"Pinheaded" watermelon?

[GoDawgs]

Last year I grew one hill of Georgia Rattlesnake watermelon and got some pretty decent sized watermelons. However after the first one which was perfectly shaped, the ends of subsequent melons started getting more and more narrow. I called them pinheaded! The fat end tasted just fine while the narrow end looked rather undeveloped.



I can't find much information about this condition except one vague reference to a possible pollination problem but there were flowers growing nearby so there had to be pollinators around.

Anybody have any experience with this?

[clkeiper]

Probably poor pollination. thats all. grow beneficial insect cover plants to draw them near the garden. (Honey bees are great but not everyone has bees enough to cover the crop and the crop needs to be large enough to draw bees to the garden. they want to work the same nectar source all day long). this needs to be a plot near your garden and left undisturbed. you need to treat it like a perennial. grow many annual and perennial plants that flower with small flowers. umbillifers such as queen annes lace, dill, parsley, yarrow, alyssum, etc, small flowered plants are the preference of most of them.

[Nan_PA_6b]

They may have not been the right pollinators last year.

Nan

[GoDawgs]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will add more flowers. It's a separate area away from the main garden and I'll put some dwarf marigolds there. They attract all kinds of pollinators in the main garden.