A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Fruit Forum Watermelon and Cantaloupe Seeds won't Sprout

I sowed them in my garden and they never sprouted. I kept the soil moist.The soil is claylike.Is it the soil?I heard melon seeds sprout best in sandy soil.They grow well further north of me where there's sandy soil.

I wouldn't think it was the soil. I've had so many watermelon and cataloupe come up from burn piles, edge of the woods, ect. (and now have some mystery 'squash fam' vine coming up all around our porch.)
How long since you planted, EM?

a month

it does take almost a month for them to come up.
you got anything yet?
did you watch how deep you planted them?
any heavy rains before they sprouted?

I have four cantaloupe plants as of now that I started from seed back in May to early June. They took about two weeks to come up and I found that two of the six seeds I planted rotted. I also started them in pots with store bought soil. The reason I started them in pots was so I could control the amount of water the seeds get by keeping them out of the rain. Also, make sure that soil isn't wet, just moist, and don't over water it.

I gave up on cantaloupe this year.They wouldn't sprout and the few that did were eaten up by bugs.

I planted some watermelon seeds and they sprouted.They are now growing tiny melons.

Some of the watermelon seeds sprouted and this is the result:

The melon growing is about half of it's final size.The packet said the watermelons are supposed to grow to 24 inches length,12 inches width. Right now it's 12 inches length, 6 inches width.I'm so happy the seeds sprouted!

Cool.