Watermelon hanger

I'm growing my watermelons and cantaloupes on a trellis.

I need tips! I hung my watermelons in a nylon (pantyhose) hammock. I made sure the pressure was off of the stem.

They still fell. :(

I don't think the nylon was wide enough? K, now don't laugh. :D

I need to try again. Lost two of them already! boo! 4 more are getting heavy and I have to support them. Can anyone give me some ideas?

You could put the melons IN the panty hose, not on them. Or, if you have an old bedsheet, that is pretty strong. Make a sling wide enuff to hold the melon in it, and secure the ends firmly! (The melon doesn't need to be in the sunlight, and the bedsheet will allow rain to flow thru it.)

Thanks Horseshoe, will try the bedsheet. Never occured to me to put the growing melon IN the pantyhose. LOL!

Hehehe...put one in each leg! Take a pic and enter it in the DG Contests! Could be great fun!!!

Even funnier than that, I heard about somebody who filled up an old pair of pantyhose with dry onions for storage and hung them from the rafters in an attic. I laughed till I cried and hurt picturing that!

Hee hee, for sure! I think I shall. :-D

I'm already planning on entering the largest tomato contest. :)

MaryE, I giggled as I did a 'visual' on the onions. Too funny!

Here's what I did with my melons:
Last fall we raked all the oak & maple leaves into the garden. We ended up with a pile of leaves about 25 feet long by 8 feet wide after I evened them out. The pile was about three to four feet high! By this summer the pile was 8 inches high. I dug holes through the leaves and planted my melons...they ran all over the leaf bed which is now 2 or 3 inches high. However it cushioned the melons, they aren't dirty, and I didn't have much problem with disease or bugs - lost one Crimson Queen vine to something but the Moon & Stars & the canteloupe are just fine.

What a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing that.

Good tip Eileen.

I have my sheet ready and my nylon ready. Will try both and see how I do.

You can also make little potiums for them. A post or broom stick and a small piece of square board nailed to the top. Pound the potium into the ground and then place the mellon on top. My mellons have not needed that yet. My honeydews somehow are staying on the vine. I thought I would have to support them, but so far so good. I can see with watermellons that you would have to make a good and strong support.

I like Shoes bedsheet idea. Shoe, what about air circulation? At least here, I could see it baking in that sheet! LOL!

Hmmm...baked watermelon, with cinnamon. Sounds like a new recipe to me!

I would cut the sheet into strip, like little hammocks...just wide enuff to support a mature melon, but not so much it becomes a blanket. I reckon we could figger out the best fabric, cotton or poly, for the air circulating/breathing aspect, eh? Maybe we should just use fish net stockings instead of bed sheets or nylons! Now THAT should do the trick!

Ok, did it. So far so good. :) Have harvested one melon already, it was so worth the wait! Another in hammock and another starting to grow (about 2" round). I hope we get enough heat so it can grow to full size. What a treat. I grew the icebox variety. Name escapes me right now, but it has yellowish skin with dark green strips going vertical. Yellow flesh.

Thank-you Horseshoe, I will repeat the sheet hammock again.

YAY...success! Hope it was a good sweet one!

Good going. I hope the yellow mellon is good. I am not having Watermellon Success, but my honeydews are great, they just sank lower and lower, but all stayed on the vine!

I didn't have the time to mess with slings this year, but maybe next year I will get my act together.

I have been happy growing the 'ice box' variety. Our first time, and absolutely no problems besides the grower not slinging them right! oh well!! :-D

Another is ready and still another coming on. The cantaloupe is growing slowly but I expect it to be done in a week or so.

I will definatly grow these small varieties again, took hardly any space at all! :)

What is the flesh like?

Well? The inner flesh is yellow. It is very sweet and the texture is just like regular watermelon we get in the store. It does have seeds, but the boys like to sit and 'spit em'! The outside is a pale yellow with dark green stripes going horizontal (wavy stripes). Here is a pic:

Looks like a nice mellon. The Yellow ones we get here are mushy, I will have to try this one next year. Thanks, great picture!

Cool thread! I've never used hose for supporting fruit, but I've heard of it being done. Knee-highs are about the right size for canteloupes and small icebox watermelons. I use them to keep off the pickle worms and beetles when they get bad. I get some funny looks when I go shopping for them.

I'm bumping this thread because I need to ask...HOW do you sling the fruit? I want to grow Sugar Baby watermelons up a tripod this summer, but I can't picture in my mind how to support the fruit. Where do you tie the pantyhose? To the vine? Wouldn't that cause damage to the vine? If someone could post a pic, that would be wonderful!! Tamara

The melon Sue is growing has the appearance and description of Yellow Doll, a very good small icebox melon. Zone 5 you need a sturdy trellis to tie the slings to. Some folks tie them to wire fencing. Whatever you used for the vines to climb on has to be sturdy enough to support the melons weight. And they need to be personal size or small icebox melons, It is a bear to support full size watermelons.

Lol, Dyson........kind of related......but our compost contained many tomatoes....(and their seeds) ......I had about 4 tomato plants growing the the perennial beds! And we did harvest tomatoes as well!

To anyone interested in those watermelon hangars, we have been using that method with success!

I can't wait for summer, 2007!

I can't wait either Sue, got the kitchen table loaded with starts, just yesterday bought 300lb of compost, ready for a fine harvest this season.

Farmerdill, do you know who sells the Yellow Doll seeds ?