watermelon looks incredible.
I grew some Sugar Baby watermelons vertically this year. Only a few because I didn’t have a lot of space but it was a great experience.
Me too!
Eric it is. So 80 degrees F is like 26degrees C for normal people who don't have snow.
In Australia yeah 26 plus is good However Watermelons are grown where ever in plastic glass houses but Commercially (all year round) mostly near Cairns and NT, which are never below 31 C. Fun fact: pumpkin tomato water melon and many southern grown vines and plants when grown in the tropics actually just don't stop growing. It is possible to keep the same vine growing year after year. with water and love.
My first year growing them. Luckily I checks how much space they need. I'm having trouble deciding when ripe. We've had so much rain for the last two weeks and they look fat now. This vide made me happy, time to pick a watermelon!
Supposed to be ripe when the nearest tendril has completely dried out. But it's been hit and miss for mine this year.
If you get heavy rains during the ripening process, you'll want to cover your plants. Like he mentioned, the excess water will lessen the concentration of sugars in the melon.
I did Black Mountain Watermelon last year in my South Florida garden. It is really the only annual that handles the heat and humidity of our summers.
You are right about eating food that you grew yourself. I picked some tiny tomatoes from an experimental farm 20 years ago, froze the seeds, and just planted them this year. The tomatoes (which didn't have a name, just a number back then) grew, flourished and are presently feeding the multitudes! Oh, and from a dyslexia point of view, Kevin and Eric have the same vowels in the same order. Throw in the title Epic (again with the vowels) and it is an easily made transfer.
Hello dear how are you doing?
Omgarsh I just found you as I'm finishing up caring for my greenhouse friends! I am growing sugar baby watermelon, in my GH. They are growing off the hook ! I was life , I'll have 50 when I'm done. Lol After waiting your video I see a few things wrong . I already have one soft and she's not gonna make it. Darn! They are crowded and are in long boxes up off the ground . I wish I was gonna get 50 , but some of the tiny ones are dying off already . I'm going to watch again , and I subscribed! I'm so glad I found you ! Have a lovely weekend!
I was able to grow a delicious 20 pound seedless watermelon in my yard. It is very gratifying growing edibles in my own yard. I also grew yellow squash that was so big it made the grocery store yellow squash look so puny. Nobody told me about the vines growing from watermelon or yellow squash, so yes they do need a bit of space.
You can save alot of space by growing the squash vertically.
I use cattle pannels as an arch and tie them to it. ( bonus being it helps keep the powdery mildew at bay with some pruning)
that sounds so nice i bet it feels so good to know that you grew it yourself and it is bigger and better than what the shops sell.
@@Moriddin Thank you for the tips.
I have 5 fruits out of 1 plant last year, each fruit was 25 to 30 lbs. They all tasted really sweet. The reason i let them fruits that many is because the seed package said it was small variety, maximum 10 lbs per fruit 😅
That's the way we ate them after picking them out at my great grandfather's farm ... "field warm", sitting on the porch steps and spitting the seeds in the bed next to the porch. Sweet memories.
I just met your LA rep Linda. She is great! Thanks for tip on watermelon care.😊
It was great meeting you Mr. Baker! Thank you for supporting Botanical Interests seeds in LA. #GregoryHinesDoppleganger
I have never grown them due to the space needed. But when my development was first built they only built 15 of 99 lots and for years melons would grow in the lots that they did not build on. Was never sure what the land was used for before but it gave me a good idea. But it was nice for a few years to just walk around and find them.
🤣😂 the way I grinned watching the excitement you had for that beautiful watermelon! I love your videos ❤️
We all need someone in our lives who adores us as much as Kevin adores that melon. So wholesome!
My first successful watermelons. All these points are spot on. Dont over water when they get to size. Yep I did. Dont crowd them. Did that. Wrong fertilizer. Did that too. But when it's right they are much better than store bought.
Did a test garden this year. Got two watermelon starters, and a few others plants. The watermelon went crazy. The vines have spread over 1/4 of the garden. We've had 2 so far, 8 more still on the vines. It was a super-hot year, but it's starting to cool fast, so hopefully they all finish soon.
Hi Eric 😁 thanks for sharing, I’ll be growing watermelon for the first time this summer
This was my first year growing watermelon too. I grew some "space-saving" style ones --- Golden Midget and BlackTail. They both didn't take much space and they tasted amazing! Next year I plan to grow some larger ones like the star and moon type too.
Hhoooh hh
That’s one of the ones I’m growing this year! Got my seeds from MIgardener! 😆
My grandfather used to grow watermelon in our backyard so I know how good homegrown is- hoping my baby will this year.
Our favorite watermelon here in our not-so-little garden in our little southern Wisconsin town is Blacktail Mountain. So sweet and delicious. I had 6 volunteer watermelon plants come up this year and one of them has a big watermelon coming on. I think most of them must be Golden Midgets because they're the only ones, except for one Ali Baba, that we lost a few of last year because we were out of town when they came to ripeness. But the one with the big fruit coming on I thought had to be an Ali Baba based on location and it's light color, but yesterday when I went out to check the garden (a happy evening rigtual for my husband and myself), it had darkened up a lot literally overnight, so now I'm a bit confused. We shall see when we harvest, I guess. I've got both "mystery melons" and "mystery 'maters" in my garden this year and that it so fun for us! Thank you, Kevin, for your videos. Blessings to you and yours and your audience!
The end excitement around the success is so relatable. It’s so hard to grow a tasty perfect watermelon! 🎉
Expensive, expensive crop (resources, time, effort, soil, water nutrients)....gotta get them right or it could be a big loss. EPIC, as always. :-)
So true!!
I've tried 3 successive seasons here in Australia, and not a single fruit yet.
I'll get it eventually.
If you have the space it’s great eat’n.
@@theBoonarmies you must be doing something wrong. I live on the central coast NSW and have had great crops without doing anything really special.
Maybe planting when too cool. Good luck!
@@epicgardening Eric -i misread Eric from the EPIC gardening.
Amazing Eric!
Thanks for the tips!
Your backyard is looking great too by the way.
Here in Australia we have a lot of challenges with animals-possums, turkeys, and native rats eating everything. Just planted out some watermelons today.
Wish me luck 🍀
2021 was my first ever attempt to grow watermelons. I live in a suburban house with about 4000 square feet of backyard. I used about 500 square feet for my garden. I grew Sugar Babies from seed in tiny peat cups until they were about 3 inches tall (7 to 8 cm). Half of them died young, but I had started out with 6 so it was okay. When they were almost ready to transplant, I made a long hill about 1 foot high, 2 feet wide, 18 feet long by scraping up bare dirt I had solarized over the winter, and covered it and adjacent areas with weed control cloth. Under the very bottom of the hill, I had buried some weeds and some of the wild clover that grows abundantly in my yard, to act as a slow-release natural fertilizer. I put in 3 of the peat pot watermelons 3 feet apart on the downhill end of the hill, and 3 cantaloupe seedlings on the uphill end, all at the top of the hill through x-shaped holes I cut in the cloth, and ran a drip hose on one side of the elongated hill. To help the 6 seedlings get started in the hill, I gave them _point source irrigation_ with 1 pint (1/2 liter) plastic drink bottles with the bottoms cut off, and a small hole punched through the bottle cap, about 1 millimeter or 3/32 inch diameter. The bottle tops were just pushed into the dirt next to the peat pots far enough to make the bottle stand up stably. I would top off the water in the bottles once or twice per day, which would slowly filter out into the dirt over the course of 2 or 3 hours. I also put in just a few granules (about 2/3 of a tablespoon or 10 cc) of 10-20-20 slow release fertilizer through the x-cut cloth at planting, and 2 or 3 weeks apart 2 more times. A few times I dissolved a very small amount of generic MiracleGro in the water headed for the plastic bottles. I did not prune the vines at all, I just moved them to keep them on the weed control fabric, so 3 feet either side of the hill. *They got a bit crowded and could have used more like 6 feet either side, but even so, I harvested a dozen beautiful Sugar Babies.* The cantaloupes did much less well, almost all bursting open from too much water from a late season tropical storm that hit North Carolina. I grew corn and butternut squash and climbing beans (the Three Sisters) a few feet away, which helped attract bees, mostly bumblebees, away from the wild clover. Pollination was never a problem. I also grew tomatoes and leeks in my container garden, in pots where I transplanted some of the wild clover to act as living mulch (and nitrogen donor). Those container plants got the same fertilizer treatment, except for adding some garden lime.
You made my mouth water when you took a bite of that watermelon.
Thanks for the tips.
I planted 5 in my mound but my son spilled some on the side of the mound and thankfully he did cuz only the one I planted grew but 6 grew from the area he spilled them!!
Have to admit I had an ear to ear smile watching u cut then taste ur fruit for the first time. I can’t wait!! I’m going to grow the small watermelons in laundry baskets lol. Space is an issue. Getting excited. What kind did u grow?
I did sugar baby watermelon for the first time last year and I watched so many videos on how to make sure it’s ripe. I went based off the yellow spot and the dry tendril. I also took note when it stopped growing which is when it indicated to me to check the tendril. Home grown watermelon does not ever beat store bought! It was so fresh and juicy and delicious! Thanks so much for the video!! I love your channel. 🥰
Planted sugar babies this year ( my first watermelons) 🍉 what is the lighter variety you savored? It looks somewhat cubed like Japanese watermelons
I just planted Congo watermelons. This year I tried cantaloupes and pumpkins in my ever growing garden.
“Probably not the best place to cut this, but I don’t really care”
Kevin gets it.
Nice video Epic!! I would like to add, it is always good to plant some bee loving flowers within your garden to help with the pollinating. Also, the best fertilizer is a healthy soil at the beginning of the season, adding compost, worm castings, fish emulsion, bone meal, etc... is better than adding chemical fertilizers. Also, spray in fertilizers make for a bitter tasting fruit. 😉
you must be new here
I tried the watermelon "sugar baby" this summer, it's a small variety. Yesterday I ate the first one, it was really sweet. Can't compare to the big ones in the supermarket, love mine :) I built a trellis to save on the space I don't have for them on the ground. Next year I will try 1 more different location: 1 one the ground, 1 again on the trellis. Hopefully the summer will be better and not so rainy.
I'm growing Sugar Baby right now and just spotted my first melon! So excited. Rewatching this video to get tips.
The delight when he ate it!!!! 😂 The humming!!! I love it and can’t wait to experience it too!
Thanks for the info. My 5 year old son Jacob is loving the lesson.
Love this season! I just made a little video on how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, too (for me and my 9 lovely followers!) - in my experience the bonus tendril test is the most important
Im #373! Lol nice job growing!
I’ve been watching you for a long time. I circle back sometimes to videos of things I want to grow. For the longest time I thought your name was Eric. You look like an Eric. But it was only about 6 months ago I realized it was Kevin! 🤷🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️. Either way… you have helped me get some prolific harvests. Thank you KEVIN!
Eric, i mean kevin is not lying when he says that these things take up a lot of space. It is crazy. These things make pumpkins look like parsley plants
that being said, i planted a cosmos a little too close to a watermelon plant. The cosmos pretty much swallowed it completely. Sad stuff.
Really wish I knew this before starting 10 of them in a pot thinking they couldn't possibly be as bad as the pumkins...
My seed packet says 18 inch vine. Try 10 feet at least. Planted 3 and I'm completely overwhelmed.
Smaller ones perfect for growing vertical. Use pantyhose to tie onto the pannel and you have plenty of space 😉
Haha loved the excitement after cutting the watermelon open! Thanks for the tips.
It's because Epic looks like Eric understand certain altered states of consciousness.
I have 2 on my plant, one smaller than the other hanging on a trellis outside in south Wales, can't wait to try it.
Super Informative! Maybe because Eric is close to Epic…
That’s exactly what I was thinking
Your reaction to eating the watermelon made my day! Have a good one! Thank you for all your gardening tips friend 🌸
They call you Eric because they misread Epic
So true
I can appreciate just how much work goes into planning and producing videos like these. Thanks for sharing Kalem!
There are varieties where I live, that usually give 3-4 watermelons per plant of 110-15 kilos each; and they are planted at half a meter distaance from each other. As little water as possible is the best tip for growing watermelon. It is a desert plant after all.
4 of my seedings have sprouted :D
I have them in a huge bucket but it's hard to move it into full sun, so I'm gonna carefully dig them up and put them in smaller pots to a more sunny spot. I live with my family on 12 acres and 2 are currently being converted to a giant garden. I may use the giant pot to grow some potatoes (since we have root-loving moles digging around)
Happy growing!
This is only my second year gardening, and I have a nice big garden bed this year since we moved! My brother helped me start clearing it out, and my husband will likely help me finish that. We were planning out what would go where, and when we got to the last space, we chose between watermelon, cantaloupe, and sugar pumpkin. We picked watermelon, but the space I have left is 3'x8'. Is that enough space for a good mound? And would I still need to do so many seeds and thin it to a couple plants? I love your videos! Heard about you from a friend and will definitely be watching a lot more.
Kevin, I love water melons. It was so nice to see black seeds in the water melon.
You’re videos are awesome very straight forward. I’m Almond farmer in the Central Valley starting a little garden in my backyard for fun appreciate the tips!
1:41 i had some of my small watermelons exposed to direct sun (it was also hot out pretty hot outside) and they blackened and rotted away when i had it under the leaves it was growing and doing Very well it was actually growing and progressing
they wasint so big eather they was the actual size of a grape or smaller than that when they was growing
also they didnt get anny bigger than around their size good thing that happened
I've been growing watermelon for a few years now. I made the mistake of over watering them last year and they weren't as sweet. This year though the summer is hot and they get watered about once a week. I have 2nd generation Sugar Baby's in the ground of all different sizes! They're grouped together a little tight but, it's okay, I've had success with different distances between mounds! I'm extremely excited for my crop this year and intend to make dehydrated watermelon jerkey and sweet pickled watermelon rinds🥰👍🏻
Eric Gardening is a great channel!
I intend to growing watermelon right now. Quick question... how many days do I need to plant a seed before transplanting. ? When nursing the seeds do I cover them with plastic nylon or expose them to sun during nursing the seeds.
What type of fertilizer do I apply to watermelon?
Please your immediate response will be highly appreciated.
Thank you!
I've got five seedlings growing right now and hoping for just one to make it this season. Your enthusiasm is infectious and I hope I can have a similar reaction to the joy you felt when you cut yours open. :)
Thank you for these tips Eric. i have been trying to grow melon for sevral years, i get miles of leaves but really struggled to get fruit. thank you,
Hahaha. I love that I am not the only one to get excited like that and do the happy dance while eating my fresh fruits and veggies! Great job!
Good job brother. Good to see 🍉 with seeds, the way there supposed to be. Appreciate your dedication & tips you provide thank you.
That nitrogen tip works for a lot of plants.I over nitro some tomatoes on time and the Friday got them before any of the tomatoes got ripe. They were beautiful 8 ft tall plants loaded with tomatoes, but they took so long to make tomatoes they didn't have time to ripen most weren't even golf ball size yet.. Telling when melons are ripe is the hardest part for me. Thanks for the info .
Great work! Have a read into which plants contain chemicals designed to inhibit the growth of other plants. In my experience sunflowers make terrib8le companions.....just an observation and some food for thought.
My son (8) and I are currently growing watermelon. We have 3 growing. They have a diameter of about 7 inches. We are so excited. When I was a kid we spit the seeds off the porch and BOOM one day we had watermelons growing lol total surprise.
Anyways, I smiled when you smiled because I know that excitement of growing something that you get to actually enjoy and didn't kill. lol
This is the video I decided to subscribe!! I love your reaction to opening that beautiful watermelon! Well done!
Eric Gardening is my favorite gardening channel! Lol
Ohhhhh…Eric is perfect! The color is great, and the seeds are nice and black…way too go, Kevin👍🏼❤️
I cant wait to taste test mine this year
Im going to go buy a watermelon tomorrow, because now I'm craving a watermelon. Plus I'm going to get some seeds....TY Eric..lol
So happy you just dug into half a watermelon with a spoon like we do.
I also felt like I got to share your joy in unavailing that watermelon.
Thanks for the tips! Wish us luck!
This is awesome. I'm going to plant my black seeds watermelon. Thanks for the tips
I can almost taste that; can’t wait til mine grow! And…definitely Epic/Eric; I made that same mistake…while talking about one of your posts to a fellow gardener…then said hold on a second, I don’t think his name is Eric…wasn’t it Kevin 🤣
Great video man, thank you. I planted mine watermelons early but they needed a lot of time to just grow wines, now they did get pollinated and they are growing but summer is almost over and I'm afraid that they will not ripe... What can I do to make them grow faster at least wines earlier in the year so they can grow big and strong while summer is still kicking?
thank you so much for your videos, i grew watermelon last year too, it was so exciting to see them. ❤
Great Video! I just planted 5 watermelon seeds this week and I don't have a green thumb lol. Hoping at least one or two will sprout and bring me some watermelon. One question though, how can you differentiate a male flower from a female flower?
Just picked my first 2023 watermelon yesterday...yep, ate the whole thing🤣🤣 tried to store half...went back and ate pretty quickly! Yum
So glad I came across this much needed video. And although I’ve been following you for a while now, I do keep thinking your name is Eric not Kevin lol. It’s because Epic Gardening, my eyes see “E” and then the “I” and “C” and I just auto correct to Eric and I’m like that his garden. Crazy I know. Thanks for these tips. Which fertilizer at that point would you recommend? I look for a video on that