Here are some before & after pics of my watermelon patch. I now have 5 little melons growing. One of them is about 7 inches long and developed a split on the top. Does anyone know what would cause this?

Before:


Now:

I had black plastic under the vines, but some critter kept tearing it up so i had to remove it.

Split:


There are so many deer beds surrounding my melon patch, it looks like a Motel 6 for deer. All of the matted down area to the left of the path is from bedded deer.I sure hope that they leave my melons alone.

found this on a watermelon site

Splitting

Splitting is caused by an erratic watering pattern, particularly the excessive accumulation of water. The inside of the fruit is under great pressure and the fruit splits open when lightly tapped. This condition is weather related and there probably is a cultivar interaction as well.

It's been dry around here for a long time and we recently had a little rain. Not a soaking rain though. Is this melon a lost cause? It's my biggest one.

Tomatoes are notorious for that.
I think that the ability of these fruits to suck up water and literally swell is pretty amazing.

Around here, it didn't rain for about three weeks.
Then last week we had some thunderstorms roll through with a couple of good rains.
Many of my toms of several varieties started cracking.

Its a lost cause unless it is ripe and ready to eat now.

Splits like that are caused by uneven watering.

That melon is done..eat it right away if its still good or toss it.  I'm about to go pick all the maters I can since we have had dry weather for 2 months and in the last 5 days we have had 7 inches of rain


Just got back from my garden...TON of tomatoes starting to split from the sudden 7 inches of rain