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The North Coast

It seems like other giant fruit growers confine and control the growth of their plant. Pumpkin and tomato growers control the size of the plant to about 1/3 of it's full grown out size. The nature of a watermelon plant makes this difficult.

Does anyone try to copy any of pumpkin growing styles with an official primary vine and secondaries that are terminated at a specific length? Also, What is the best way to deal with the never ending tertiary vine growth? Is there any method to the madness with the plant's vine growth or do folks cut any vine that grows outside of the plant's allotted space?

4/30/2014 2:38:27 PM

Central Minnesota

This year I have allocated spaces for my watermelon plants. I will be limiting the vine growth on three plants to only this space. The other three I will let continue to grow as I did last year. Hardly a controlled experiment but I also am curious if we really need to let all that plant grow.

5/1/2014 10:08:24 AM