Is it bad to cut runners on watermelon vines?

[newsmyrnastead]

One of my watermelon vines is going crazy, 20-25 feet in either direction, and it's starting to use the little twist vines and get in my tomatoes and okra. Will it affect the plant if I gently pull them off of what they're attached to? Just to clarify, it's not the actual flowering part, just the spindly little vines that come out.

 

[bid]

The tendrils? The little parts it uses to climb anything it comes into contact with? I would just snip them off of whatever they have grabbed ahold of where you don't want the vine and just reposition your watermelon vine if you can. It won't hurt the watermelon vine and it will right itself after a day or so.

 

[vfem]

I concure!

 

[newsmyrnastead]

Thank you very much, it looks 10x better with some organization

 

[davaroo]

You may wish to consider cutting back the long growing vine sections somewhat. The more you let the branches grow, the less energy the plant will devote to the fruit.

Once the fruit does set and starts to gain size, those long tips will begin to suffer for nutrients, which are now devoted to the fruit. The plant weakens and disease can get hold.
You are looking for a happy balance between keeping enough foliage for energy, but not so much that it takes away from the fruit.
Thats ideal, of course. You could just do what I normally do and just plant a lot of melons!

The one thing I usually do is cut my vines to about 10 feet, and then loop them back around on themselves to keep them neat. Next year I will trellis, trellis, trellis.