Watermelon is self-fertile with the female flower being pollinated equally well by pollen from a male flower on the same or a different plant.
Can watermelons self-pollinate?
Watermelon is a cucurbit, a family of crops that includes cucumber, muskmel- on, and squash. As with all cucurbits, watermelon has separate male and fe- male flowers. Watermelon do not self-pollinate, not even seedless varieties.
Do you need 2 watermelon plants to get fruit?
Healthy watermelon vines produce 2-4 fruits per plant. The vines produce both male and female flowers. Both are needed to set fruit and there are fewer female flowers compared to male, about one female for every seven males.
Do watermelons cross pollinate?
Watermelon is a cross-pollinated species with monoecious or andromonoecious flowering habit. There is a popular myth that watermelon should not be grown close to other cucurbits such as cucumber, cantaloupe, or squash because of an adverse effect on horticultural traits such as flavor.
What happens if you dont pollinate watermelon?
Watermelons (Citrullus lanatus) like many other melons, cannot produce fruit if they are not pollinated. A watermelon plant is a cucurbit and as such bloom with both male and female flowers and can be pollinated without the help of another watermelon plant.
Why is my watermelon not fruiting?
The most common reasons your watermelon plant is flowering but not producing fruit is due to poor pollination, the wrong climate, incorrect soil conditions and insufficient plant spacing.
How do you manually pollinate a watermelon?
Hand pollination for melons with the male flower starts with carefully removing a male flower from the plant. Strip away the petals so that the stamen is left. Carefully insert the stamen into an open female flower and gently tap the stamen on the stigma (the sticky knob). Try to evenly coat the stigma with pollen.
How many watermelons should you let grow on one plant?
How many watermelons do you get per plant? You should get between two and four watermelons per plant so it’s important to protect your harvest.
Should watermelon vines be pruned?
Pruning watermelons promotes healthier vines and increases fruit size. Look for irregular or rotting fruit to prune from the plant. Removing the less than perfect melons will enable the plant to focus energy towards growing bigger, healthier, juicier melons.
What to put under watermelons while growing?
In order to grow great watermelons, you’ll need to put a barrier between the watermelons and the ground. This is to reduce the risk of rot and disease. Good ground barriers are straw, or even cardboard.
Can you plant two different types of watermelons together?
Different varieties of watermelon, however, will cross-pollinate with each other. If you’re growing more than one type of watermelon, such as seedless ones beside the typical seeded ones, be prepared for the fruit to be mixed between the two types of vines as the bees spread pollen between the plant types.
Do you need two watermelon plants to pollinate?
Mating & Breeding System: Most watermelon varieties bear both male and female flowers, although a few have male and hermaphrodite flowers. Individual plants are self-fertile, but require a pollinator to bring about pollination, even within a hermaphrodite flower.
Can you plant cucumbers next to watermelon?
Because other members of the Cucurbitae family are all attacked by cucumber beetles, planting watermelons next to these crops is not recommended: Cucumbers. Summer squash/zucchini. Pumpkins.
How can you tell if a watermelon flower is male or female?
The fruit is found in the ovaries (beneath the flower sepals) from the pistillate flowers. The female flower is easy to recognize. Its swollen base looks like a tiny watermelon. Vines usually produce 10 times more male flowers than female.
Why are there no female watermelon flowers?
Watermelon plants bear both male and female flowers, which are pollinated by bees. The male flowers bloom first, but you must wait for the female flowers to bring the tiny fruits at the end of their blossoms. So if you are concerned because no fruits are visible with the first blooming, nothing may be amiss.
What is a good pollinator for seedless watermelon?
Honey bees
Honey bees are typically used to pollinate commercial watermelon plantings. Each female flower needs to be visited by a bee six to eight times and receive about 1,000 grains of pollen to ensure adequate fertilization and proper fruit development.
How do you get a watermelon to bear fruit?
It requires potassium and phosphorus to produce maximum Watermelon. Encourage fruit production by fertilizing female flowers, which are more significant than males and have smaller fruits. Remove the male flower from the Watermelon plant and swipe it on the open female flower to encourage the number of fruits.
Why does my watermelon plant have only male flowers?
Possibly your female flower was pollinated by a bee who visited a male flower on a nearby watermelon plant. Or maybe not. Not every female flower will produce a watermelon. Normally people grow several plants to be sure that there are plenty of both male and female flowers available for the bees to visit.
What kind of fertilizer do watermelons need?
When fertilizing watermelon plants, use nitrogen based fertilizer at the onset. Once the plant begins flowering, however, switch to feeding the watermelon a phosphorus and potassium based fertilizer. Watermelons require ample potassium and phosphorus for optimal melon production.
How long does it take a watermelon plant to bear fruit?
between 70 and 100 days
About Watermelons
Depending on the variety of watermelon, it can take between 70 and 100 days to go from planting to harvest.
Can cantaloupe and watermelon cross pollinate?
The short answer is, no. It’s fine to grow watermelons and cantaloupe side by side. Cross-pollination between melon varieties may occur, but not between watermelons (Citrullus lanatus v. lanatus) and cantaloupes (Cucumis melo ssp.