I have always thought the 'time' to pick a melon (or winter squash) is when the stem holding the fruit on the plant turns dry and the melon 'slip off' the plant when you give it a little tug. Not sure if this helps any. My moon and stars watermelon plant has green leaves with yellow spots, like the fruit should. I have a question for melon growers out there- I live outside of Austin, TX- we've had terrible heat for 45 plus days (over 100) and my melon plants look great, and have tons of male blooms, but only 1 female flower so far- it set a tiny melon but now after about 1-2 weeks of ping pong ball size, it is turning brown. Any ideas? Is it just too darn hot? Would a different variety do better? Thanks for the help!

My Little Gem watermelon seeded Mem Day never germinated so in mid-June I seeded more knowing it was a long shot. They finally started growing and just recently started flowering but no fruit at all - not even pea-sized. I think it was just too cool this summer. (Edit - I did find a marble-sized watermelon today) My cantaloupe seeded Mem Day now has 2 melons on it, 1 almost ripe and the other seeded mid-June has a small green melon on it that I hope will have time to ripen before frost. It's been a bad summer for everything - I had some decent zucchini but (edit) NOT nearly as many as I should have, didn't keep up with SVB and now it's getting PM so time to pull them. I started a 2nd planting a month ago and hope to harvest off those into Oct since they're in a tunnel (and I just ordered plastic today). Cukes have to be pulled too, though the melons to the west of them look good, no PM or wilt. This post was edited by ajsmama on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 20:45

I grew Moon and Starts for the first time last summer. It does crawl all over the place and makes mowing difficult. My vine got stunted and made one smaller size watermelon. I was worried it was ruined, but when I cut it open it was perfectly ripe and sweet. Yum. This year I am trellising my melons, but some are still growing on the ground. You can trellis some of the vine and let some on the ground if you want. I have my doubts that my melons can ever get really large in my yard.

This was the first and only year I have ever planted watermelon. I must say based on or own opinion and many people who are avid gardeners that the M&S we have been enjoying for 3-4 weeks have been delicious and very well formed. I do remember it seemed they took a cpl weeks after we planted for them to settle in and start their vineing process. Starting from seed my son Luke and I Started 4 plants (2 seperate hills)from seed and by the end of June they had taken all the room I had given them and were growing out of their area. Up the rose trellis and across our concrete patio. I think they would have grown over our home if I and my scissors had not taken action to keep them in the area (10x30). They made great and quite large melons, 38lbs in one case but no smaller than 25lbs. All the fruit, 11 total made it to maturity and were very juicy and sweet. They have vined and bloomed and set fruit again with one growing 3 feet off the ground on our rose trellis ,...need to build a stick platform for it lol. Which brings me to my question. Is thier enough time for them ( 5 more so far) to develop to maturity? And is it common for watermelons to have 2 seperate crops from each plant???? I water them really well until they are fully formed and not getting any larger then I cut the water back to whatever nature will give us......my take on M&S's watermelons.......GREAT!!!!!!....thx ,..timetaplant