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How to Keep Bugs Off Watermelons Avoid planting the watermelons too early in the season when the soil is cold. Use floating row covers to keep the soil warm and to protect the plants from green peach aphids (Myzus persicae), a common watermelon pest. Prevent additional watermelon stresses, such as infertile, dry soil.
How do you protect watermelons from rodents?
Step by step: How to keep rodents off your melons with melon cages Get hardware cloth. Cut square-sized pieces of hardware cloth large enough to complete encircle your mature melons. Secure a cylindrical shape with metal string. Create your wire end folds. Close one end of your melon cage. Cage your melon.
How can we protect melons from pests?
Spray melon vines with a strong jet of water from your hose. This action is often enough to kill the majority of melon aphids, as well as small pests such as thrips and mites, that feed on the melon stems and foliage.
What plants keep bugs away from watermelon?
Flowers: Watermelons rely on insects like bees to help it produce fruit—that’s why flowering plants with appealing scents like marigolds, lavender, and borage make good companions for watermelon plants. These flowers also repel aphids, which can be particularly destructive to watermelon leaves and tendrils.
What is eating my watermelon?
Animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, deer and woodchucks enjoy puncturing and eating melon crops. Coyotes and domesticated dogs also enjoy biting into sweet melons. Raccoons and birds make holes in the tops of melons and scoop or suck juices from the fruit’s inside.
How do you keep squirrels away from watermelons?
You can prevent tree squirrels from damaging watermelons by covering them with freestanding, cage-like covers made of chicken wire. However, as with a fence, bend the bottom edge outward and bury the base of the cages in the soil to prevent them from digging beneath.
What animals will eat watermelon plants?
What Wild Animals Eat Watermelons in a Garden? Coyotes. Coyotes are notoriously good hunters, says the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, but they also love a good watermelon – and they’re sneaky. Raccoons and Deer. Birds. Deterrence.
When Should I spray my watermelon?
Start spraying when vines start to run, no later than when the first (male) flowers open. From vine run until mid-May, spray every ten days. After mid-May, spray every week through harvest regardless of the weather. Downy or powdery mildew can attack any time a crop goes more than a week without a fungicide.
What is eating holes in my watermelon leaves?
Spider Mites – They’re not technically bugs, but spider mites are frequent garden visitors. These almost invisible arachnids use piercing mouthparts to suck the juices right out of watermelon leaves, causing tiny yellow dots to appear all over affected leaf surfaces.
How do I protect my watermelon plants?
Keep ripening watermelon from direct contact with soil to prevent rot and protect fruit from pests and rodents. When fruit is about the size of a softball, place it on a bed of straw or cardboard. Setting fruit on a light-reflecting surface, such as aluminum foil, will concentrate heat and speed up ripening.
How do I protect my watermelon seedlings?
Give watermelon vines plenty of room to roam, which usually means spacing plants 3 to 5 feet apart. After planting, cover seedlings with floating row covers to keep out insects and trap warm air near plants.
Do rats eat watermelon?
For starters, rats love watermelon. But considering that rats eat just about everything, the simple fact that they’ll eat it doesn’t mean much. But watermelon is actually a good choice for rats. For starters, it’s a low-calorie option with vitamins A and C and plenty of potassium.
Will squirrels eat melons?
Squirrels also love bananas, watermelons, cantaloupe (any melon, in general), and cherries! The benefit of eating fruit for squirrels is that it gives them a major sugar-boost and provides lots of energy to keep scrambling around and foraging for more goodies.
Do possums eat watermelon?
Opossums may not be the animal you immediately think of when you picture a “cute” animal. This group of five sibling opossums is thoroughly enjoying their bowl of delicious watermelon. If everyone liked fruit this much, we would be a much healthier world!Dec 24, 2014.
What do you put under watermelon?
In order to grow great watermelons, you’ll need to put a barrier between the watermelons and the ground. This is to reduce the risk of rot and disease. Good ground barriers are straw, or even cardboard.
Can you spray neem oil on watermelon?
Neem oil is an excellent treatment, but increasing air circulation around your watermelon plant by pruning can be equally effective.
Can watermelon get bugs inside?
Insects Common insect pests in watermelon are: Seed Corn Maggot, Cucumber Beetle, Cutworms, Pickleworm, Melonworm, Green Peach Aphid, Melon aphid, Leafminers, Rindworms, Cabbage Looper, Mites, and Thrips.
Does watermelon have a lot of pesticides?
Watermelon has some of the least amount of pesticides when compared to other fruits. They also contain a surprising health benefit; consuming watermelon may help relieve muscle soreness.
How do you treat fusarium wilt in watermelon?
Watermelon fusarium wilt is difficult to manage and, currently, there are no effective fungicides for watermelon fusarium. Treatment involves careful prevention, sanitation, and maintenance, including the following: Plant disease-free seeds or transplants. Look for fusarium-resistant tomato varieties.
How do you increase watermelon fruit size?
To maximize the size of the melons, water the plants at the base in regular, deep-watering sessions that keep the soil moist. Side dress the watermelon plants with fertilizer designed for edible crops or compost tea to feed the plants. The fertilizer encourages growth to get larger melons.
How do I make my watermelon sweeter when growing?
8 Tips for Growing The Sweetest Melons Start with the Sweetest Varieties. Sow Seeds Early. Find Your Warmest Microclimate. Accentuate the Sun’s Rays. Don’t Crowd Your Melons. Sweetness Starts in the Soil. Water Heavily – But not During Ripening. Pick at the Pinnacle of Ripeness.
