A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Fruit Forum watermelon - black spot on end

I'm not feeling good about this black spot on the end of the melon.
I'm sure wanting to save it! the deer ate up all that I planted, and this is a volunteer that came up by the porch. what do you guys think? is it a goner?

yep, goner. cut it off now, and see if your plant will put out another one. feed that one to the birds, critters, compost.

I kinda thought that myself, but I'm not real experienced with growing them so I figured it was worth asking about. what causes that? irregular watering? I ask that cause it came up under my porch overhang and it gets no water for the longest but when it rains it gets soaked. I've had other baby melons form on that vine but something seems to be eating them when they are very small. one day I see a one inch melon and the next day it's gone.
do they self polinate? unless there are two vines in that tangle, I only have the one watermelon vine now.

yes, they can self pollinate. i don't know what it is caused by, but it reminds me of blossom end rot like tomatoes get. that's a lack of calcium in the soil.

I havent cut it off yet. hoping for some more opinions. before the black spot I noticed it grew lenghtwise every day. since the black spot it is still growing but growing fat. maybe it's growing in vain??? I also noticed it is still making blooms. so, if this one melon is a goner there would be more of a chance that another one could develope if I cut this one off.

yes, more will develop if the plant isn't busy supporting this one.

I also live in Texas and have had the same problem with black spots on my watermelons, in many cases MUCH worse than your picture indicates.
I have been trying to determine the cause for 4 or 5 years now.
I have been told "over watering", "Under watering", "The soil is to rich" "Not rich enough" I think I have heard it all.
I even tried bedding the melons on straw and plastic plates.
This year I planted my melon beds in the same place I did last year.
Note: Last years melon crop over 90% of my watermelons had these black spots.
This year I have ONE watermelon so far with a small black spot, I have changed NOTHING in my planting and watering methods except, I planted Cantaloupe melons closer to the watermelon beds this year than last.
I have learned after last years planting that most of the melons will continue to grow with the bad spots and that the bad spot can be cut out at harvest and the melon was still sweet ripe and tasty. However you may lose a good portion of the melon in some cases.
I also tried removing the bad melons as soon as I detected a black spot and yet every melon to produce after that STILL had the black spots.
You have nothing to loose by trying to harvest your melon, Watch to see how it grows, if it dry's up and dies you have your answer, it may continue to grow and you can harvest a good portion of the melon.
I too would love to hear what others have to say about this problem.
Best of luck to you, I hope you watermelon turns out sweet and tasty.

okay did some research this mornign and came up with this

from this page

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/southtex/info/Watermelon.html

I found this

Blossom-end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the fruit and occurs in plants subjected to drought stress. The initial symptoms are brown spots at the blossom end of the fruit which later enlarge, darken and become leathery. Decay may occur as a result of microbial activity. Cultivars can differ in their susceptibility to the problem. Watering operations that avoid drought stress can reduce or eliminate the problem. Excess nitrogen fertilizer may also contribute to blossom-end rot.

I found a black spot on one of my watermelons.Turns out that I gave excess nitrogen and I hadn't watered it in a while.

Cricket, how's your watermellon?