When I left you last week, we were celebrating 2005 as the Year
of the Sweet Pea as designated by the National Garden Bureau.
This week, we go to its vegetable counterpart as 2005 has also
been named the Year of the Melon by the nonprofit garden
organization that recognizes seed company members.
When I left you last week, we were celebrating 2005 as the Year of the Sweet Pea as designated by the National Garden Bureau.
This week, we go to its vegetable counterpart as 2005 has also been named the Year of the Melon by the nonprofit garden organization that recognizes seed company members.
Local home gardeners may not be aware that melons, including cantaloupes, honeydews and watermelons, can successfully be grown in our area.
While we don’t get as hot as the San Joaquin Valley or Imperial Valley where melons are grown commercially, you can grow them locally as long as you start them early.
The key is to give them a longer growing season to compensate for our cooler temperatures. Seeds of melons should be started as soon as danger of frost has passed.
All melons are warm-season fruits. They thrive in temperatures of 70 to 100 degrees.
They are also thirsty, hungry and space-hogging plants, so be prepared to provide ample water, fertilizer and garden space for the spreading plants. Melon seeds can be sown directly in the soil once frost is no longer in the picture.
Make a small hill of rich, amended, well-draining soil in the sunniest, hottest part of the garden. Plant three to five seeds two inches apart and about an inch deep. Water well, add fertilizer or organic compost, and stand back because the vines will grow and spread over a six-foot area.
You might have even better success growing melons if you lay black plastic or black growing cloth over the ground before planting. The black will absorb heat to further warm the soil.
The melons already mentioned – watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews – are obviously the most common and popular types of melons. Everyone knows about watermelons and the fact there are also seedless varieties.
Cantaloupes are also known as muskmelons with the familiar orange flesh, netted skin and round melons. Honeydews are distinguished by their smooth white to greenish-white rinds. Texture is similar to cantaloupes, but flavor is more subtle and sweet. If you want to be adventurous, there are many other types of melons, including casaba, Crenshaw and more.
Melons need a minimum of an inch or two of water a week. It’s best to water them in the morning to prevent fungal diseases. Fertilize every two or three weeks using an all-purpose fertilizer. Several inches of organic compost mulched around plants will also help.
If plants are flowering, but not setting fruit, don’t fret. The earliest flowers are male, and thus cannot set fruit. Only female flowers will develop into melons. The best and sweetest-tasting melons ripen when the weather is the hottest and driest.
With a little luck with hot weather, you can be enjoying homegrown melons by late July.
