Ive been dying to grow cantelope or water melons. or even those musk melons found in the New Jersey areas.
But here in this 7b I wind up with mold saying we dont have enough room/space to grow such items.
well summers a coming and I know a little something about coir - so the melon idea is coming to mind - again.
Can these be grown in a container?? If so how??
Are melons container friendly??
Mine are starting to take off. I have Sleeping Beauty melons in 5 gallon grow bags with coir, and they're supposed to be small melons with compact vines. I'm going to trellis those.
I also have some Wilson Sweet watermelon and Kansas melons in oak half barrels with coir, and I'm going to let those trail down to the ground. I imagine those will take up a good bit of space in the end.
I have mine in EBs and coir. Although getting a very late start this season they are finally starting to really grow. I just hope the sun doesn't burn the seedlings as they are seedlings until a couple of feet long in my opinion. Normally I start mine March 1 but could not do so until the end of April. I have Honeymoon honeydew (trellis) Crimson Sweet and Mickeylee watermelon and canteloupe(trellis) I've never grown them in the standard container but I don't see why not?
Here's my Crimson Sweet starting to take off. I'm growing it in a 12 gallon(they were advertised as 15 gallon but not so). I'm also manually watering and feeding, I expect to be watering daily when summer comes around. We shall see how they do. Happy to see a lot more bees this year, hopefully pollination won't be too big of a problem like last year.
This message was edited May 14, 2009 6:12 PM
I started all my melons in the bio dome with coconut coir, then picked out the best startings and planted them in lay flat bags, I have sugar baby watermelons (2), cantaloupe (2) ambrosia melons (1) and the rest are the green melons (about 4-5). They are doing ok so far and surviving, so hopefully will have melons. I planted them in the lay flat bags that Bob sells in coir, because they have room to sprawl now and the melons won't break the vines, hopefully.
joy
Last year I was forced to do container gardening (Well, not so much "forced" as I was too lazy to get any kind of bed into shape) and grew a sugarbaby watermelon in a five gallon bucket. I got a whopping four melons off of the plant. They were small, more like the size of a cantaloupe (I think sugarbabies max out around 8 to 10lbs on a good day anyway). I trellised the plant and supported each fruit with old nylon stockings. I was surprised to get any. It's also worth noting I live in the desert and had to water them about every fifteen minutes. If I was going to try to grow them in a container again I'd go with a bigger container.
This message was edited May 16, 2009 2:09 AM
This is a melon question but not directly related to container gardening....A friend of mine told me a made a mistake planting my canteloupes and watermelons next to each other because they will cross-pollinate. Does anyone know if this is true? I have them planted about 7 ft apart because I am trellising them instead of growing them on mounds. Thanks!
Seeing that you are not a professional grower, I would not worry about it! Who knows? Maybe you'll come up with a new species? (LOL) Just plant it and don't worry. I've been doing it for years and never had problems.
Yep, yep they are...
OOOPs, I might have one mess on my hands then, as I planted cantaloupe and green melon and watermelon in the same lay flat bag.
joy
well that answers my concerns about IF melons can be grown in containers!
thanks!
" made a mistake planting my canteloupes and watermelons next to each other because they will cross-pollinate" Unless you are planning to harvest seed to replant next season why would it matter?
50glee: I'm sorry for taking you thread off topic; I would think that you could plant melons in containers if they were not high up containers, the vines would have to have support though or I would think anyways.
joy
Mine are in two 5-gallon buckets stacked together and there is no problem. Last year I grew melons in the ground and trellised them. I just put the melons in a sling tied to the trellis. Go for it 50glee.
Hey RTL, what variety of cantaloupe are you growing?
My watermelons are really going this week. The plants in the barrel have about 10 watermelons starting, and the 5 gallon bag plants have several each.
But my cantaloupe/muskmelons plants have no fruit yet, at least none that have pollinated. The plants look great and have lots of blossoms, and I've seen bees visiting them. Maybe they're slower to put fruit on than watermelon, or maybe the variety I've planted (Kansas and Sleeping Beauty) don't like these 100 degree temps?
I wish I knew Jake, I threw the package away as I used the last of the seed.
Desert Jake: Give the the canaloupe a little more time, my ambrosia melon, which was planted first, was the first to flower, now, I'm waiting on my watermelon, cantaloupe and green melon, the cantaloupe seems to take longer for some reason. I planted some of each in lay flat bags of coir, I even had problems getting the cantaloupe seed to come up into a starting, I always plant startings, that way I know where the plant is going to be.
joy
Well my cantaloupe have flowered like crazy, just no pollinated fruit yet. But hey, at least the watermelon are going.
Desert Jake: I got leaves on most; but the first one planted the Ambrosia melon has a lot of flowers on it; so, I'm getting anxious to see if there are going to be many melons this year.
joy
Well, since that post 4 days ago there's now 5 Kansas melons growing at least and at least 6 of the Sleeping Beauty, so things are good. :-)
And the watermelon are growing FAST.