Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Hortic on July 09, 2023, 17:50

Title: Watermelons fruit drop
Post by: Hortic on July 09, 2023, 17:50

Hi all. I have the watermelon 'Little Darling' in my greenhouse. The plant is happy and I and the bees successfully set three fruit. The fruit started to swell to the size of a large olive then shrivelled. I have a solar watering system and feed weekly with tomato fert so I'm not sure what's happened here. It did get very hot on Friday though I left the door open, as well as for the bees and hoverflies to access the flowers. Any ideas?

Title: Re: Watermelons fruit drop
Post by: Subversive_plot on July 09, 2023, 18:12

This might provide some answers:  https://thehotpepper.com/threads/why-are-my-watermelons-keep-falling-off-of-the-vine-when-they-are-still-small.40166/ (https://thehotpepper.com/threads/why-are-my-watermelons-keep-falling-off-of-the-vine-when-they-are-still-small.40166/)

Good luck!

Title: Re: Watermelons fruit drop
Post by: Hortic on July 28, 2023, 10:30

Thank you! I had a look through the posts and suspect the high daytime heat that the closed greenhouse was getting put too much stress on the plant. It's in a huge pot, on an automatic watering system with weekly tom feed and pollinated, so by process of elimination the heat is the problem. Next year I try a different placement.