CANTALOUPE

Does anyone know if cantaloupe can grow if caged, will the fruit be too heavy on the vine? I have a garden were I planted a lot of seeds and it seems like they have all sprouted.

I do not think it would be posable , however , I have grown cucumbers that grew 16 inches long + on a trelles and they supported their own weight but a mellon is a bit heaver you would need to sopport each mellon and that would defeet the reasoning of the cage .

I have grown Charantais melons on wired supports with no problem. I've asked fellow gardeners at work regarding larger melons, and they all said they need some kind of support. Panyhose seemed the most popular support. I don't wear pantyhose, so have never tried this.

Here's one I grew last year

HB in NC thats what I was talking about thank you . I was not trying to descourage him but I had not dont it before.

Ret-Sgt-Yates - Charantais melons are very small, which is why I think they were able to support their own weight.

OOH I see it look huge in the pic .LOL my mouth was watering I was thinking honey due mellon LOL

I have sown some Athena melons this year - they should get huge! The Charantais weigh around 2lbs - just big enough to cut in half and share with your significant other.

I'm doing an experiment. The melons are planted in hills, but they are vining across an old piece of carpet. I'm hoping the carpet will keep them clean and (perhaps) pest-free.

I've also planted some Charantais crosses, and a bush melon.

A couple of years ago I grew some sugar baby watermelons and tied the vines to a fence. I stuck each melon in panty hose and tied them to the fence.

Charantais melons are small and they don't slip so that should be possible. There are small cantaloupes (muskmelons) but all of them slip from the vine as they ripen so must be supported. The only problem I see with a cage versus a trellis is access to the melon in order to create a sling for it. As long as you can reach through and do tha you should be ok. Cantaloupes take considerable room and don't take well to crowding. IF they are too thick you may have to do some thinning.

Hmmm I'm thinking of trying this wife might pinmy ears back though. how do you tell what are old panty hose and what are new ones she has too many .LOL and none has runs in them !

I'm growing several Cantaloupe this year.. I spread weed block for them to crawl on to keep the bugs out of the melons. I had 18 melons on one vine last year, I don't think I could have found that many panty hose. LOL I'd love to run them on a trellis, but I think I have too many for that..

lol ZZ what you doing with panty hose LOL just picken got to have some funon here it's been raning for bout a week on and off or is it two i lost count . any way my mellons are growen good or at least the vines are i havent been able to check to see if their any lil one on the vines yet . too wet .

FarmerDill ---

I'm putting mine 3 to 6' apart.. They spread and get huge..

Forgot to add...

LOL Sgt_Yates... I gave up pantyhose years ago.. :) I think now the only thing one can find in the store are knee highs..

and you know you can't fit a good sized mellon in them very well either .LOL :(

Someone on here said they used old bras. Had not thought of that but that is perfect. And as they also said no jokes. LOL Dea

You guys gave us a good belly laugh. I think queen size pantyhose or even knee highs will work for at least the cantaloupe, but watermelon, yee gads. I laughed the hardest at the bra idea. Wonder what they did with Anna Nicole Smith's support? But really that sounds like a good idea except for the fact that my veggies are not tucked away in a fenced backyard!

some folks would be wonderen if you were hangen laundrey or grown a garden or if a storm just past threw .lol just dont get cought pilferen your neighbors cloths line and you will be ok LOL

OMG that is tooo funny! 2 in one support!!!!!!!!! I couldn't resist. LOL What a great idea!

Just to clarify, I grew the sugar baby melons in containers so the plants and fruit were small and I only had a few to deal with so 50 cent knee highs from the dollar store worked ok. The melons did get too big for the hose but ending up growing to fit into them, so I wound up with some oddly shaped (yet still delicious) melons.

I probably won't do it again. I do trellis my cucumbers and squash but they don't really need extra support.

so no need to pay for the extra support hose it is not wort it . makes since to me

I think Dorkasaurus has a point. I took some panty hose out (no, not to wear, silly, but to use to cut up for tying tomatoes to stakes). The natural thing to use would be the foot, but it is indeed to small for most melons (at least the one I am SUPPOSED to be getting). What if you sewed up the waistband, cut out the 'cotton panel', put your melon in there while smaller, then used the legs to tie it to the support fence? If each flower on my current vines became a full fledge melon, that could be alot of pantyhose!!

QG they work well ant so do old cotten Tshirts for maters lil strips tied loose round the maters and other plants my grand parents done this long before there were cages for plants we used backer sticks for every thing and my famley still uses the same ones that were used 5 to 6 genrerations ago they are solid as a rock LOL petrafied if you will nothing will eat them (and I woult not blame them Lol)

we are just picken about the hoes any way got to have fun on here humer in the garden is part of the fun you know no harm ment QG. Be Well Darlen.

This is my 1st time growing cantaloupe and I'm growing Hale's Best. Yeah, these plants vine all over the place that's for sure. Anyway, I was pleased to see two melons growing yesterday while I was inspecting my plants. Does anyone know if this varitey needs bees or other pollinators?

I am growing cantaloupe for the first time as well! I have them in a big plastic coffee tub that I drilled holes in. I am excited cause the seed i planted finally sprouted. I am assuming this will get huge so I want to leave it in the tub and let the vines go out all over the floor since I have a super small backyard and no more space in my bed.

does anyone know how deep the roots go, and how much space a plant actually needs?

I was just wondering that myself. I have most of my stuff planted in bales and I have 2 melon plants per bale. The Crenshaw had the longest braches, followed by Hales and Sweetn Early Cantaloupes (all started inside and put into bales 5/5. Watermelon was seed planted 3/18 directly into bale and is further behind. I am thinking of twining the melons toward the bush beans as the bales on the other side are vining butternut squash and some (getting) big zucchinis. If I wasn't afraid of the rabbit, I could have them drape to the ground. Already something has been helping me trim the vines by munching on them - do lizards and horny toads eat greens? Horses got loose this weekend and took a couple bites also of the same plants. Just came in from there and found 4 baby cantaloupes on 2 plants. I am so happy! Anyone know how long it takes from this point. I will be going to Dallas area next week from 17-23 and it would be my luck my tomatoes will turn red and melons mature while I am gone. My DH does not understand why I am doing this as he says "you know you can buy that stuff at the store". OMGosh! Who will baby my babies?

quiltygirl,
when they get ripe and eady give O DH A dose of the LIL Red Hen Story Book ROTF He will think twice about the "store" when your fixen a Fresh Mater I bet on it LOLit will sound something like "Buy Honey I love you !" He He He ... Be good Hun them veggies will be ok Good Lord will see to that .

Sarg.

I grew cantaloupe on a fence with no support. As soon as the vine stated sending out the little curly qs I trained it to the fence. The stems on the cantaloupe adapted as the plant grew. No problems.

Here's my Hale's Best plant. It is basically 6ft north-to-south and maybe 5 ft east-to-west according to this picture. I have two fruit growing at the moment and they are hard to see in this pic, but look closely at the edges of the smart pot in the center. I can't remember when I sowed, but they have much growing to do I'm sure...

Mmmmm...melons....

Dorkasaurus,

I call that being resourceful too those mellons look good here's the field garden or market garden I am worken on it lookes beter than the home garden my negibor and I are together on it

That's a whole lot of garden, Sgt Yates. You are going to take stuff to farmer's market or do you preserve and just supply your family?

John, how long will it take those melons to ripen from that stage? Mine are a little smaller, but have not grown melons before. Let me re-phrase that. I have grown vines, but not ones that turned out any melons! Have 3 on the Hales plant, but not nearly the length of vine you have.

quiltygirl,


This is the Field Garden that Four families tend and grow together and we tend and grow beans, taters corn and maters in addition to other things on other fields for the Road Side Market as well as providing for some other families in the area that we have in the past few years.


The Sarg

I'm in the same boat quiltygirl, so I don't know either! Trust me, ya'll will be the 1st to know when they are ripe, though.

Yes sir, Sarg, that is a beautiful garden. Looks like great soil, too. I'll bet it is real easy to work with, huh?

it's like combing through babys hair lol

SGT - That is a great way to garden, with multiple families. There should always be someone who remembers to water and weed. Maybe you do not need much watering there. Our rain stops in April and generally returns around November, so watering is integral. Helping other families is Excellent!! There is a program called "Plant A Row" where gardeners are encouraged to plant an extra row of one or more veggies with the purpose of donating to a shelter, food pantry or the like. Nowadays there are even more people who need help and it is harder to get fresh things from the food pantries. BTW, is that one of your families' back yard? And is the Road Side Market just for your produce?

Someone, I think it was Sgt, mentioned something about seed strips? Or am I crazy? Anyway I saw some of those packets at HD the other day. 15 ft of row with the seeds all prespaced. You just dig a trench at the right depth and plant and cover it. I could never do that much of one thing, but like the idea.

yea that is in the back of Steves yard, and his Dad's the Road Side Is Ste Up in the Front of His Boys Old Place due to the Size lot and the parking ability , yes just our veggies are sold and we fill it up daliy .

I did post a TP seed strip along with another poster that posted a link to the site on how to prep the TP strip . the Field Garden is seeds planted in trays and sprouted and plants only planted to ensure proper spacing and maxum growth and productivity for the space we have.

this is 4 rolls of Red Okra and Case Knife Green Beans

Your tepees look like they took a lot of time. Are those for beans AND okra? Read yesterday about someone who had an okra plant get to 11 FEET tall by Oct in TX.