Thank you! At the beginning of the season I have my soil tested for nutrient content and apply granular fertilizer per those recommendations. I grow them on drip irrigation and often run occasional fertilizer through the drip tape system using a brass hozon mixer. Sometimes I just mix it in a watering can and apply to the roots. I vary my fertilizer applications depending on the stage of the plant and how it is looking at the given moment. The amount of water/nutrients can vary drastically depending on soil type, climate, and current weather conditions. I'll feed things like Calcium nitrate, fish/seaweed/kelp fertilizer, and other fertilizers high in potassium

Right! Just at the tail end of it now, think we dodged a bullet here, “only” 6.5”. 4-5 days of wet overcast may be more the issue.

Thank you!

Great question. So I’ve grown some giants where they had white seeds, but most grown today have the brown/red ones. It’s believed the white trait is recessive. The world record melon had white seeds, but being recessive you won’t see it show up as often even in progeny

@@Giantgrower this is only my second year growing. I've been keeping seeds from my largest melons. They've all been white so far. Ive been doing traditional plants. I'm going to try grafting next year.

That's interesting on the white seeds. If you keep crossing the white seeded types together it should stabilize more. Good luck to you!@@tmac6593

Thanks 😉

Thanks Doc! Same to you. It’s a sand box out here. I have a couple other pumpkins in a different spot in my yard that has decent organic matter as a test. I’ll share more about those soon. Trying to figure out the best sites for the permanent pumpkin patch

Usually amazon, Johnnys seeds has some. You want to make sure that you get the larger ones made for watermelon. The ones for tomato are too small

Hi there, in general grafting is used commercially to provide disease or nematode resistance in the event that a grower has an investigation in their field. However, it is an expensive large scale, so growers use it as a tool to combat soil-borne diseases if and generally only if they are present. Grafting has also shown increased yields, however, the yield bump isn't always cost-effective at scale. In the giant watermelon growing community, grafting is more of a standard because of the added benefits and yield potential. It is more work to graft and acclimates the plants post-graft, however, when growing a giant we want to provide every additional advantage so that we can grow a record-breaker.

Watermelon to another watermelon, yes you can. There are incompatibilities however when you graft onto cantaloupe for example. Gourd and squash (pumpkin types) work well with watermelon

I used lagenaria siceraria 'Macis' as a bottle gourd. The scion is an elite form of Carolina Cross.

A lot of giant watermelon growers use a gourd rootstock called bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria. This species is quite variable and covers birdhouse gourds and bushel gourds. Some use bushel gourds and haven't noticed much difference. I recommend the gourds over squash because the gourd tends to be more disease resistant and a more vigorous root system

It could be if you are working with a much smaller scion and larger rootstock, but I haven't tried it. Also at this stage they are very soft and fleshy so you don't have the woody material as with cleft grafting in fruit trees. The vascular bundles aren't well developed either. Hole insertion method is also an effective method for vegetable grafting.

Sure, I did make one. Just need to upload it. Hopefully will add it soon!

No enzymes were used or needed for this

The challenge there is that the scion (watermelon) and rootstock need to have comparable stem diameters for success of the graft union. There is some wiggle room, but overall they need to be quite similar. The rootstock being larger may be more forgiving. Even if you could match a mature plant to a rootstock it becomes increasingly difficult to heal with more foliage and transpiration of the plant.

@@Giantgrower how about some sort of bud graft from a mature plant of choice