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  • From: road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Melons
  • Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 10:08:44 -0500


On Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at 08:25 PM, David Consolvo wrote:

I have what might be considered a great soil for melons, a dark sandy loam
which heats up fast and drains very well. I grew great melons the first
year or two, but after that my melon plants had little vigor with little
growth, hardly enough to ripen one melon. I think this nice loose soil
loses its nutrition quickly, and needs lots of good stuff like manure added
back to it in order to grow hi-nutrient-needing plants like melons.
Opinions anyone?

Sandy soils are notoriously infertile. If melons like sandy soils so much,
how do they get the nutrition they need to grow so fast in one season?

Dave Consolvo
Hungrytown, Virginia
Zone 7


Do you mean that you've been planting the melons year after year in the same spot, and without fertilizing?

Rotate with a non-cucurbit crop, if at all possible; don't put them in the same spot more than once in three years. You can get disease buildup. If you don't have a large area, rotating even individual garden beds can help a lot.

You're also undoubtedly depleting the nutrients. If you can leave the bed in clover (or another legume) for at least a year of the rotation, this will build your nitrogen back up. As for other nutrients, get a soil test so you know what you need to add. Compost is good for just about any problem, but if you add specific nutrients from fertilizers (including organic ones) you need to know what's needed for the situation so you don't get things out of balance.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly





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