Richard:

If you think you can graft fast-growing, succulent vines, have a go, but to me this would be impossible.

I concur there is some transplant shock when planting indoor-started melon seedlings, but there may be other ways of dealing with the problem. My choice would be to lay down black plastic in early spring and in full sun, attracting heat to the soil, then direct-seeding the melons in the center of it as soon as weather conditions permit. The problem with melon seed germination is soil temperature, and the plastic helps to raise it substantially.

If very cold night-time temperatures occur subsequent to germination, you can protect the plants with cloches or overturned buckets until the weather emergency is past. By direct seeding on plastic, you should be able to grow at least 80-90 day melons even in Victoria.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

The Japanese do a lot of watermelon grafting onto gourd roots to alliviate root diseases. I don't know if that would help in getting earlier melons.

Hmm... I thought I posted another message two days ago but I don't see it.

To make it short,

Fusarium wilt killed off a lot of watermelon plants (the main reason I want to graft) and the black plastic helped with germination but the cool weather + rain killed others.

Would I use regular watermelon spacing for grafted plants or do I have to space according to the rootstock? I usually plant watermelon closer than I do pumpkin because the small watermelon varieties don't grow much.

Thanks for the replies!

I'm not far from you, but in the mountains with a shortened growing season. There truely are varieties that will produce, have done well here.
I don't have names handy, but there was honeydew, watermelon, cantaloupe etc- all have smaller fruit- softball sized and bigger, but taste exceptional.
Check out west coast seeds (.com?)

Thanks. I just went to that site and there's one red variety that is resistant to fusarium wilt. I'll have a look at local stores and see if the seeds are available.

Currently, I have two healthy watermelon plants but there's no way I'm going to get anything this year. The longest plant is four inches. Living 2 minutes away from the beach doesn't help.