North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark & Helen Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Steve wrote: "One thing I always noticed though is that it was like someone
> turned off a switch on September 1st. Melons harvested in August were
> sweet and good. After September 1st any remaining melons were quickly
> loosing sweetness and soon were not worth eating."

Steve,

I've noticed the same thing.  I've tried different melons here but the
melons are not very sweet.  The exception is the first melons to ripen are
sweet and good, but from then on they are tasteless.  I have no idea what
the problem is, but it's not that I'm too far north.  Nor are they picked
too early.  We don't pick watermelons until the little feeler tendrils are
brown and the melon bottoms turn yellowish.  But even so, the later melons
are still big, but so bland they're not worth eating.  I just let them rot.

Mark
KS


Mark
KS



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve" <>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 1:02 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Melons anyone?


>
> If you are having trouble with melons, I'll assume it's because you live
> too far north. So do I. Human nature being what it is, we still want to
> grow melons.
> Many years ago, I read an article (I'm pretty sure it was in Pomona)
> about melon varieties for the north. The best muskmelon, according to
> the author, was a variety sold by Harris Seed called Early Dawn. I
> believe they have recently dropped that variety from their catalog. Over
> several years, I grew one or two other promising varieties along side
> Early Dawn but never found one that worked better.
> I came up with a method that gave me good melons every year, though
> muskmelons always did better than watermelons. Sugar Baby watermelons
> did pretty well though. My method was to dig a long trench, usually down
> the center of the garden. The trench was only about 18 inches deep and
> 18 inches wide, maybe less. I would then drive my truck across town
> where there were a few horses. They often warned me that it should be
> composted before use in the garden but I would explain that I wanted it
> for the heat and the fresher the better. I would fill my trench to the
> top with the horse manure. Then I would take the soil that came out of
> the trench and throw that back on top. I would rake it smooth creating a
> rounded ridge with the horse manure hidden inside.
> I would then take a sheet of black plastic and cover the whole ridge.
> Transplants would be planted through slits in the black plastic right
> down the center of the ridge. I would then take gallon milk jugs filled
> with water and place one right next to each plant. Last of all, I
> covered the whole planting with a floating row cover. Those milk jugs
> placed next to each plant not only moderated the temperature a little
> but kept the small plants from being crushed by the row cover in a
> pounding rain. My favorite was one called VisPore because it was soft,
> stretchy and held more heat than others. A quick search of the VisPore
> name came up with a different product used as a ground cover to prevent
> weeds. There are other floating row covers to choose from if the VisPore
> is no longer available. As soon as I could see several flowers on the
> melon plants, I would remove the floating row cover to let the bees do
> their work. I generally put the floating row cover away for the season
> at that point.
> This was a lot of work but the difference was like day and night. A soil
> thermometer stuck through the black plastic into the top of the ridge
> would read in the 90s compared to the 60s in normal soil a few feet
> away. In my climate, melons grown like other garden plants would form
> only a few small tasteless melons. With the above technique, the plants
> would be easily 5 times bigger and we would get dozens of big flavorful
> melons. One thing I alway noticed though is that it was like someone
> turned off a switch on September 1st. Melons harvested in August were
> sweet and good. After September 1st any remaining melons were quickly
> loosing sweetness and soon were not worth eating.
>
> Steve - In the Adirondacks of northern NY
>
>
> Deb S wrote:
> > Once again I am going to attempt to grow melons this year.  I plan to
> > make individual raised beds (I have a lot of black plastic culvert
> > sections lying around) for each melon hill.  With this method, I can
> > pretty much create the soil environment I want (mix in
> > compost/sand/potting soil or whatever).  I also will cover the top
> > with black plastic and start the seeds in jiffy pots in the house.
> >
> > I'm hoping MAYBE this will yield me a few melons!  I have a watermelon
> > variety (Moon and Stars) and a muskmelon variety (Collective Farm
> > Woman).
> >
> > Any tips on melon growing would be most welcome.  Also, what are your
> > favorite melon varieties?
> >
> > deb
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