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Re: baby watermelons

>
>Since the watermelons are going to take up such a big space, I was thinking
> I'd go with just one plant this year.   My co-gardener is very pro-melon
>and thinks that this will be a pathetic amount of melons.  Personally, I
>want to start everything small anyway to avoid getting overwhelmed, but
>just to appease her -- We're growing 16 snap pea plants (in 2 sqft) on a
>trellis, and  I was considering doing a second melon plant in the pea
>squares once they are harvested.   I know that melons like a really long
>growing season, but Yellow Doll are pretty early (approx. 75 days according
>to the Fedco catalog), and I couldn't put them in the garden till the soil
>had warmed up anyway....  Any thoughts on this scheme?
>


I've trellised my melons up the past two years as Mel describes in his book.
Two years ago, when I first tried melons, we had a pitiful year for trying
to grow them, too cold and cloudy.  Last year, I started the seeds indoors
in peat pots three weeks before putting them out, and got several wonderful
melons, despite a dry summer.  Trellised, they take up very little room.  If
you are looking to start growing melons, Yellow Doll is a great way to go.
Not only is it a short season variety, but it is very flavorful (though a
bit too many seeds). Even then it will need some helpand pampering, I
usually start by covering the squares I will use for melons in early april
with clear plastic mulch, though this next year I will try IRT mulch.  I
then mix in some of the warm compost from the base of my compost pile and
use walls-o-water starting early May to further warm the soil.  Frost free
on my hill is around May 28th, but last year the melons I transplanted into
the walls-o-water did well, surviving two frosts and giving me yellow dolls
and earliqueen muskmelons by the third week of August.


Cliff Parker
Longview Farm
Holden, ME
zone 4

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