Plant watermelon after a cover crop of hairy vetch.Grow a trap crop of ‘Blue Hubbard’ squash to lure pests like squash bugs and cucumber beetles away from watermelon vines.Interplant with radish, tansy, and nasturtium to discourage cucumber beetles from feeding on watermelons.Plant buckwheat, cowpeas, or sweet clover to attract predators of watermelon pests.Sow cowpeas 3 or 4 weeks before planting watermelon so that both crops will be blooming at the same time. Grow cowpea to attract pollinators and predators of pests and to increase yields.
Cultivate flowering plants - including members of the aster family, like sunflowers, cosmos, coneflowers, and coreopsis, and herbs in the mint family, such as mint, oregano, thyme, and rosemary - to attract sweat bees and other pollinators. Simply pick off these pesky pests and drop them in soapy water. Mobile insects, like squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and their eggs should be removed from the trap crop to prevent them from spreading to the desired plants. The goal with trap cropping is to lure pests away from the main crop. Trap crops, on the other hand, are more appealing to pests than watermelon. Traditionally it was believed that insects disliked the aroma of repellent plants however, new research suggests that “repellent” plants may actually work by camouflaging the fragrance of the desired crop, making it harder for pests to find watermelon growing in your garden. Repellent plants discourage pests from feeding on crops by producing fragrant chemical compounds. In addition to supporting predators, cover crops also feed beneficial organisms in the soil, build soil organic matter, and improve nutrient availability for the crop. Cover crops can serve as banker plants - especially in a no-till garden where the cover crop residue is left on the soil surface as a mulch. Banker plants provide food and shelter for predators of garden pests. Although both types of blooms produce pale, yellow petals, a female flower will have an ovary just behind the petals that looks like a tiny watermelon. The male flowers usually appear before the female flowers, and there are typically many more male than female flowers. Watermelon plants develop separate male and female flowers. 
Attracting pollinators is especially important for watermelon and its cucurbit relatives, as they depend on visits from pollinators to produce fruit. Energy-rich pollen and nectar from flowering insectary plants attract beneficial pollinators and predators of pests to the garden.
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