How To Prune Watermelon Plants

Pruning watermelon plants will increase your yield, improve the fruit quality and enhance your plant health. Here I share how I implement the information I've read in Lesson 15: Caring for Climbing Plants found in the Mittleider Gardening Course book. Knowing and then following these pruning tips will help you have a healthier garden and bigger harvests.

RESOURCES:
- LDS Prepper Premium Plant Micro Nutrients
- Mittleider Gardening Course Book
- Heirloom Garden Seeds
- Berkey Water Filters
- Off-Grid Portable Solar Generator

[stickermigtigger]

Maybe watermelons are different but I planted Ambrosia cantaloupes last year and watched a million of these pruning videos and practiced pruning the best I could. I didn't get a single edible cantaloupe. This year I stuck the seeds in the ground, kept them fed and watered and did absolutely nothing else except cut off a few dead leaves. They ripened early and I'm now eating the best cantaloups I've ever had. Going to have to give some away!

[bingster-]

It's 10 years after. And I'm enjoying reading all the disagreements in the comment section. So after reading all the experts in the comment section I still can't decide whether to prune or not to prune lol. We've never pruned before. I think I'll do a controlled experiment and prune half of each variety and find out for myself.

[MrJoeeano]

This is my second year growing watermelons. I grow them in 7 gallon pots with tomato cages as a trellis. I started by pruning all of the suckers (shoots) to a single vine. Also, i have pruned off all other female flowers after the first fruit was pollinated. 1 single melon per plant. I have about 8 plants total. Last year i did not prune at all and each plant had 3 to 4 melons growing simultaneously and they all stayed relatively small. Most did not ripen in time with my short growing season here. I will be attempting this new technique next spring, looks interesting.

[arlarl]

Melons require all of their leaves to produce sugars. Any loss of leaves equates directly to reduction of sugar content in the melons. You can break off the melons that won’t ripen before the end of season, but don’t cut the vines or remove any leaves.

[matessaashley]

I think I watched this video for the first time last year and I knew this year I’d grow better watermelons by doing this and I have!! I’m so grateful I’ve found this video. Definitely kept diseases out of my garden because I didn’t have a lot of vines and my plants got the circulation it needed!

[dontatme]

I don't prune ANY of the vines because I want maximum leaves on the plant to increase sugar...I do however ensure that I get no more than 3 melons per plant so the energy is concentrated into 1 to 3 melons

[TheQueendom-Au]

"If you prepare, you shall not fear". Powerful! Thank you for an amazing video. I got some pruning to do!😁

[pjs]

Enjoyed your video. I talked to an old farmer in the early 70's about growing watermelons, and he gave me several tips that I have followed all these years. You mentioned one of them about the curl to know when they are ripe. I only grow seeded melons because they are sweeter than seedless.

[suburbanfarmjourney]

Makes sense. Cut the vine after the last watermelon and move it to where you want it to be. I grew watermelons last year and they just went EVERYWHERE! Thanks for the vid.

[soulfirexit]

Cull slow growing watermelon, keep the leaves!! You can also encourage the root nodes to root under each leaf by burying the vine a little/cover the base of each leaf on the vines without fruit.

[howtowithelizabeth]

I’m growing some vertically in semi small pots so far I have 3 going strong

[sirchadafarmer]

THIS IS AN INSPIRATION TO US FARMERS SIR. THANKS

[rvnmedic]

That's exactly what I'm planting - Sugar Babies! Great content, nice vid!

[tooshieg]

You are best gardening channel on YT. I learn so much from you. Thank you for all that you share. I am surprised that melons are not grown vertically.

[DGreenThumb]

Wow! a great video, it is informative and educational. I love watching your video because i learn and i enjoy. I love water melon and i have plant in our farm. You inspired me to plant more water melon in my farm. In this video you inspired to pursue my you tube channel. Thank you for sharing video, more power God bless us all Mabuhay po tayong lahat

[dawnwr]

I respectfully disagree with this in most cases. You can actually take away from the plants focus on the melons by doing this. Doing so causes the plant to send signals to produce new runners ( vines) which than takes energy away from the fruit it's producing. Not to mention yes you're cutting down on fruit production as well as the male flowers needed to pollinate the females as each female requires several male flowers for a good even pollination. Especially in this variety being it's an icebox. What you can do to help the fruit along is to remove just some of the females, but not the vine itself. So if you have ones that aren't growing too good or have any kind of bruising/rot etc.. those are good ones to remove from the plant. Now you have quite a few growing so it's not a big deal, but not every plant will produce this heavily from one plant if you only allow one fruit per Vine. You have to take into consideration the zones a person lives in. Not everyone has that super long growing period and has enough time to wait for new vines to come out and produce flowers. It's quicker on established vines. A lot of people choose this variety for it's shorter growing period because of where they live. If you're down south more it's not an issue but if your more North it is. We got to think about the logic of this. At the end of the day it's one single plant with one main stem, and one set of roots. So whether the melons are growing from a few established vines or many different vines, all of their nutrients and energy are still coming from the same main stem and the same set of roots. If it's having to send those nutrients to several different Vines, that is going to take a lot more energy for the plant then it would be for it to just send those nutrients up those few established vines. I think sometimes people get in to gardening and yeah they might have done it for many years and they may be successful but at the end of the day when people start to try to change the way things are supposed to be by nature we need to take a step back. Things are created the way they are for a reason. The plants know what's best for them. and if they feel that they can't put as much energy into the melons they have they will just not set some of them. They will abandon them. And those are the ones that you could clip away.

[michaelwatkins]

Awesome and educational video, thank you! I'll definitely be applying the education you so generously provided.

[hawkeye]

I have 3 melons on mine. Want all of them!

[timothkeyyprice]

The only energy to grow the fruit comes from the leaves. If you want to cut if all but one melon, then Cut the 2nd melon only.

[alysebarton]

Thank you so much. This year's watermelon harvest will be great because of the information I gleaned from you.