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["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

As an ex-Texas gardener, I feel qualified to comment on clay soils (gumbo) and growing melons or anything edible.  There are plenty of nutrients, especially trace elements, in gumbo.  That said, they are locked into molecular chains that are difficult to bust.  The cations can be freed with liberal applications of compost, shredded leaves, grass (not treated with herbicides) and manures.  Don't use peat or sand.  You are wasting your money on peat, and sand plus gumbo just creates cement.  Some of the sweetest Moon & Stars watermelons I've grown were in well-amended gumbo.  I also used mycorrhizal fungi inoculant to dust seeds when I planted them.  The vines were so robust that they climbed into nearby peach trees, and the melons averaged 24 lbs. each.

Doreen Howard

Now Zone 4b, where I'm facing a heavy frost tonight.  So much for melons here!