Can I Plant...

Cantaloupe with my between my beans & peas?

there's no reason why not...as long as you can keep the vines in control.

They're planted toward the front of our raised bed and the plan is to let them drape over the edge of the bed and then trail along the ground. The beds are 18" tall. We'll see how well our plan works. Plants seldom do what I think they're going to do. LOL

For lack of prepared garden space last year, I planted my watermelons and cantaloupes under my fruit trees and flowering ornamental bushes. They never did try to climb the trunks. Looked beautiful and really kept the weeds down, plus had lots of melons!

Weed control is one reason I wanted to let them trail down the side and along the ground. We also have watermelon planted, and I have some Moon & Stars watermelon seeds sprouting that will need to find a place to be planted. I've already thought about planting some of my tomatoes in my flower bed because I'm running out of space! LOL

The hill idea is the old school standard. All lopes grow on the ground that I remember and spread out. Iwas always told not to step on the vines when you walked for it would kill the vine at the foot print. Don't tell dad he was right and that was me.

Hills are old school, I found out that they can be planted and trained to climb a trellis and by making holders to hang on the trellis you can keep the melons off the ground.
I planted mine under black plastic then covered that with straw, I got 18 lopes from 6 plants in a short season.

These were older seeds that I picked up at a RU last fall. I just planted them in 4" square plant containers and all 3 of them have at least one seed sprouting. The watermelons I've already planted (transplants) have really taken off in the past week with our warm temps. We've thought about the trellis, but we've got the space to let them crawl.

Here's a picture of my watermelon under my two peach trees last year. I was having a heck of time keeping the fruit trees watered well enough with the drought conditions and the weeds were getting the best of me. I had put down weedblocker cloth, topped with 4-6" of dried grass/hay clippings, but neither seemed to help much. After planting the melons, this took care of both issues. As I walked around, I would guide any stray vines back toward the center. A good watering every week to 10 days took care of the moisture needs.

Oh WOW!! Those are some long vines!! Glad it naturally took care of your weeds and your watering needs. It'll be fun to see what we end up with by the end of this growing season. Then, we'll start again late summer for the fall growing season.

What's a lope?

Cantaloupe I presume. ;)

Just be aware that watermelon vines in particular can reach 8-12 feet if left completely unchecked. I've heard of some folks pruning off the ends of the vines when they get completely out of control.

I grew Sugar Baby and Mickeylee last year. I read on the seed packet that Mickeylee was a compact variety and foolishly assumed they were referring to plant habit.

I had vines everywhere (I just kept tucking them back into the bed), but I also got an impressive number of melons off of just 5 strong plants. I want to say 50 melons?

I planted in 50-50 composted cow manure and peat-based soil and mulched with black plastic and straw. They seemed to love it.

Stephanie,

Why not plant corn too and go the whole 3 sisters route. If you time it right, the corn goes up, the beans (and presumably peas) climb the corn, providing wind stabilization and nitrogen fixation, and saving you the trouble of installing poles, while the squash/melons beat out the weeds and hold in the moisture. There is stuff about it all over the web.

Ed

I did try the 3 sisters last year with corn, pole beans and pumpkins. Looked beautiful and all three did great, but finally did a major pruning on the pumpkins (didn't really want that many anyway) because I couldn't get to the beans without stepping on pumpkin vines.

Ed, it's too late to plant corn here and besides that, we don't have any room to plant it. However, next year, we might try that!

Yes. I figured it was probably too late in Texas. Corn is still a couple of weeks away up here in NJ. I have never tried three sisters but always wanted too. These instructions look very clear:

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html

Unfortunately, I don't have the recommended 10x10 area clear. I had hoped to do it this year, but instead, I am at war with my neighbor's ivy and its many allies. :((

Ed

I wish people who planted ivy and asian honeysuckle were ticketed and then forced to dig it up. I hate that stuff! LOL I have a neighbor who has both growing on our shared fence.

It's not too late for corn in Texas, a normal season variety could still be planted as late as July (as long as there is water) and reach harvest in early October. If you don't have space at the moment, you might have space when lettuces & peas are done in by the heat!

David

Stephanie, run for office. You got my vote.

Technically, the English and the Boston ivy are from neighbor plantings. The poison ivy, bittersweet and Asian honeysuckle found me by themselves. I must admit that although the honeysuckle is just as invasive and destructive as the others, I have a soft spot for it since I like the smell.

Can you imagine what it would be like if something useful, like tomatoes or cucumbers were invasive, "Darn it, those Sungolds have invaded the hedges again!!" When I was a kid in the UK, blackberries were darn close to being invasive, but you did not hear many people complaining. I love blackberries. :))

Ed

David (dreaves),
Send me your addy in a dmail. I have something to send you.

Linda

This message was edited Apr 29, 2009 8:38 AM