North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>]

On May 21, 2008, at 5:44 PM, Mark & Helen Angermayer wrote:

>  
> <x-tad-smaller>Something else that's perplexing is that last year my melons were grown in compost.  I have a huge compost pile in my orchard area.   The trees on the edge of it grow like mad.  It's only a couple years old, so maybe that's my problem but last year I harvested around 10 large watermelons and a few cantelope that were acceptable in flavor, but after that the melons were bland.  I probably let 50 of them rot.</x-tad-smaller>
>  
<x-tad-smaller>
</x-tad-smaller>Could excess nutrients be the problem? Compost is very good; but straight compost may be too much of a good thing. The plant may be putting all that energy into huge amounts of vegetative growth, and not concentrating enough on the fruit.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly