Hi - I have never grown these before and my interest isn't in growing giant fruit but in growing as many of them as will grow on one vine.
Well, all of my plants have only produced one fruit each anyway....what is going on? I have not removed any - could any of you explain what I am doing wrong? I dug deep and planted in soil enriched with chicken manure fertilizer. They have never gone short of moisture!
Any advice would be appreciated. Ta!
Lizzy
Pumpkins and Melons
They may not be getting pollinated or getting pollinated enough. Are the vines producing flowers? If so, you could try hand pollinating.
Depends a lot on what you are growing. The vine will only set what it can support. They seem to be smarter than people. Most melons (Spanish, Canary, Honey Dew, Cantaloupe) set two at on set and add some as the first set matures. The smaller cultivars tend to set more than the large ones. Same is true for watermelons and pumpkins, they tend to abort melons the vine can't support. I have a couple of Galia cultivars that refuse to set more than one melon at a time and other cultivars that set as many as four in the crown set.
This is Antalya, a very tasty Galia, but it refuses to set more than one melon at a time.
I'm buried under cantaloupes this year.
Last year, my vines were puny things and set only one miserable little fruit each.
Accordingly, this year I planted more vines of another variety, setting them out at intervals in the spring to extend the season. Now there are more than a dozen fruits on the first vine and it's still setting new ones, while the other vines are following its example. They're overrunning the watermelons, which are no way as vigorous.
LTilton- what is the name of that prolific cantaloupe?
you might have too much nitrogen too. Since chicken manure is rich with nitrogen. If you are not afraid of liquid fertlizer, you could feed them some Bloom Burst which also helps produce the females.
Also, if temperatures are really hot, it will cause pollinated females to abort. Some people set jugs of ice around the newly pollinated for 3 days.
That is interesting Crickets Garden. It is getting hot now so that might by why. I'll try feeding them with a higher potash fertilizer and see what happens.
The prolific cantaloupe is Burpee's Sweet 'n Early Hybrid. I set out the first vine around May 20, and it took right off, even that early, while the watermelons languished. I can't say yet how it tastes, because while the first melon OUGHT to be ripe, it keeps insisting not.
That Bloom Burst stuff sounds useful, Cricket. I'm going to look for it.
Three of my watermelon vines in one section grew together like a jungle. After seeing several melons on the vines after closer checking, they had set about 18 fruits....way too many to likely make 20 plus pounders. I culled them down to about nine. Most of my early melons set on one and two per plant and made nice melons, but the later ones need pruning it seems.
Eel River crenshaw has set on at least nine on the one plant. I don't care how many cantaloupes and small watermelon varieties set on, but large watermelons need watching.
I'm trying to grow the smaller watermelons, the minis. So I'd rather have more on the vines.
My real ambition is to grow the seedless minis, but they are the devil to get germinated, and once I got them started, none of them took when I set them out. Now I have this mixed melon jungle where I can't tell what melon is attached to what vine, and the names have washed off the markers. It's an adventure! I don't really have experience with watermelons, I haven't had the room until recently and never tried anything but bush Sugar Baby.
I've been eating a Raspa just a minute ago....wow, I keep saying again this year, "Why raise any other kind?" This one was 24½ pounds and just the very best in taste and sweetness.. Well, I do like a trade off once in a while like a good Gold Strike or Orangeglo.
I had a good early yellow called Peace the other day. These are simular to the small Yellow Doll.
Bernie likes Sangria and I have about 4 of them to eat...melons have really ripened the last week or so. Sangria is good, but Raspa beats it.
No pictures as the camera is broken.
Yellow Doll - I think I have one of those growing out there. Somewhere among the vines.
It's perplexing that the cantaloupes are so rampant and the watermelons in the same patch of ground are so puny.
Watermelons are a lot pickier on soil and other things.
Indy,
You said, "Watermelons are a lot pickier on soil and other things". Could you elaborate? In what ways?
Also, you're up there in Indiana and you're already eating Raspas, while I'm down here in Arkansas anxiously waiting on them to ripen? That's just not right. When did you plant them? Did you start them indoors?
I'm growing Big Crimsons, Raspas, and Au Producers. We've had nearly ideal growing conditions this year, and my melons look great............but they're just not ripe yet. I planted mine April 28th, so I'm thinking I should be getting some ripe melons in the next week or so.
The contrast is weird. Also, I have one gourd vine that resembles the Monster from the Black Lagoon, invading the sweet corn, but my so-called large pumpkin looks like it belongs in the anemia ward. Same row of ground. I'm beginning to hope I mixed up the plants and the gourd is really the pumpkin.
Razorback,
I started those seeds indoors on April 22nd. I started some more on May 1st. I set out the main bunch on May 8, 10, and 11.
I have IRT100 plastic around many of the melons....about 4ft.x3ft. pieces. I set out the melons first and some fertilizer in a ring around them and then install the plastic....slipping it over the seedlings with a small hole in the center.
Cantaloupes can do fairly well in regular clay/loam soil [and even better in soil with lots of sand], but watermelons usually don't for me. So I have added a lot of sand to both watermelon and cantaloupe beds. Also I have added lots of local peat/peatmoss to the watermelon beds.
Okay, I understand a little better now how someone in Indiana can be eating ripe watermelons this early. Next year, I plan on starting some melons indoors myself. I noticed that you transplanted your melons about 16-19 days after planting. Would you say that is about the right amount of time? I ask that because I've read that watermelons don't transplant well after reaching a certain size.
As far as soil goes, I'm blessed with good, sandy soil and the weather has been great this year. Last year, the deer ate all my watermelons, and I do mean _all_ of them. They even ate the little, tiny ones. So this year, we built a nice tall fence and so far, no deer.
My Raspas are getting closer every day to being ripe. You've got me excited and wishing I had planted more.
The watermelons were a nice size by 16 to 19 days [not small at all] . I start them in 3 or 4 inch plastic pots and I prefer a fair root system at transplanting as it holds the mass together as I slip them out of the pots and into the waiting hole. I am retired these days and I took my melons and tomatoes outdoors every day I could and they are fully hardened in almost from the get go and are sturdy and not spindly. I had the heat turned up to 90° in the small seed starting room and they start coming up in less than 3 days. Seeds started in less than optium conditions might not be that large until 23 to 25 days.
bizzylizzy,
we are doing worse than you. we have only 1 pumpkin and 2 plants. we have 4 strong vines growing out from the 2 plants, and lots of flowers. i think they are all male though. i'll have to go and double check again.
?????
they are a small species of pumpkins, said 110 days from seed to harvest. well i now have the max of 82 days left in my season. will this be enough time to pollinate and produce more fruits?
i've found that things that don't like to be transplanted, do very well in jiffy pots and then into the ground. i often remove the bottoms and the tops (were there is not soil) , if the roots have not gone through.
thanks for all the help you gave bizzylizzy. i'm here reading too. it gives you piece of mind, to know you always have somewhere to go and ask a question.
thanks,
debi and franklin, my little pekingese gardener.
I did a cantaloupe count: Vine # 1 has 12 melons getting pretty mature. Two other melons were destroyed by varmints, so that makes 14 melons set, and I'm not at all sure the vine is done for the year.
Vine #2 is a slacker, only 5 melons set, though I do see some fuzzies at the far ends of the vines.
Vine # 3 has set 8 melons so far, with a lot of fuzzies promising more.
I'm glad I didn't set out any more cantaloupe plants.
Watermelons - dismal, although the plants set out later show some faint promise.
Alas, I much prefer watermelons!
I was counting Sugar Queen melons on one vine that I gave my neighbor as a transplant. It has about 11 melons and the plants are very healthy in some very rich ground. The Burpee Crenshaw has 3 large ones and the first one is starting to show a twinge of yellow.
My Lille cantaloupe only set on one fruit. I harvested it today...11 pounds.
Only one, but it's a doozy!
Don't know the Lille cantaloupe,, must be a big one, but the Lily Crenshaw is a good one. Only gets 7-8 lbs tho but sets more melons than Burpees Hybrid Crenshaw. Of course it isn't a cantaloupe.
Farmer, I looked up the spelling in Johnny's catalog. It is Lilly there. Of course if a melon only sets on one fruit, it will be larger than where there are 2 or 3 fruits.
If it ain't a cantaloupe, what would you call it?
A Crenshaw melon, a class by itself, just like Honeydews, Ananas, Canarys etc.
oh drat, one of my 2 pumpkin plants is dying and the one that has the only pumpkin. :-( don't know what we are doing wrong. it started dying about a week ago now and it has finally caught up to the pumpkin. the other plant is doing fine, but has no pumpkins and no female flowers. ?????
dh and i are going to check out the plant tomorrow. what should i be looking for?
thanks debi
Does anyone know what kind of pumpkin I have? It is now about 12 inches in diameter, yellow the color of summer squash, and perfectly smooth - no ridges or ribs. The vine is still healthy and continues to flower. I have pinched several of the flowers. I can't find the seed packet, and I've not ever seen one like this. Is it possible it might still develop its "ribs"? Thanks!