Sangria is a very good melon. I have two on the vine. Have my fingers crossed. Pickle worms got all my cantalopes before I got to them. Sangria is a long melon, not round one. It is suppose to get in the 20lb range ( which iI actually didnt know till after I planted it). It starts out with all its stripes...it has been so fun to watch. Almost looked fake when it was small.
Melon Garden for 08
I've got Yellow Doll in the ground, not that it's actually growing, but with this heat and humidity, it ought to start.
Tomorrow I'll have to move my remaining EBs with the unripe melons. That will be a tricky job as one EB has three large Orange Sunshine melons but my son will be home to help me. The other EB is a Mountain Yellow and has two large melons still getting larger and that has to be moved also. Down at the end are my Golden Casaba melons that are not ready yet and need at least two more weeks. They will be treated with kid gloves. As I was puttering and mowing the lawn this evening I stopped by my Blacktail Mountain and of the two one tendril was dried up so I picked it, opened my portable table, pulled up my canvas chair, took out my knife and sliced up a beauty. It was not cold but I was there and so was the melon, so for the first time I ate one directly from the field and enjoyed every bite.
Got started about 8am this morning. Around 1pm the sun was directly overhead and the temp hit 90*+ mark so I packed it in plus I heard a clap of thunder in the distance. Almost finished clearing up the area except for the three EBs that have melons that are not quite ripe at this time. Will try to finish later this evening....
I'm very jealous, Tplant! I planted one watermelon plant (Arizona Early), it set 2 melons, and birds got 'em both. The plant still looks fine, and there are some new buds on it, so all I can do is cross my fingers and hope I get lucky with some more.
But BOY did I say some bad things about those birds when I realized what they'd done!
Jill -- That is strange as my birds rarely touch my veggies? I guess I've been lucky so far. Last season I had a pair of Orioles nesting in a tree by our home and they would eat my tomatos and figs but did not do enough damage to really concern me! Unfortuneately the tree that they nested in had to be removed because of the construction here and I've not seen them this season. My planting of blueberry bushes should bring them back next year.
Taking it easy this morning although I still have to finish moving three EBs that still have melons ripening and they are the very large ones. Blacktail Mountain is a very tasty melon and will keep it as a regular along with Mickeylee. The Golden Casaba melons are large and getting larger but they need much more time than the watermelons. Probably that is the reason why they are so expensive in the supermarkets. I've not grown any cantaloupes because the store bought melons never tasted right to me so I never developed a taste for them but like the home grown tomato flavor I'll bet the home-grown cantaloupe would be true to taste as is the tomato so I'll plan on them next season. Have you or anyone else grown them and how did they compare to store bought?
I did not get my dust down in time. Cantalopes just could not stand up to those pickle worms. I have left the melons on the vine. Its fun to watch them frow, one is just starting to get its netting. I know we wont be able to eat it, Next year Im doing some major pre-emptive striking against those devils. The dont touch the watermelon. My watermelons seem to have stopped growing and they are nowhere near 23 lbs. maybe a pound or two. Guess I better get to the market and hope the melons are not that horrible texture they get when the weather gets hot. I havent had the first bite this year.
Umm maybe because im to cheap to by the ones at the grocery store and I dont want to have to pay to drive all the way over to the veggie market. I have got to get my mind off this gas price stuff and keep living lol.
gardenglory -- Thanks for the heads-up on pickle worms. I will be prepared next season. I did not have an attack of any insects this season but did have a severe problem with "powdery mildew." Seems like the TIGGER melons brought the mildew. They were infested with it and it spread to other melons and limited my production. It was a shame because the "Tigger" melons were a tortal waste of space! All they did was to bring on the disease as the taste was terrible. DON'T GROW THEM! All you'll get is a inedible sweet scented melon and mildew.
Tplant, a lot of birds here go for veggies because of their moisture content and, I think, the sweetness. I've got a birdbath I keep filled, and some smaller spots where they could get water, but I still lose some stuff to critters every year. When it's this hot and this dry (105 degrees and probably single-digit humidity today), who can really blame them? They get some of my tomatoes, too, and I'm doing my best not to mind.
I'm so glad you posted your results about Tigger. My kids would want to grow it just because of the name, it's nice to know that it would be a great one for the birds! :)
These are the seedless Orange Sunshine which I've never grown before! The one solid green is the pollinator and an entirely different color from its sisters? Is this natural?? The melon on the bottom right a yellow melon that creeped over. I think it is called Mountain Yellow..
A better look at it.
My last Picnic melon. Notice how all my vines have all but dried up except for the tendril connecting to the melons. However the vines are still taking water. To me this is strange. When will they ripen? I know they now all suffer from powdery mildew but it did not seem to interefer with production? WEIRD!!
This is about all that is left of my pretty melon garden. The stake that you see in the center is where they are going to put a drain field which will protect us from flooding. I'll landscape and put my EBs around it when they finish the job. Still some more clean up to do or moving but it is to hot just now so I'll wait till this evening.
Tplant,
I know what you mean by the store bought cantaloupe taste........kind of firm and short on melt in your mouth taste.
Willhite's Sugar Queen cantaloupe and Lily and Burpee Early crenshaws are just superb in taste. Ocasionally a regular home grown cantaloupe will be good, but sometimes just fairly good. Those three mentioned are great in the home garden.
Indy --- I will remember them and depend on your advce come March of 09.
Just took the melon I picked yesterday out of the fridge and cut it open. It was supposed to be a seedless Orange Sunshine but it has seeds?
PS -- Don't know how to describe the center section as it was the consistency of cotton candy and disappeared in your mouth? It seemed mostly air. This was only present in the uppermost seed section but the rest of the melon was excellent.
This message was edited Jun 14, 2008 5:09 PM
Here is a shot of the whole melon and it is as pretty as a picture and has a very sweet distinct taste although the pollinator did not do the job. It was supposed to be seedless? I have the pollinator melon in the fridge still uncut which I will do latter as I do not want to have more than one melon cut open at any one time. Wonder what I did wrong?
The taste is magnificently, sweet as sugar, plenty of drippy juice and the very distinctively slight taste of a navel orange. Really unique! We really enjoyed this melon. I still have Mountain Yellow and Royal Golden Casaba out there but the tendrils are fresh and green so the melons are still growing and not wise on my part to cut them at this time as it would be considered to be unripe. I took a chance with this melon as the tendril was not quite dry and still had a lot of green in it but it is still delicious! My son and I must move the remaining EBs by Monday evening as this is when they will start to dig for the new drainfield.
Most of the "seedless" melons will have a few seeds. Most of them should be white undeveloped ones that you eat along with the melon.
Not these Farmerdill as they were dark brown and of medium size? Could be that I had the seedless to close to the seeded melons and they cross pollinated?
Oh your killing me Tplant uhg i can't take it anymore LOL
you have a great way of describing your melons . MMMMM
looks wonderful
where did you get these seeds from ? for the Orange Sunshine ?
If i get one melon this yr i will be happy
Got to fight of the raccons . might have to camp out with my secret weapon. :)
They are suppose to cross pollinate, that is why you have to have a pollenizer. I don't care much for the seedless, so have only grown a couple of cultivars, (Sweet Slice and Ultra Cool) both had some regular seeds but most were the immature type. Which is the way they are usually described when you read the fine print.
taynors -- I no longer have the seed packet but it was either from Johnny's or Heirloom Seeds. Go to Lowes in your area and they have a product to keep all varmints away. It is called Critter Ridder or something similiar to it!
Farmerdill -- It was the first time for me and I don't think I'll bother to grow them other than Orange Sunshine whether it be seedless or with seeds it was delicious. Must be eaten with a spoon as it is so juicy. I still can not get over the distinct flavor of an orange? It is as if they intentionaly cross polinated the melon with an orange?
Here is the company press release. Johnny sells the other one. (Orange Sweet) http://www.usseedless.com/press.htm
Just cut open a Mountain Yellow watermelon and fed it to the construction crew. Took a picture but I messed up. Anyway it looks just like an Orangello only a little lighter in color and tastes about the same so all is well! Getting ready for some real heavy thunderstorms at this time. We need it to cool down as this day was a real scorcher in the upper 90*s with high humidity. No work outside today. Two more melons left and that is it for the season. For melons that is! (Peppers, corn, and Okra to be continued.)
This is it! My last melon. I think it is a Mountain Sweet Yellow as I cut all the vines before I traced it to the melon.
The end of my melon patch. Finished cleaning up in the late evening when it was much cooler and the humidity was comfortable. Next season I will have Bush Sugar Babys and Mickeylee as the primary melons. For the first time I will also grow a large variety of cantaloupes with the melons. The EBs did a fantastic job, as usual and I am well pleased. I've yet to find something that can not be realistically grown with great success in them but I'll keep trying and searching!
This is the only melon of mine that made it. It has stopped growing and it is a sangria and should be much bigger. I know its going to rot soon, but I just get such a kick out of seeing it. Will maybe try next year on the melons. Takes up alot of space. For now, I have my betterbeans, okra and redrippers planted as of yesterday. I Im interested in boca bobs heatwave tomato and how it does and taste.
WELL thats not my lttle melon, I gues thats why they have a preview button, lets try again for the little guy
gardenglory -- Some melons take up to 120 days to mature. Obviously you had a pollination problem from lack of bees? If I can grow melons in an EB you certainly can do so! It is not your fault! Keep watering and let this melon grow. What kind is it?
Its a Sangria. I pulled all other vines out of EB that had given up the ghost. This one seems to be hanging tight. The others grew to a certain point and then split open. This one has a nice blossom end and so far shows no sign of giving up. Just doesnt seem to be getting much bigger.
The good news of the morning is, my Big Beefs are finally showing red. I have about 14 on the plant, would sure like to get one to the ripe stage. Ive had about one to many cherry tomatoes tho. Those and the darned bannana peppers just dont stop.
I got lazy with the 99 degree temps and did not hand-pollinate. Next time I will hand-pollinate with Q-tips and/or removing male blossoms and rubbing them on female blossoms. If I didn't do this, I wouldn't get any cucumbers early in the season.
Nice looking melons, everyone!
Tplant, how cool that you treated the construction workers with your produce. Random acts of kindness are the best!
They really enjoyed it and are just as sorry as I am that we had to stop as they were getting an ice cold melon everyday as I had more than enough to go around. I planted enough peppers so that I can share with them. They enjoy working here!
PS -- Wait till tomato season....LOL
Melon growing is my favorite hobby. Sure I also like growing sweet corn, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, fruits...you get the idea. The slip that came with the sweetpotatoes said that they would be my most satisfying crop....wrong. They just don't know the pleasures [and frustrations] of watermelon and crenshaw growing...and eating A++ quality melons.
Considering Im down to one questionable melon. I can speak to the frustrations right about now. I had great cantalopes too. Until those darned pickle worms.
You have had your share of problems gardenglory. In your case I would set up a system of preventative spraying as once they arrive they are there to stay and must be eliminated or you won't be able to grow anything..