Container watermelons!

[GreenThumbGal_07]

I just want to take a moment and say how beautiful some watermelon leaves look. They resemble green snowflakes. The vine is almost worth growing for the decorative value alone -- almost, I said.

[Shrinkrap]

Yes! I am really enjoying the leaves

"Should I just snip it off and let the vine redirect its energy towards any better-pollinated/more symmetrical fruit?

I did snip off the third melon on a vine, but I had waited a while, and it was really behind the other two.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

I did snip that misshapen Sangria fruit (4.5 oz) this afternoon. Now I know to hand-pollinate thoroughly.

Did a lot of vine rearranging this afternoon. Moved the tomato plants aside and disentangled the melon vines from them.

What in the world inspired me to grow full-size (20-24 lb.) watermelon fruit on a flimsy nylon trellis? Well, I'd never had this much success with watermelon growth before, just puny vines and fruit the size of a softball. They love the heat and now it's hot, they get sun all afternoon and early evening long, they grow and grow and grow and...

I cleared the vines and saw an air watermelon.

What's an air watermelon. you say.
It's a 4-lb. watermelon dangling in mid-air.
Now I have to find some support for it. A solid support. No "sling" will do with this one. Maybe a 3' or 4' planter stand. My this is getting expensive.

[Shrinkrap]

I wanna see!

I was doubting my melons were continuing to grow, but at least one gained a half pound in a week. Another doesn't seem to have grown at all.

These are about three or four. weeks ago ,last week, and today.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Shrinkrap, in hot weather they grow FAST. Have you thought of setting up a camera?
Mine seem to grow 3 inches PER DAY. Not kidding about this.
I am reminded of the prophet Jonah,
(Jonah 4:5-6, King James Version)

5 So Jonah went out of the city [Nineveh], and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

In my Children's Bible the picture was of an enormous pumpkin. I think it's more likely it was a vine that covered Jonah's shelter, but the vine grew amazingly fast.

Nice that you are weighing them. You are diligent with your watering, I see. Leaves look very nice with no mildew spots.

[Shrinkrap]

Supposedly between 107-109 today. I'd need a fast camera.

They are in a sub-irrigation planter, which is filled twice a day by a drip on a timer.. Otherwise they'd be toast.

My son lives in Turkey and asked someone there how to tell if they were pollinated and growing, and was told they grow at night and you could hear them!

[Shrinkrap]

One melon fell off in a storm last night.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Well, even though the wind picked it for you, it looks ripe enough. How did it taste? What variety is it?

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Originally Posted by GreenThumbGal_07

Now I have to find some support for it. A solid support. No "sling" will do with this one. Maybe a 3' or 4' planter stand. My this is getting expensive.

OK, so here's what I did. Assembled a light frame of PVC pipe with connectors, extenders below, four legs, about 18" x 24" with 48" legs. It's a bit rickety but it will do. Plywood sheets placed on top. Have the Sangria melon resting on the plywood. Let's see if this works. How big are these melons supposed to get? Around 20-25 lbs. per the Gurney's Seed site.

[Shrinkrap]

Sounds good ! The one that got "picked" was Tiger Baby and we thought it was pretty good. Strange thing was, it was not suspended. I was growing it lying on some cloth on the deck. It looked like lots of things that were on the deck flew around, and must have blown into it.

That's what I get for posting that "it never rains here in the summer" last week.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Just found one of the smaller Sangria fruit, hanging on the trellis out in back, isn't really gaining in size. Because I've had to rearrange these vines multiple times to get them out of the way and onto the trellis, some vines had become twisted. I generally water the plants after such a rearrangement in order to reduce their stress. One thing I hadn't counted on was twisting the "umbilical cord" stem to the developing fruit. It's folded over on this one. I think I need to "untwist" so water and nutrients can again flow freely.
This seems to be an issue with the watermelons; no other cucurbit seems to have a fruit stem that is so long, so flexible, and so subject to getting pinched off.

[Shrinkrap]

Interesting!

My plants are now covered in ashes. On of the fires actually came in my back yard. I picked tow with brown, withered tendrils.Next time I won't try to grow 4 plants in one container.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Hi Shrinkrap, I hope the rest of your property was unscathed!
A nice sprinkling with the hose (or some rain coming next week?) can rinse away the ashes.
Your melons look very nice. How did these two taste? Were these the orange and yellow varieties in your Renee's Garden Seeds 3-variety pack?

How big was your container? Four vines in one container?

I'm thinking maybe next time, two vines or one vine could work in a 7-gallon container. Maybe two vines in a 15-gallon container.

[Shrinkrap]

The melons are chilling in the frig, and I haven't tried them yet. They SHOULD be the Yellow Baby. Yes, fout vines in one container, and I let two melons develop on each. I can't seem to find the dimensions or soil volume. Some instructions I found suggest 40 quarts.



it looks like this.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

Shrinkrap,
I see you have the Organic Tomato Success Kit, correct?

https://www.gardeners.com/buy/organi...8587289VS.html

and it comes with 40 quarts of soil. So that would be ten gallons of volume for the four plants.

My three watermelon vines are in a Gro Pro Premium Round Fabric Pot (7 Gallons). The soil calculator
https://www.hawthornegc.com/tools/soil-calculator
says that's 32.91 quarts of soil for the pot. I've filled it almost full.

I think three watermelon vines for a pot of this size is a stretch (I couldn't bear to let any one go this summer), even if one is a "bush" (short vine) variety (Bush Sugar Baby). I'm feeding them every two weeks and watering constantly, by hand, not on a drip system. Next time I'll go for two per pot max.


Hope the yellow melons are tasty! Fully ripe with the brown tendril!