[NAFEX] Of melons and dreams...
Kieran &/or Donna
holycow at frontiernet.net
Thu Jun 11 14:38:40 EDT 2009
One of the things I read about melons interested me greatly. They have a
reputation for preferring sandy soil. Turns out that they need it to make
strong cell walls for what is essentially a bag of sugar water. If you
don't already have sandy soil, I suggest you invest in a few bags of nice
sand to pour around your plant's stems and roots. Consider also that if we
are talking about a plant that obviously came from some sandy place, it's
also likely to need good drainage. I am thinking of eggplants, they want
sandy soil because they want BOTH plenty of moisture but NOT to have too
much water around their stems and roots.
How much experience do I have personally in growing melons? Very
little. I know they grow wild in the Florida orange groves, and that when
one came up from a stray seed in my parents backyard in Florida that it made
some very nice melons. I know that the plants will hardly grow in our clay
soil here. Considering all the other things that grow ok in our soil, I'd
come back to sand as one important factor. Also I met an old guy from over
Lucky's way on the same red clay who told me that to grow watermelons the
old folks would dig a "king posthole" and fill it with manure. I assume
this would be for a corner post and thus would need to be set fairly deep.
These vine crops all seem the same in that regard, given them a hugely
fertile spot, be generous with water and they will crop like crazy. Half
hearted inputs give half hearted returns. And minimal inputs give plants
that fizzle out and disappear. Donna
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