Melon: how much room, how large a Trellis? Trellis Building?

Last year was my first attempt gardening and I was lucky to grow beautiful, 12' tomato plants in raised beds. This year we dug up more of our small yard for gardening and we want to try something different -- melons! Most web sites say melon need "a lot" of room. I really need more specific information!

I have Charentais, muskmelon, and seedless watermelon seeds (and a non-edible pollinator watermelon), and I realize that the seeds only last 1 year, so I want to start them all and plant at least 1 of each type, but I'm worried about space. I bought 3 pre-made 5' high by 5' wide veggie trellises, but I'm afraid they will be too small.

How much room (square feet) will they take up if I use these trellises? Any tips for economically building a larger trellis?

Also, my neighbor said she has heard that you can never prune or cut a melon plant or the whole plant will die - I'm skeptical, can anyone answer that for me?

Thanks,
Mary

Each of the varieties you listed can grow vines 8-12 feet long. You can do some pruning and you can have them grow up a trellis. The trellis could be 6-8 feet and the plant will just grow up and back down.

Note that you will need to support the ripening melons with panty hose or some other netting.

Are you sure you pollinator watermelon is non-edible? It shouldn't be. Why waste the space growing something you can't eat?

My husband is the engineer in our gardening endeavors. I find the idea and he builds it. This year, he's going to build several foldable A-Frame type frames with either chicken wire (for peas and beans) or concrete wire or galvanized wire cattle panels. We figure if he builds them about 5' tall, the melons can crawl up one side and then back down the other. I'll use pantyhose to support the melons. (Thought about using old bras, but decided not to air my laundry!! LOL)

The pollinator watermelon variety is sometunes Sugar Baby, which was a bit mushy for me, but a lot of people like it as a regular melon variety. They choose Sugar Baby because it's a compact plant.

My favorite smaller fruited watermelon variety is Mickeylee. Got lots of melons. And I don't mind the seeds at all btw. I got 40 melons each slightly smaller than a bowling ball out of a 4' x 8' bed. I had a soil mix of 50% compost, 50% peat-based soil.

This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 1:31 PM

I've had Sugar Baby included as a pollinator as well as Crimson Sweet. They're certainly edible! But I don't bother with them since I've been growing Yellow Doll.

Feldon - how many plants was that in the 4x8 bed?

Thank you all!

The pollinator I have is called Ace, from Johnny's Selected Seeds.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/product.aspx?category=1&subcategory=509&item=133

It is supposed to be a small thin vine that doesn't take up any extra space, with fruit that is "small and unharvestable."

I chose these because I wasn't sure if I would have the room for more than 1 or 2 full size watermelon vines, but it sounds as though a couple of these will fit in easily.

This message was edited Apr 18, 2009 3:06 PM

I like that "blooms profusely" part, if they are male flowers.