Watermelon & Melon Growing 2019

I just mulched a bunch of leaves for the garden, not quite done but good enough to get some planting done tomorrow. I’m going to put some Crimson Sweet starts and some OrangeGlo and Ananas D’Amerique seeds into the ground. I’ve had very good luck with those Crimson Sweet starts.

I need some expert advice. I am going to try to grow watermelon(one of 4) on arch type of trellis. Should the fruit be formed and supported on TOP of the arch so they got maximum sun, or I can let them hang bellow the arch?

The fruit itself doesn’t need to be in the sun. It’s probably better off in the shade. And often is in a normal melon patch. Can sunburn in hot areas. What it needs is secure support.

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Thanks, then I will do large grid netting so fruit can hang down and I can tie them to the arch above, prefect!

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Stephen, those look great! You’re obviously farther south than I am.

What all varieties did you plant?

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Glad to see someone is growing Crimson Sweet melon. A properly grown Crimson Sweet is my favorite melon, hard to beat.

TFN

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Yes, I am in south Mississippi. In the large field in top picture I have jubilee improved and tendersweet orange with a few super 45 cantaloupes. In the second picture that has the vigorous plants is starbrite, I also have summer flavor 720 and summergold planted there also. I have about 80 Athena cantaloupe plants planted also

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Going to direct sow in the next ten days or so.
2 years ago we had a good crop of Georgia Rattlesnake that were sown on June 4th.

Last year the hail killed the vines just a week or two short of melons being ripe.

Going to do mostly Rattlesnake, but i want to try some of the others I have seed for and didnt get a good sample of last year.

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This is summer flavor 720. Looks like it’s gonna be a good quality melon.

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Picked my first 2 melons one starbrite and one jubilee improved.

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Have had good luck direct-seeding in May and growing on white plastic the last couple of years, with the best performing (and tasting) ones being Strawberry and Black-Seeded Ice Cream. This year is shaping up to be a bad watermelon year here in 6b Kentucky, though: it’s been very rainy and many of my seedlings have damped off; most also exhibit grayish lesions, some with concentric rings, on cotyledons and young leaves, and they’re growing poorly. Looks like an early gummy stem blight infection. :slightly_frowning_face: Don’t know if they’ll amount to much but, in addition to my current favorite, Strawberry, I’m trialing Janosik, Yarilo, Northern Lights and Kaho. Just put out two hills of the small (and presumably early) ones, Northern Lights and Kaho, as a backup—'cause I need my melons! Am also getting ready to try growing some Bush Sugar Babies in a container, as an experiment.

Haven’t grown non-watermelon melons here in years, but this year am trialing Kajari and Zatta di Massa. They look better than the watermelons at least.

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How did that Starbrite and that Jubilee taste?

I’m just now getting male flowers opening.

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Last year at this time, my first Galia melons started to flower. This year, they have their 2nd pair of true leaves.

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They taste real good I think the jubilee is a little sweeter but the starbrite put on a lot more quality melons. I grew a summergold yellow meated that I think is the best watermelon I have ever had. We have been really dry the last month and half so they all are sweet.

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Sadly no melons can be hugely successful in my area. Not enough time. Squash will grow. I wish I could grow sugary sweet watermelons and love Sugar Kiss melons.

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Clearly your 8b must be in the south. I got melon envy.

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Yeah I am located in south part of Mississippi close to Louisiana. This is my first year really growing them I have good success.

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My zone 8b is in Vancouver, WA, southwestern part of the state. It is near the Columbia River, not too far from the Pacific Ocean, which is why winter is mild and we are in that zone. We are a rainforrest, but not tropical.

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I have a question to experienced watermelon growers: Do you control number of fruit per plant? If yes, on what stage? I have watermelon growing on trellis and looks like it is on the mission to set as many of the melons it can. The size vary from chicken egg to just flowers. I am afraid if I remove some now, the rest still may not set/develop for some natural causes and I loose the crop. I do not care about huge melons (in fact, the kind I planted shouldn’t do so), but I sure want them well developed and sweet. And a side question, if anybody grows them on trellis. At what stage you support the fruit, when it is just starts to form or when the size becomes critical because of the melon weight? If so, what is that size approximately?

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