What is wrong with my watermelons?

[mdmdogs3]

As a transplanted Iowan, I don't have a clue about planting in NW Arkansas.

Planted my black diamond watermelons and pumpkins this year - put the plants in between the sweet corn rows with the plan that when the corn was gone the vines could have a party. Well that seemed to be fine - had baby melons and good sized pumpkins.

Well, the melons are rotting on the vine - never got bigger than a Walmart December cantalope

the pumpkins were attacked by bugs - handled that with a good dose of sevin.

but what about the melons - it was hotter than blazes here and dry - but we watered them and the vines look great
any ideas?

 

[dj]

Just my thought and maybe is just bs, but the evaporation rate from the leaves was so high the melons didn't get any water? Maybe plants don't do this just my thought. Ours didn't get to 15-20 and never got really ripe. Even though when you thumped them they felt like they would pop. Or the little bride checks the curly que to see if it is dry. It would be but the hearts were only 3-4 inchs and still had the green taste.
They weren't wasted though, they got wasted. Love it when you get that just right spot and send pieces everywhere.

 

[ga. prime]

Blossom-end rot, perhaps?

 

[dj]

Blossom-end rot, perhaps?

No rot, they just didn't develope into good eating melons.
Even left a few till they were getting a little brown around the seeds. It didn't help the sweetness of the melon. We(me and the dogs, http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l140/ ... V00166.flv) still ate several hoping we'd get at least one that was ripe enough to call a good melon. I talked to some folks around Rush Springs,OK they also said the melon crop wasn't as good as in the past. Everyone is blaming it on high heat, little water.

 

[Jogeephus]

Too many melons, not enough water.(Maybe) I sometimes prune some melons off the vine. Fella down the road prunes all off but two per vine, places a bucket of sugar water with a tube in it as a drip irrigation for the vine's base. He can sure grow some whoppers!