Any tips on stopping melons splitting before ripe, and how to protect from foxes/wild dogs?
I’ve been using carefully made baskets with short legs to not crush the vines, weighted with a concrete block on top. A bit tedious. It had been working until the last couple of years. Somehow they found a way to chew holes in the Mellon. Maybe slip their nose under the 2 or 3 inch gap. It’s a magic move.
How about scare machines?
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Motion-sensor sprinklers work pretty well for cats, I assume they’d also work well for most other things. Their field of view is less than advertised in my experience, so you may want to set up two of them “looking at” your patch from different angles. This is the one I’ve had for a couple years now, it holds up well and I’ve only had to change the batteries once:
But it does have blind spots.
Looks pretty slick. Unfortunately there’s no water power at the location.
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how late is too late to start? I’ve got only two going well, I may have to buy starts this year. our first frost is early October, late September
You have 5 months. Short season varieties will still grow. I’d get them in the ground this week if as all possible.
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seeds are probably too late- I’ll have to pick up starts. not sure how I’d seed into the cardboard under straw bed anyway. thanks
I put watermelons and cantaloupes (plants!) in the ground this afternoon. There are 10 hills of Ledmon and 7 hills of Romanian Cantaloupe.
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I’ve seen claims that you can cover ripening watermelons (the melon, not the vines) - with a swatch of fabric, and that will deter coyotes. IDK if that is true, but a couple of years back, 'yotes were raiding my cousin’s watermelon patch, and he had an old trampoline mat or some landscape/geotextile fabric, and cut squares large enough to cover individual melons … it seemed to stop the pilfering, but he tried it only on a few melons, so might not work in real life.
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I’m skeptical about landscape fabric working, but I’ll give it a try.
`What is the purpose of the fencing?
To keep the vines from blowing around in the wind. When grown on the fabric there’s nothing for the tendrils to hang onto. The fencing solves that issue. But it needs to be just off the ground. Too low and the vines can’t grab ahold. Too high and melons get caught underneath.
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Does melon germination time or plant vigor follow any general trends like tomatoes? Like cherry tomatoes, with fewer days to maturity, will usually germinate slightly faster and size up more quickly than larger fruited plants?
What about a radio playing? I’ve heard people say that it deters predators from their hen house, and claim it is efficacious. Seems simple enough, and probably somewhat effective at least for a limited time.
Maybe tailor the channel to maximize effect? Like say obnoxious clear channel commercial radio morning show jerks? Their cackles send me running. Smarmy NPR commentary? Might lull the coyotes to sleep before the can eat your melons…
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About 10 days since sowing, and most of the melon starts are on to their second set of true leaves. I tried pulling the seedcoat off of the cotelydons on some of the late sprouters, and I caused some damage to a couple. The ones that had their seed coats removed immediately are a little shorter than the ones that shed the seedcoat naturally (or with minimal assistance). They definitely stretched too, though, despite the seedleaves unfurling near the soil line.
My plan is to use the lights to push the starts along. I’ve been ramping up the light level- at 60% currently- and keeping them on about 18 hrs a day. I’ll split them soon and pot them into 4” in pure compost so they get big enough that slugs can’t immediately clip the stem off!
I had them out in sunlight today for 3 hrs or so. I like to use the lower angle morning and late afternoon sun to advantage when it comes time to harden them off. No signs of scorching, so it seems these LED grow lights have enough output of the correct light to minimize hardening concerns.
I’d try moving them like 6 inches closer to the lights. They’re looking kind of leggy to me.
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Thanks for the suggestion. The nice thing about these lights is that they are dimmable, and at 100% intensity are ostensibly equivalent to a 1000w high pressure sodium. Following inverse square concept for effective coverage, it should provide about 4 sq ft of coverage at about 2’ above the canopy, or thereabouts. I’m running them at 60% and about 7” above the leaves of these starts. I’ve found these lights can scorch seedlings, too, so I’ve been a l little careful about ramping them up steadily. It’s my first year using them. And I’m giving them some sunlight now, too. And though it’s sunny today, it’s also cool (60 degrees currently, 40 last night, 37 tonight) and windy. In short, Not ideal for pushing these babies along. I’ve direct sown here, and that’s worked too. But some well established starts really up the chance of success here IME between weather, slugs, and being spread thin time wise to tend to ever tender thing.
I started these birdhouse gourds maybe 10 days before the melons, so if they’re any indication of how the melons will do, I think I’ll be ok.
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Are the small orange watermelons harder to grow than the small red ones? In years past, I’ve tried a dark skin melon and a yellow flesh melon. They were both weaker and produce less fruit than my normal small red ones.
As a generalization, “ice box” watermelons are bred to be less vigorous with smaller vines and less fruitful with fewer total fruits produced. That said, I’ve grown a few small watermelons that are good flavored and reasonably productive. I am not aware of a link between fruit color and how hard a variety is to grow.
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I just sowed some banana melon, sugar baby, golden honeymoon, kaho, and orangeglo a few days ago. Hoping to get some decent mellons this year.
I was hoping they were equally vigorous and fruitful, just smaller.
I noticed some being sold as “medium” as well, around 6 kg. For example an orange variety.