Melon fruit growth

[chancethegardener]

I have an issue with my melon, which is probably a very common one with novice melon growers. I hand-pollinated first few fruits on my beautiful and very healthy melon plant. The first fruit that "felt" like to be properly pollinated kept growing for a few days but then suddenly it turned yellow and started drying. For one second let's say that the fruits are properly pollinated. What could be other potential reasons that cause this issue? Could it be lack of enough water? Today I watered the pots until water drained through the bottom holes. Should I keep this kind of watering schedule until I make sure the fruits are OK?
Also, what kind of fertilizing schedule should I follow after now?
I added the pic of the dried fruit and another healthy looking fruit which I hand-pollinated.

[dipchip2000]

Chance

The blossom in the first picture is a male blossom and will never bear fruit. The second picture is a female blossom and when pollinated will allow the mini fruit to develop into a melon. When hand pollinating I pull off a male blossom and rub the center of it on a female blossom. Hand pollinating will only work when the female blossom is new and a bright yellow. If you wait til the blossoms are pale yellow then it is too late and pollination will not happen. Hope this helps.

ron

[chancethegardener]

Hi Ron, thanks for your response. Do you see the light yellow fruit in the middle of the first picture? So what I am saying is that I hand-pollinated the female blossom (right now there is no flower attached to the fruit) in the first picture last week and then the fruit grew to the size that you can see in the picture; however, the fruit turned yellow and dried overnight. The second picture belongs to a fruit that I hand-pollinated a few days after I had pollinated the fruit in the first picture. The fruits were both new and bright yellow when I hand-pollinated them.

What I am asking is that if we assume that the hand-pollination was successful, what other potential reasons could cause the fruits turn yellow and dry?

[dipchip2000]

Chance

The only blossoms or fruit that have dryed up for me were what I assumed were unsuccessful pollination. If you have many like this I would suspect a problem otherwise I think it was a failed pollination. I have been most successful at hand pollinating when I do it very early mornings when the new female blossoms first open.
It must be dry and not a heavy dew for the pollen to transfer. Since there are a lot more male than female blossoms, I always use a new male blossom for each pollination attempt. Dont give up,sometimes they work and sometimes they dont. I dont have many bees or other pollinators so I have to help to get fruitset. I have only done Blacktail Mountain,Jubilee, and Crimson Sweet and I grow these each year on a small scale with only about nine plants each. I always have a crop of 100 to 150 melons.

ron

[chancethegardener]

Thanks for the advice, Ron. Even though, it hasn't been raining after the flowers started blooming, maybe I couldn't pollinate them properly. I will keep pollinating the other female flowers.

[fortyonenorth]

Yeah, generally when they have that pale yellow look, it's a failed pollination. In my experience, they can abort even up to several days later.

[chancethegardener]

It's good to know for me because I was so upset to see the fruit dry after a nice hand-pollination . I think growing melon is as exciting for me as growing tomatoes. I will keep the rule of 1 week in mind. Is it also possible for it to abort after 1 week?

[fortyonenorth]

I think a week would be pushing it. With a successful pollination, it will usually swell within three or four days, then grow relatively quickly. I like growing melons and squash for just that reason - it's very gratifying.

[JonnyYuma]

Once the fruit gets to about 2 inches, it shoul be set. Hand pollination is not easy, I generally run about 60% success rate
Thanks
Jonny

[chance]

I plant coreopsis.porterweed and nasturtiums among the watermelons. They draw a lot of bees and wasps and butterflies. Seems like that should aid in polination. I still find small, shriveled fruits, but not many. I plant sunflowers also for the " Alice in Wonderland" effect.