What Causes Melons to Split?

Went to harvest the last of the watermelon and it had split up one side. What causes this?

Over Watering, Bumping, Handling Them Rough, Too Much Time In Between Watering and waiting too much time in between picking. Meaning leaving it on the vine to long. These are just some of the possibilities. I hope this helps. P.

This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 8:22 PM

This message was edited Jul 21, 2009 8:23 PM

Steph,
That was a mouthful but, yeah, what Perfidia said!

I was gonna offer that my beautiful 10 lb. Bonnie cabbage split due to overwatering (rains), and waiting too much time to pick it. Got it picked the morning after it split, so it was saved. IT WAS DELICIOUS, TOO!

Linda

P.S. Ya'll getting any rain up there? We've had overcast the last two days, and had a good downpour Saturday. Waiting for the humidity to clear, and the sun to come out so the maters can get back to doing their thing. Although, this overcast is giving them a break from the scorching heat and they're actually beefing up during this respite.

My CHER PURPLE has blooms! I haven't had a ripe Cher since the Spring '08 season, and I am drooling at the prospect!

(P, Sorry for the side comments)

Thanks! I figured it had something to do with watering since it's been so hard to keep everything properly moist with the horrid temps we were having. DH made the decision to throw it on the compost pile since it was past salvageable. However, we got 2 very tasty melons off that were on the same vine. We have one more baby one we're nursing along now.

Linda~We've gotten about 1/4" of rain the past 3 days. The best part has been that the rain has also brought cooler temps!! Our late planted heirloom tomatoes have been blooming, but not setting fruit due to the temps, so hopefully when the cooler fall temps roll around, we'll get some fruit!

Found a tomato hornworm on my bell peppers this morning. The little dude was only about an inch long, but I terminated his life quickly! LOL Gotta spray the Bt again! I was really hoping those little boogers would fry in the heat, but alas they did not!

Thanks, Steph, for reminding me I need to start spraying. Last season I didn't spray anything, anytime, and my tomato crop was horrible! Won't do that again!

I'm gonna start spraying the Ortho Garden Disease Control and the Bug B Gone for any of the late season buggies that I'm finding. I've pulled of two little black worms that squish green goop. I think they're army worms? Pulled one small hornworm, too.

I'm also seeing spider mites. Hopefully, those two sprays will keep these guys in check. Or is the Bt better? LMK, since I'm not skilled in determining which sprays and when.

Linda

I spray Bt for the wormies and a mixture of Garrett Juice and liquid seaweed for the spider mites. You can also spray compost tea and seaweed for the spider mites. I've even used liquid fish emulsion and water to spray for spider mites. I just spray every 3 days for about 9 days or so and they're gone.

I have some Alaska Fish stuff. I'll try that. I've used Lemon Ajax, too, and that seemed to work.