Hello, Few years back, I planted some watermelons from seeds from Home-Depot. The watermelons that grew were only at best a small grapefruit sized ones. I did not give any fertilizer but only watered them daily. How can I get some bigger ones next year? Thanks.
try a variety that is genetically likely to be large in the first place, otherwise try some of the gigantic fruit and veggie competitions, there may be hints to be had. I would say ample water and sufficient fertilizer would be a good start of course. Beyond that look in to vitamin B-1, products contatining cytokinin, gibberelic acid and other growth hormones.
also if there where allot of fruit on the plant they will be smaller to get the really large watermelons or pumkins i have read that most thin the fruit on vines to only a few fruit and sometimes down to one. the theory on any fruiting plant is that the vine bush or tree will handle a certain amount of fruit meaing it can make so many pounds of fruit per crop the more fruits the smaller they will be and visa versa the less fruits the larger they will be. the only thing i do this to is the neibors loquate tree hangs over onto my property and i have free reign on them when it flowers i cut all but 4 or 5 fruit off the blooms spike so the fruits are always bigger than the ones left untrimmed that have 10 to 15 fruit on them.the best luck i have ever had with watermelons was when i was younger i planted some seeds near a septic tank they grew really good and where good sized i never ate them because they where by the septic tank i was just playing when i planted the seeds. now i usually plant to late for my area. i would say plant to the almanac when i do that for my area they usually work better. the package planting times are usually for more northern areas of the country way to late here in my area of fla. and also like jimmy said get the ones that are genetically set to be larger.
You must have had a small variety like Sugar Baby, but watermelons need a lot of fertilizer and should not need watering daily--that may have affected root growth. Skeet
