This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Melon update-can we compare notes?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I haven't had a problem with melon seeds
sprouting. Usually mine sprout within a week. I
sometimes use the pre-sprouting method if the
seeds are old:

Place seeds about an inch apart on a damp paper
towel, fold up the paper towel, place in a plastic
bag, and put bag on top of water heater. Check for
sprouting every day. When sprouted, tear off piece
of paper towel with sprouted seed and
plant paper and all. Don't try to pull seed off
paper towel as you will damage it. Using this
method, the seeds often sprout in 3-4 days.

I planted some Savor cantelopes and had the same
situation with miles of vines, male flowers and
seemingly no females. Eventually it started
producing the females and I ended up with 5 small
melons before powdery mildew ravaged the plant.
This was my first time to trellis melons and it
worked great. In fact I can't imagine where I
would have grown those huge vines if I hadn't
trellised them.  I had some on a nylon trellis and
some others on bamboo tepees. I have to tie the
vines to the tepees but they look great that way
and the melons hang to the inside. The vines don't
need to be tied to the nylon trellis. I didn't
support the melons but they were small ones.

Do you have bees around your plant? If not, you
may need to hand pollinate.

This bit of good info was just posted on another
list:

"In general with cucurbits the main stem produces
principally male flowers, while females grow on
side shoots, so pinching the main shoot to
encourage branching will often encourage female
flower production."

I'm definitely going to prune my fall melons.

Ruth


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
MSN Messenger Service lets you stay in touch instantly with
your family & friends - Visit http://messenger.msn.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index