Melon Garden for 08

Great Melon patch!!!!!!. I love it!!!!!

BocaBob

My son and DIL aren't to thrilled with me taking up a large section of the garden but they are sure there when it's melon time! LOL

WOW!! Very nice pictures and growth.

I do have a question. Can I plant different plants per EB or the same kind of plants? For example, can I plant green beans and cucumber together? I'm asking this because I only have three EB's and am just wondering if this is a good idea?

I will be working today (if weather permits) to get my garden going.

Yes you can as long as the plants are compatible. For example you would not plant strawberries with tomatos or potatoes. Actually though, I would not because if you have a failure you may not know why? Your choice! I started out with three EBs just growing tomatos and now I have twenty-two....

Here is one of my 2 surviving watermelons. Three stopped growing(after looking real nice), got real soft and died.

BocaBob

Here's the other good one. I'm going to plant more (direct seed, this time) and try a cantaloupe too.

Bob -- Support the melon that is hanging on the fence as it will probably get to heavy and snap. Tie it up with some cheese cloth or old nylon panty hose. It works very well. Don't understand why you lost your melons? They were doing so well? One thing that I do know is toward the maturity stage cut back on the watering to allow them to sweeten up. Otherwise they will be bland.
Farmerdill knows more about this than I do. Hope he picks up on this thread....

My two watermelons are dead. why?????

BocaBob

Bob -- I don't know? I have never had that type or any type of a problem! Farmerdill would know. E-mail him and ask him to post the answer on this thread as I would also like to know...

Looks like the watermelons are aborting. Causes are incomplete pollination or a severe stress. Usually they just did not get complete pollination. Most vegetables in this group including squash, pumpkins cucumbers, cantaloupes, honeydews etc will do this, If pollinating insects are not present in sufficient numbers or the weather conditions are not conducive to pollination

You hit it right on the head. Thanks. There are no bees around here and I tried to hand pollinate them. It seemed to work at first, but I guess it didn't. I so desperately want to grow melons. Any suggestions?

Thanks again Farmerdill,

Bocabob

There are lots of insects other than honeybees that are good pollinators, Bumble bee and carpenter bees are among the best, The native squash bees, and Mason bees are also good. Of course if you are insect free, the only advice that I can give is to do multiple passes when you hand pollinate. You obviously got some pollination or the melons would have aborted when the blossom died. Each seed in a watermelon has to be pollinated. With incomplete pollination, seeds may form in the stem end, but the not pollinated seeds in the blossom end never develop. If there are too many of them that end never develops. Sometimes the melon will ripen, but the blossom end is deformed with many undeveloped seeds and will be tasteless. This is true of all cucurbits as far as I know.

Whoaa! I have thirty melon plants and to hand pollinate them that would be quite a choir for me. However I do occasionally see some bees flying around so I hope they do pollinate my flowers! SCARY ABOUT THE BEE SHORTAGE....

I have noticed a lot of ants on my melon blossoms especially in the early going. Perhaps they do some pollination too. Bottle necking is a sure sign of incomplete or imperfect pollination. Blossom end rot may be due to nutrient uptake factors.

My melons are growing very nicely and today I noticed bees flying around and pollinating my blooms. That makes me feel a little relaxed as my buddy Bocacob had a severe lack of bees and his crop aborted from lack of pollination. That is really sad after waiting so long for a fresh ripe melon. I purchased a birdbath and keep it full of fresh water in case the birds and the bees get thirsty. LOL

Still can't figure out why the melons on the right have outgrown their fellow melons as they were all started from seed in their own EBs at the sme day? They recieve the same amount of sunlite, the same amount of water, the same fertilizer? Weird to say the least!

This is a tough one & you may never really find the answer.
Is your car shading the plants on the left side?
Are the eboxes spaced the same distance between each other?
Did the seeds come from the same grower?
The seed can come from the same company but there is no way to know who or how or where the seeds were grown, a company can buy from many different growers.
Is your soil mixture mixed the same?
Wonder if this will effect the taste of the fruit?
Sorry I'm not much help am I?
Some of these great gardeners here may have an answer for you.

Different varieties?

different varieties?

Hi Ya'll.
The car was just there temporarily but my DIL's car is parked there at times so "you may have hit it right on the head" and answered my question!

Soil mix all the same and all growing in EBs and "Jungle Growth Container Mix."

The seeds were all from the same supplier except for "Sugar Bush Baby" from Burpee. All plants are now doing well and are heavy bearers at this time. Although I am developing POWDERY MILDEW on two plants that I noticed this evening but it was far to windy today to spray. Darn it! By morning I'll probably have four plants down with mildew. I have Ortho Garden Disease Control and also BT powder.

Do you know which would be a best bet at this time?

*****Thank You Very Much For Your Concerns*****

The mildew is spreading in the one EB and I just can not spray my EBs with BT because of the high winds as I don't want it to blow over to my neighbors garden. Never had to be concerned about neighbors before but since they moved our mobile home for school construction they put us close to the street and the boundary fence so I must be careful.

The wind has kept me from spraying as well, hard to water too

Bt is useless for fungi such as mildew, Use a fungicide ,or look up one of the baking soda recipes for mildew. Copper based fungicides also work pretty well.

Again, Thanks Farmer! I will do ASAP... I intend to do my future reports in the Vegetable or Container Garden forum as I never realized the melons were classified as a vegetable??

This message was edited Apr 25, 2008 11:27 AM

Melons...fruit or vegetable? Well some veggies produce "fruits" but are grown as annual crops. To me fruits are perennial and mostly woody.

Yes, I was surprised also Indy until Farmerdill advised me otherwise. If you notice most seed dealers list them in their vegetable section? By the way I was able to spray the copper fungicide today as per Farmerdills instruction and I'm glad he interceded as I was going to spray them with the wrong formula. In spite of the wind I accomplished the job. I'll give them another treatment in seven to ten days. Tomorrow or Sunday a treatment of Spray n Grow fertilizer.

I have a nice amount of melons this year and it won't be to long now. My Golden Midgets are coming along and it looks like a couple are starting to change color. The seed pack states that when they are a golden color they are ripe. They are icebox size. Strange thing I noticed on them and on my Golden Casaba! The older leaves at the beginning of the vine are turning a very bright yellow? Never grown them before but all my other melons are very healthy and all have the same fertilizer etc. Hope that is normal for the species? I'll take pictures tomorrow but will post in Veggie forum so do follow? OK??

It is normal for the watermelon at least. have not grown the Golden Casaba. All the pumpkin rind type watermelons that I have grown, the yellow extends to the vine.

Thanks again!

Nice going Tplant. May you have a great harvest. May hail and disease not come near our doors.!

I have melons now too...no EBs. Almost all came up in 2½ - 4 days.
In watermelons I got several Raspa, Sangria, SF420, and a couple of several more. In cantaloupes I have several crenshaws, Halonas, Sugar Queens, and a few others. I grow mine in 3 and 4 inch plastic pots for transplant.