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Watermelon is a warm-season fruit that grows on a vine and is sweet and juicy. The fruit is oblong or round, and when ripe, the flesh can be white, yellow, pink, or red. Eating watermelon on a warm day tastes the most like summer.
A vining plant called a watermelon can reach a length of 6 meters (20 ft). The size of the fruit varies from 5 to 20 lbs. or more. Pests like aphids and cucumber bugs target the watermelon’s huge, deep-green leaves and vining behavior.
For a fruit set, watermelons need full light; they cannot grow well in shadow. Don’t be misled by the fact that bush watermelons like Sugar Baby and Yellow Doll are considerably smaller than other fully vining kinds; the size of the fruit is not influenced by the size of the plant.
What are companion plants?
In order to maximize spacing for the vegetables in your garden, companion planting for watermelon plants requires careful preparation.
In order to keep your plants alive long enough to harvest them, pests and disease are regular worries for anyone starting a vegetable garden.
By putting your garden to work for you, planting the correct mix of crops removes some concern.
The Native Americans invented a strategy of planting crops that supported other crops, which is where the history of companion planting begins.
Native Americans combined the planting of pole beans, squash, and corn, allowing the beans to climb up the sturdy cornstalk for support.
What size and light considerations?
The plants require a lot of area unless you are growing a watermelon that grows like a bush. Their vines can grow as long as 20 feet. Both the little variety Sugar Baby and the large variation Crimson Sweet have a spread of 10 to 12 feet; the spread is unrelated to the size of the fruit.
Additionally, because watermelons need direct sunlight, they shouldn’t be planted close to any tall crops that could shadow them.
The potential locations in your garden that are suited for producing watermelons will already be reduced when taking those two requirements—space and sunlight—into account.
Crop rotation is one of the finest practices for promoting robust watermelon development.
What are the best companion plants for pollination?
On the same plant, watermelons produce both male and female blooms. For fruit formation and fertilization, insects, primarily bees, must transport the rather sticky pollen from the male to the female flowers.
Seeded (diploid) watermelons and the bees they draw must be close in order to pollinate the blossoms of seedless (triploid) watermelon variants.
It is essential to draw bees to your garden no matter what kind of watermelon you cultivate. Due to their constant or irregular flowering, marigold, lavender, and borage make for wonderful watermelon companions.
Highly hybridized cultivars typically have less alluring flowers for pollinators than heirloom kinds.
It’s also a good idea to plant a strip of mixed wildflowers next to your garden to attract native bees, who are just as crucial for pollinating watermelons as honeybees are.
Again, keep in mind that the mature size of the watermelon vines and the size of the melons to prevent overcrowding or crushing of the flowers or blooming herbs meant to attract pollinators.
What to consider when planting watermelon companion plants?
If you are familiar with the watermelon planting process, growing this melon plant will be simpler. In addition to the above processes, there are other factors you should take into account before planting buddies in your watermelon farm. As follows:
Sunlight exposure: When growing your watermelon, you should pay special attention to how far apart the companion plants are from the watermelon.
This is necessary so that your watermelon’s vine may spread out and grow comfortably.
A watermelon’s vine can extend anywhere from six to twenty feet distant. While this promotes better growth, it has no effect on the watermelon’s flavor.
However, if watermelons are planted near together, they overlap.
Pest repellents: If you don’t put a pest control strategy in place on your watermelon farm, pests can attack it, which would lead to low watermelon yields.
However, by cultivating companion plants that act as natural pest repellents, you can keep dangerous plants away from your watermelon garden.
This is crucial since not all types of watermelon plants have the capacity to attract pollinators to themselves.
Therefore, always keep in mind to put plants that draw pollinators, such as Bees, along with your watermelons.
These bees have the unique ability to cross-pollinate many varieties of melons, including watermelons.
How can you choose the right plants for watermelon?
Farmers and home gardeners still frequently use the companion planting strategy to gain passively from their garden when adding a new crop to the mix. Find out which crops can benefit your new watermelon plants the best by reading on.
Companion plant planting requires plenty of room because common watermelon kinds have vines that can reach 20 feet in length, and even smaller varieties like Sugar Baby have vines that are at least three feet long.
When deciding where to install watermelons in your garden and what you grow nearby them, it’s important to bear in mind the necessary distance to support this network of vines.
Conclusion
You must plant your watermelons in an environment that is conducive to their growth if you want them to grow strong and produce mature, nutritious fruits.
A well-thought-out watermelon farm should include one or more plants that will be placed in strategic locations to deter pest infestation, entice helpful pollinators, and serve as nutrient sources.
When it comes to the price of buying chemicals and other resources that might be required for the growth of your watermelon, this will save you a lot of money. It’s crucial to remember the pests that these partners draw and the functions they serve.
Reference
- Effects of seven different companion plants on cucumber productivity, soil chemical characteristics and Pseudomonas community
- Intercropping Halophytes to Mitigate Salinity Stress in Watermelon
- Watermelon intercropped with cereals under semi-arid conditions: An on-farm study
- Organic Management of Cucumber Beetles in Watermelon and Muskmelon Production [2008]
