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Western PA

I would like to hear how everyone waters their watermelons.
Thanks,Lee.

12/10/2009 6:15:30 PM

formerly RGG

Last year I grew on plastic and I had my melon plants growing out of hills that were partly uncovered. I usually watered once in the morning and once in the evening.To help avoid fungal diseases it is said to be best to keep water off the leaves as much as possible.

12/10/2009 9:09:47 PM

Western PA

TD, it sounds like you hand watered only. Did you water any of the tap roots during dry weather ?
Lee

12/11/2009 10:29:43 AM

Rochester, Minnesota

in 2008 I dropped studded T-Posts at each of the melon mounds and zip tied a cheap sprinkler head to each. I ran hoses back to hose splitters, and with a single switch I could give each of the mounds a shower. I didn't do that this year, but I should have.

12/11/2009 11:13:39 AM

formerly RGG

Watermelons don't have tap roots. If they did, watering the hills would take care of the problem as that water tends to soak striaght down and by definition a tap root is a main root on a tree that grows straight down and serves to anchor the tree to keep it from blowing down in storms.

12/11/2009 7:54:39 PM

formerly RGG

Only some trees have tap roots and they are very difficult to transplant unless they are very young.

12/11/2009 8:01:21 PM

formerly RGG

Watermelon roots are usually shallow and will grow out many feet from the central hill. I had no way of watering these peripheral roots except for what ran and soaked out from the hills. It was a very rainy season last summer and I imagine there was so much ground water that some of it managed to migrate under the plastic to benefit these roots. Anyway, except for one plant that died prematurely, I never noticed any problems that might have been attributed to lack of water.

12/11/2009 8:07:03 PM

formerly RGG

And yes, all my watering last year was by hand.

12/11/2009 8:08:10 PM

Ohio

i bought a soaker hose that you put around a tree. Worked great for me

12/11/2009 8:19:52 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

I wondered about soaker hoses. Do they plug after repeated use? Do you need to filter the water going into them?

Does anyone attempt to magnetically align the water to keep drip equipment from clogging?

12/14/2009 2:30:05 PM

formerly RGG

MMM, filtering would probably be useful for anyone useing a public water supply and trying to grow organicly. Otherwise chlorine and fluoride in the water would disturb the healthy microorganisms in the soil.That is one reason I have never considered a soaker hose for my plants.

12/14/2009 6:15:57 PM

Ohio

I do believe that you can filter before a soaker hose TD. They have filter for the drip. Right? Or is that for the sediment?

12/14/2009 9:59:36 PM

Bowdon, GA

Soaker hoses don't last long. Mine ussually have a blow out before they clog. They are very efficent though. It takes a lot less water to saturate soil. I guess because there is little run off. I used landscaping cloth with soaker hose under it. This helped some with keeping leaves dry although since it rained every day I still had problems. Interestingly node roots will grow through the cloth but weeds can't come up. Just like with plastic though you do have to stake them. I would add to that watering well and consistant during pollination till day 10 is very important to setting good shaped fruit.

12/14/2009 10:08:58 PM