Melon beginning to fruit-now what?

[selfraising]

My Sweetheart melon so far has four fruit growing. What should I do now? Do I need to cut it back or only allow a certain number of fruits?

[FionaH]

No idea, but congrats on the fruit

[Jax]

I had one growing really well and went out one morning and a birdie had eaten it Was so gutted. congrats on the fruits though

[selfraising]

Sorry to hear that Jax. This is the first time I've managed to get any to set fruit so am hoping they will keep on growing and not drop off!!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Wish I had some to drop off! Mine is still flowering like mad! Oh well.................

[selfraising]

Wish I had some to drop off! Mine is still flowering like mad! Oh well.................

Oooh err! Are yours in a gh Bernie? I had tonnes of flowers too and thought that's all I was going to get and then the day before yesterday noticed a fruit, so don't give up hope yet

[Scottishnewbie]

we ate our first one a week or so ago. it was small but utterly delicious. even OH, who doenst even like melon said it was yummy!

[selfraising]

How big did you let it get before picking it?

[Scottishnewbie]

I didnt pick it cos I wanted to, I picked it cos the skin was starting to split and the smell of melon was overpowering every time I went into the GH! It was about 6 inches (sorry too old to go metric!), in diameter.

There's another one on the other GH plant and it is a bit bigger but not ready to pick yet.

Hope this helps?

[selfraising]

Thanks Scottishnewbie. Mine aren't that big yet but as they are a smaller variety, I'm hoping that they will be ripe enough at 6 inches.

[Newbie]

My 2 Melon plants in a growbag in the Greenhouse have three fruits on them between them. I left them to do their own triffid-like thing initially, just tying up the tendrills to a net erected up one end of the GH - they seemed to like this. Now the fruits are getting to a decent size (about fist sized) some of the tendrills & leaves are going brown & dying so i have cut these off as i expect its too late for any more fruits to set & ripen now. I've just been giving it the occasional feed with tomato food.

[Jax]

believe it or not I have gotten a melon starting to grow i thought it would be far too late and it looks as though another is coming aswell so fingers crossed )

[selfraising]

I've got 4 melons on one plant now and 3 on the other. Two are quite a good size now, although I'm not sure how big the Sweetheart melons get!

[Tomatoking]

We've grown melons this year in the polytunnel and so far have picked 3 good sized melons. The way to grown melons is the same as cucumbers i.e. you grown them on the stem, leave one melon on each stem and a few leaves, usually only about 3 melons to each plant. When there are too many melons on the plant, they turn yellow and very small, so just cut them off. Once they get about orange size, net them so that they are supported. When the stalk starts to craze, they are ready to pick and with some you can smell the lovely melon odour in the greenhouse. Ours were gorgeous, so full of flavour. We still have a few left, but unfortunately we had a bit of mildew on our plants, which we didn't catch in time, but the fruit is still maturing. We feed them with tomato feed as well. Also you should nip out the top of the plant when it gets to the wire - about 6ft.

[selfraising]

Oh thanks tomatoking. Going out now to do some work on the melons!