I have to my amazement found a rather large and very fruited wild watermellon
growing in my yard. It seems to be doing ok but I have a few problems. One, it has creeped over several neighboring
plants and a small
tree and none of the vines are on the ground. Can I tress the fruits up succesfully or would I be better off cutting out the
plants they are wrapped around and laying them on the ground. I don;t care about loosing the other
plants as they where coming out anyway. Two, it seems to have a rather bad pest problem. Eerything from snails to some sort of small black bug and another that looks like a large mosquito. The good thing is it also is infested with lots and lots of ladybugs. Should I try some sort of pesticide either chemical or homemade or do I just leave it and let the ladybugs take care of it? Three, as I live on a military base and most of my yard is on a hill, I have only a small portion of yard that is in my direct control. The rest of the yard that is hill is mown by Japanese gardeners that just cut everything in their way down. That being said can I succesfully keep it trimmed to within the bounderies I can control without hindering it's fruit production? I am hoping it turns out well. I actualy planted a smaller variety watermellon in a large pot and have that under control to be trellised when the time comes. Does anyone have any advice on this? HELP!
Thanks!
