Transplant shock, too cold, too dry, not enough fertilizer. Any of those sound like possibilities? How warm is it? That's what determines how much they could potentially be growing. Unless the soil is above 60F and preferably 70F and ave air temperature the same, they won't grow much.

First off, let me start off by expressing a bit of outrage and jealousy about anyone who is fussing about watermelon fertilization on May 22.... I planted my "just-sprouted" watermeon seeds in the garden a day or two ago. That said, I looked up my garden records from last year for "Yellow Doll" watermelon, which yields watermelons about the same size as Sugar Baby... I noted on August 12 that the melons were ping-pong ball size so that's when I assumed pollination was successsful, then the first ripe melon was picked Sept. 16, or 5 weeks later.

I have been told many times that Mississippi is the poorest state in the entire country, but it amazes me what we get for our money in this state when I read about the silly things that northern gardeners do with a trellis. I may not have a lot of money, but I live in a warm state with enough sunshine and land to grow a watermelon on, and if I start early enough, I can grow any kind of watermelon that I want on my land because land is cheap in Mississippi. However, this is my first year to attempt to grow Sugar Babies. I selected that variety because I am planning to sell them at a roadside market and thought that people who have smaller families than they used to would want smaller watermelons. The little ones seem to do well at the grocery store. My first ripe looking watermelon has come in, and I want to know if it is indeed ripe. It has changed its color to dark green. I am told that Sugar Babies do that. It also has a bright yellow spot on the bottom. So far so good. It is soft ball sized, but I am not considering the size as important because I know watermelons better than that. However, the tendril has not changed. Should I consider this to be important? If you ever get tired of being cold, feel free to check us out. We are somewhat due south of Chicago, Ill, but it seems like it's on a different planet.

Hi! I'm not sure this is the right forum to post this, but I see some people have asked stuff on watermelons here before, if there is a better place to ask, do let me know. I have a Sugar Baby watermelon vine that is about 3 months old. The problems are: a) It's august; b) it's 15 cm long. It seemed to perk up a bit with recent rains, but people have told me it's too late to actually get some harvest. I live in NE Mexico, 6 hours below of Texas. Our winters are usually mild. Usually, they range from 14°F to 60°F. It may hail, but snow it's very, very rare, and only on high altitudes (where I'm not). To give you some context, last year I accidentally started a tomato vine too late. It held up until January and gave a single, undersized tomato, and it could've lived longer, but I just yanked it up to save it from it's misery, it definitely was not happy. My point is, it survived. Do you think mine could make it? Since it's so small, I could actually bring it inside, even? Would it produce by next summer if I put it on the ground in the spring? Thanks for your attention and advice!