Welcome Watermelon7! I don't recall seeing you posting before. I'm glad you found us and I'm sure someone here can help you. I'm not much of a veggie gardener (although if the economy gets any worse even I will start planting tomatoes!) so my guesses are truly guesses. But if you've been planting watermelon in the same bed for a while could your problem be nematodes?

Kate

I planted there once before with watermelon. All the plants died that time w/out growing any watermelon. I did take a dead tomato plant out of the ground and there was a worm, or something, sticking out of it. Maybe that was a nematoad. How do I get rid of them without using harsh chemicals or toxic sevin?

Also, if I look under the leaves at the brown places, there looks to be a little bit of this furry stuff, but it won't come off when I touch it. Maybe that is just a side affect of the leaves dying, or what? Should I get fungicide, too?

any answers?

I've not grown watermelon but I've tried most other types of plants in that family with varying success. I've had lots of trouble with potassium deficiencies when I grow pumpkins. A major sign of this can be kinda a white dusty look to the leaves. This is often powdery mildew which tends to attack plants deficient in potassium (see if you can get some seaweed extract to spray on them if that is the problem, maxicrop is a possible choice.)

Another problem that attacks many plants in this family are squash bugs, leaf footed bugs, and stink bugs. I don't know how best to deal with any of these (I don't count toxic chemicals as a choice for myself and they arn't very effective agains these bugs anyway) I've used neem oil with some small success but it really only helps against the nymphs and eggs. I've also used a hand vac to suck up the adults which was slightly effective but would need to be done often.

I've also had terrible problems with caterpillars eating up my cucumbers and the leaves as well as vine borers killing off huge sections of vines. Spraying with BT or dusting with dipel dust is pretty effective against the caterpillars that eat the leaves but it is hard to stop them once they are in the fruit or inside the vines.

Truth is I've had far better luck with this family of plants if I start them as early in the spring as possible. I've had much more trouble battling the pests during/after the wet season.

So my best guess from little info is perhaps potassium deficiency, maxicrop or other seaweed extract used as a foliar spray might help quickly?

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

This may be the wrong time of yr to be trying to grow melons. I am usually the one that will ignore things like season and climate etc, however, melons seem to only work in my yard during the INCREASE in temps and length of days as opposed to cooling down and shorter days.

Let us know if you figure out a way to override nature.

Nematodes are pretty small and not readily visible. If the roots of your plants are swollen looking and knotty, that's a pretty good indication. You probably wouldn't see it with the seedlings but you could have seen it on the tomato. One of the favored methods is covering the bed with clear plastic and letting it bake in the sun until nothing could be left alive.

If you don't get another answer, search the forum for nematodes and you should find several threads about getting rid of them.

I think melons are typically a summer crop although I see on the planting guide that they can be planted in August/September. Did you use a Fall-friendly variety?

Kate

It's too early to plant watermelons. The humidity will kill all the seedlings. Scroll down on this site, and it will tell you when to plant, and give you other really good information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Watermelon Production

I've heard one method for growing watermelons (I haven't tried it myself yet) is to plant the seed really deep during the coldest part of the year. That way once the seed breaks the surface it will be warming up and ready to go.

My neighbor seems to be able to grow them all year, but I've never had luck in the summer. Strange, as she's only three doors down from me. ?????