I grew cucumbers, squash and cantaloupe from seeds in my greenhouse. When I went to transplant them, the sticks with the names had fallen down and got mixed up. I planted the seedlings in the garden anyway, but I don't know which is which. The leaves look so similar. I wouldn't mind being surprised except I'm going to trellis the squash and cucumber but I don't want to try to trellis cantaloupe so I kinda need to figure it out soon. Thanks
Help! I don't know which is which
LOL, dirtgirl! Thank goodness I don't have three kinds of seedlings popping up. (My thread above.) Can you post pics of the plants? I'll bet someone here will know. Hard to help without a visual image though.
Yes, a visual image would be great.
You'll be able to tell as soon as the first female flowers show up, and that should be time enough to get your trellises up.
female flowers?
Cucurbits have both male and female flowers. The male flower is on a stalk: ~<
while the female flower is on the ovary, that develops into the fruit: o<
The ovary, even before it is fertilized, looks very much like the eventual fruit. So unless nfladirtgirl is growing cantaloupe-shaped squash, it will be easy to tell them all apart in time to trellis the cucs and squash, but NOT the melon.
This is a female cucumber flower - notice the spines.
Thank you all so very much. I'll keep an eye out for ovaries and if the cantaloupes start climbing before I can tell what they are, I'll trellis them with chain link fence, ha ha. I think I'm really gonna like this website. Everyone has been so nice. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow. Now I have to go try to find a recipe for moss milk so I can finish my garden path.
I trellised cantalope on chain link a couple of years ago. When it got heavy, just tied a hammock under it with a bandana. It Worked!
Christi
I trellis my cantaloupes also. I use the legs from nylons (pantyhose) for the fruits as they get bigger. The foot is easy to use because it's enclosed - just cut about 10 inches off with the foot at the bottom. You can tie a knot in the leg further up and use that as the bottom of the melon "bag" and then cut about 10 inches above the knot, pop the melon into the nylon, and then tie off the nylon onto the trellis. The nylon expands with the fruit, and it keeps those pesky cucumber beetles off them too!
Wow! I was joking about trellising cantaloupe, but evidently all things are possible. Unless y'all are pulling my pantyhose. ha ha. No blooms or ovaries on the mystery plants yet but the biggest one is starting to put out tendrils and climb. I'm so excited, I can trellis everything and wait for the surprise fruits. I wish I could find my camera, its probably amid the clutter in my closet. I tend to neglect my housework when I can be out in the yard instead. C'est la vie. I'm sure it will turn up when I've given up looking for it.
Hey, dirtgirl! Why waste time on housework that is only to be done over and over and over. The garden is the most satisfying part of life I have ever found. Used to spend every hour cleaning, washing, ironing, washing windows, straightening drawers and closets, etc, etc, etc,.
One day realized:
The person that dies with:
1. the dishes all washed and put away.
2. the floors moped and polished.
3. the clothes washed and ironed and put away
4. the bathrooms all shiney
5. the windows washed
6. the furniture all spit and polished
7. You get the picture.....
NEEDED TO GET A LIFE!!!!
LouC
I found my life in the garden.
Voila! A melon in a nylon! It works!
Here's a picture that gives a better idea of the way it's tied off.
Thanks for posting those pics, CMoxon--I've never grown melons but always been curious as to how that trick works. So then, what, you tie the top end to your trellis to support the melon as it grows?
Yes, I have tied them off in 2 ways. It kind of depends on the distance of the melon to your trellis, and how close your trellis "bars" are, as to which method to use. The first method, for when the melon is close to the trellis, is to make a vertical cut down on either side of the top part of the nylon (the other end to where the melon will be sitting). Maybe cut about 2 inches down from the top, maybe 3 inches, depending on the length of your "sock" part. This gives you two "ties" at the top. You can then just stretch those bits around the trellis bar and tie the knot using the nylon itself. This is what is going on in the second picture I posted but you can't see the knot on the trellis.
If it's not close enough to the trellis to do that, I just poke a hole in either side of the top of the nylon, run a piece of garden twine through the holes, and then tie the garden twine to the trellis.
The first method is really easier but it's harder to describe! Either method works well though, and the nylon holds the melon even if it slips the vine so that it doesn't fall and break open or get otherwise damaged.
Thanks, CMoxon! I'm sort of contemplating trying some honeydews next year, and I'm betting I'd be using the same tricks.
Absolutely! I have used it on honeydews also, and they sometimes get much larger than my cantaloupes (and heavier!) What I really like about the method is the way that the nylon stretches to accommodate the growing fruits. It seems pretty sun resistant also - I've never had one break.
I should probably give them a test-drive out here in our sun--it's just a bit more intense out here than in Iowa, and I'd hate to have a sling give out at exactly the wrong moment.
Thanks for all the great info, CMoxon!
Good luck with the sun test! I hope it will still work for you. And it's a good way to recycle the nylons that get runs in them! LOL!!
Claire
cool pics. I'd have to go buy some pantyhose. I got married last year, quit my job and moved to tallahassee so my work wardrobe now consists of shorts, tie dyed shirts and flip flops. Don't even mention what my nails look like now. I got 10 yards of mulch delivered today and spread about 1/2 of it. So still working, just not wearing pantyhose. ha ha
Good for you. I gave mine away to recycle a long time ago. Manicure? waste of time and energy. Good clean dirt.
Christi
I don't wear pantyhose very often - we do go out to the symphony and some wine dinners and such, so sometimes they are a necessary evil! Plus, as a patent law practitioner, I have a lot of client meetings which can be fairly formal, so I need them sometimes for that too. Still, I tend to buy "good" ones for work, and I buy ridiculously cheap and cheerful ones for gardening! You can buy bulk packs of cheap ones in whatever size happens to be left over in the store that they are selling off, and the colour doesn't matter. Equally good are the knee-high type of nylons, which I have also bought in bulk packs. Even girls size ones will work just fine. The only thing I'm not sure about are the opaque tights - I'm not sure how much sun the ripening melon actually needs, so I have never tried tights as opposed to the thinner hose.
Believe me, working in shorts and flip flops sounds like heaven! LOL! At least on my non-meeting days I can get away with nice jeans.
Claire