In southeastern Missouri, only 30 miles west of the Mississippi river, for years my dad grew 20 acre sized fields of both watermellons and cantalope. He always had success with good crop yield. And each summer sold truck loads of his harvest. The area he grew these in, at the time was often referred to as "the watermellon capitol of the world." What made the site there so good for growing watermellons? It had a lot to do with the well draining, high percentage of sand type loam soil in the region. Summers always seemed hot, but in fact the hottest I remember it ever getting there was in the mid 80 degree F. range. Today the area probably sees higher summer temps. The neighboring soybean farmers used big watering spray arms to assure them of a good harvest, but in my dad's fields the watermellons grew and produced well from only receiving natural rainfall. Never did I see my dad have to do supplimental watering in any of his fields. The only reason, I took the time to describe all that is to confirm the other advice given by others, about watermellons needing very good drainage. In fact, I forgot to mention that even in the well draining sandy soil my dad had, he still always made elevated rows inwhich he planted his watermellon seeds. If I remember right, the planting rows were mounded up about 7-8 inches higher than the pathway between each row. The significance of this last bit of information, is to reveal how not only was his mellons planted in very good draining soil, but that his watermellon vines were high enough that at no time did the young unripe mellons every encounter sitting in surface wet, sandy loam soil or in puddles of wet soil. So it is easy to understand that his plants growing at the top of their elevated planting rows would dry more quickly than level soil fields; still, he never provided supplimental water, and I never saw his crops die, even though they had to depend on whatever rain happened to fall in both the Spring and following Summer. If I remember right, harvest time happen over a period of 4-6 weeks and the fields were usually mostly bare by the end of the first week in August. I do not know if that was from all one planting, or if the length of harvest resulted from staggered planting times between each field.

I'm curious as to what a wild watermelon patch is. Never seen one around here. Also I'm wondering what variety or varieties you are raising. Some varieties would be more suitable than others due to climate, soil, and warmth. I hear that watermelons love sandy soil. I have never raised them in deep sand...4 feet say. I have raised them in nearly ½ sand down to one foot deep and they like that fairly well. I have never seen a vertical tap root of large diameter...only horizonal "tap' roots about 4 inches down.

A very simplistic explanation of Blossom End Rot in many fruits is "inconsistant watering" and that is one of the many causes of BER. The root cause is lack of sufficient Calcium early in he development of the fruit which does not show up until the fruit is almost ripe with that brown, rotting blossom end. Calcium moves through a plants vascular system very slowly so not enough moisture could keep that Ca from being in the nutrients delivered to the developing fruit, or maybe there is not enough Ca in the soil, or maybe there was too much water in the soil which can also slow down the delivery of the Ca, or there was a sudden growth spurt and the Ca did not move to the developing fruit quickly enough. To prevent BER in the future, there is nothing to be done now, have a soil test done to see what the levels of Ca in the soil are and if they are balanced with Magnesium (you need both for proper utilization of each), be sure there is ample organic matter in the soil, which can help maintain an even level of soil moisture, and properly mulch which will also help maintain soil moisture levels.

What is bedding? I have worm bin going that I started in February. I just had two watermelons and ground the rind using a high speed blender and added that to the worm bin a week ago. My bin is holding a lot more water now I think due to the watermelon...I hope I am not drowning my worms; there are a lot alive, but the bottom of the bin is starting to feel muddy. Also I always see these articles about having to have a purchased starter vermicompost pile. All I did was dig some dirt in the backyard and add some leaves and veggie/fruit waste. Seems to be working though. Is my worm bin going to have less nutrients/microbes/etc then those types of worm bins? I don't know where I heard this but I heard that leaves(aka brown compost ingredients) are not needed for vermicompost and that using only veggies and fruits is fine. Any helpful vermicompost hints and arguments to my post?. Oh yeah I also added a bunch of wet coffee grounds too so the moisture is getting very high in the bin.