Ogen Melon - I know absoloutley nothing - but its growing well!

[joshclem]

Hi

I bought an ogen melon plant for 99p.

It was around 3inches tall.

Its now around 10 inches tall ( 3 weeks ) and still in a small small pot. It has 6 large leaves, what seems to be a flower budding, and 3 long straggley vines.

I was going to put it in a bigger pot this evening however I am unsure if the type of soil matters? Im not wanting to be gardener of the year, but I do want a melon

Also I dont know what I am supposed to the vines?

Please advise

Thank you

[Richard Eldritch]

I'd dig a hole in your sunniest spot fill it with compost, some BFB, and wack it in the ground. Oh and stick a few cane around it and you can use a clear bin bag as a mini green house.

[joshclem]

Hi Richard

thanks for your advice, like the bin bag idea

im afraid i do not even know what a BFB is?

so any type of compost will be fine? but not just random soil from my garden?

Sorry, i am literally that useless in terms of gardening

[Fleurisa]

I think he means blood fish and bone

[Kirk]

Whatever you plant it in they like a rich soil so add a bag or half bag of manure. I used 2 parts multipurpose compost and 1 part manure. They will want something to climb up, small piece of trellis and tie it in.

Any melons that develop will need support and up may well need to hand pollinate - meaning you may need a second for this, not sure they are self fertile.

[BertieFox]

If you just want just one melon, then you don't need to bother too much with attention as somewhere along the line, one flower will get pollinated and the melon develop. Ripening is always the problem which is why your location would be very important if you are going to grow outside. Even here in France we have had difficulty ripening all the fruit well before autumn closed in.

To get several melons at the same time, you need to ensure that there are lots of female flowers (with the little melons at the base) at the same time, which you can pollinate together with a male flower or two. Left to its own devices the melon plant will straggle in all directions and flowers will be intermittent.

Identify the main growing shoot, and let that grow to around three feet if you are training it up a trellis or strings. Then pinch it out, which will encourage the sideshoots on which most of the flowers will be borne. Keep only around six or so sideshoots and pinch these out a couple of leaves after melons have set on each shoot. You should find that there are enough female flowers on the sideshoots to do the pollination as suggested all at one time

If you have a small melon variety, you can let more fruit set than the large ones, and we normally try to get four or five melons on each plant, growing the Ogen type. This year I am trying some cricket ball sized ones which I hope will produce more melons of a handy size.

[BUFFS]

with the smaller melons I use short lengths of ladies stocking(don't ask who the lady is ,wife might get ideas above her station) and tie one end closed and tie a strong cord to one side of the open end, as the young fruitlets grow put the "sock" around it and attach the string to the frame of bamboo supporting the plants growth, this will stop the fruit ripping itself off the plant due to its weight and let it ripen properly. its ripe when you can smell the lovely scent and it "gives" when you press your thumb on the bottom of the fruit. I grow ogen and honeydew up here but last year the summer was june to end of august so too short a time to grow and fruit, the first failure in 17yrs of greenhouse melons, so just give it a go and you will be hooked......

[joshclem]

Thank you all so much for your help i feel like I know how to make this work now.

One last question - what is potting compost? can i use this sort of compost?

also a very good read

http://naturalsociety.com/grow-garde...#ixzz30gr6VesG

[BertieFox]

Thank you all so much for your help i feel like I know how to make this work now.

One last question - what is potting compost? can i use this sort of compost?

also a very good read

Grow a Garden from Garbage: 5 Things to Plant from Food Scraps : Natural Society

Melons like a nice rich compost, so you could use a 50% mix of garden compost with ordinary light garden soil, or a proprietary potting compost from a bag.

The two main problems to avoid are allowing the base of the stem to rot by keeping the compost too wet, best overcome by planting it in a mound, and making sure it is well drained around the stem (don't plant deeper than it was in the pot, and even use a little gravel around the stem), and avoiding red spider mite, which affects plants in a dry atmosphere. Keeping the leaves sprayed with water will reduce this.

Good luck in growing some fabulous melons.

[Ja9]

Don't worry took a moment to wonder what BFB was too!
I put a small diameter pipe in near the root and water down that otherwise to avoid water logging. Nothing like your home grown melon. Might be the smallest you have ever seen but will also be the juiciest!

[Bigmallly]

I've heard these are quite good for supporting Melons but best ask first, don't just take it............

[BUFFS]

I've heard these are quite good for supporting Melons but best ask first, don't just take it............

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where do I get a person of the female persuasion that would occupy those melon fitting cups, green with envy, having little trips down mammory lane, those were the days..