Where to plant melons in bed?

[SkyChild]

My melon seedlings are doing very nicely on the windowsill, obviously I need to wait a little longer for outside soil to warm up a tickle more...

But when the time comes, should I plant them at the front of the bed or back of the bed?

The idea being that if I plant them at the back of the bed, they will scramble across the earth towards the front of the bed (where the sun is) and then up some kind of trellis/support thing.

Pros: They will be growing towards the light, which they will naturally want to do.
Cons: They will get less support. The vertical growth will shade the roots (not sure if that's a problem) and possibly get in the way for watering

But then I thought, if I plant them at the front of the bed, they can scramble the other way and up a support at the back of the bed, on a trellis/wall arrangement.

Pros: Better support. Roots will get sunlight and be easier to water.
Cons: Fighting what I assume will be their natural growth pattern. They might start climbing in my windows which are just above the raised bed!

One way to remedy this would be to have trellis horizontally running the back wall of the bed - would this work?

Any thoughts? Next year I'm thinking I'll need to plant them running from one end of the bed to the other, lengthwise.

[Bill HH]

I think you are over thinking this a bit, The growing tips and associated leaves gather the light, the root end could well be under a bucket, indeed it is often in the shade of the bulk of the plant.

[Zelenina]

I grew melons successfully last year by training them straight up some pea netting at the back of a flat bed in front of a south-east facing wall. Then there was room for dwarf beans in front of them. The year before I just let them scramble across the soil and they didn't do well at all, and slugs hollowed out the biggest of the few tiny melons from underneath. So I'll be growing them straight upwards again this year.

[fishpond]

Slugs and snails love damp, dark places. Especially with a young melon/squash/courgette for company.
I agree with straight up netting at the back.

[Kristen]

Are they going to perform growing outside up in Dundee?

If you train them UP anything you then have to support the weight of the fruit. Its not insurmountable of course, but the fruit can be heavy. If they trail on the ground you don't have to worry about that (but you might want to prop up the fruit "on" something, so it isn't on the ground / available for slugs/snails etc. to have a go at.

[WendyC]

Which way is the wall or fence facing? Ideally I'd have thought you'd need south facing to have much of a chance of ripening the fruits. There was a variety for colder climates trialled on Beechgrove last year: 5 Desserts, Minnesota Midget and Sweet Granite. You've got your plants anyway now but might be one to try if you get no luck with these.

[chrisdb]

If you train them UP anything you then have to support the weight of the fruit. Its not insurmountable of course, but the fruit can be heavy. If they trail on the ground you don't have to worry about that (but you might want to prop up the fruit "on" something, so it isn't on the ground / available for slugs/snails etc. to have a go at.

I'm doing melons and watermelons in the greenhouse for the first time this year and have been debating similar questions about placement. I'm seriously considering trying the above option, that I'm told by other greenhouse owning family members isn't a good idea, which is just to let them sprawl horizontally and not train them upwards at all.

The reason I'm thinking about this is I did the same with outdoor cucumbers last year and had so many I was throwing them away by the boxful. The plants themselves seemed perfectly happy scrambling over the ground instead of upwards, and a bit of groundcover fabric under the fruits seemed to be enough to keep the slugs and snails from eating all the cucumbers.

I'm wondering if the effort to provide them enough vertical space is worth it. It would make life a lot easier to have them at the bottom with wider spaced tomato cordons growing upwards through them... or at least that's how it might be in my imagination.

[chrisdb]

I think this is because people think of the curcubit family as climbers...

Actually, I really hate the term 'climber', because it covers so many different types of plant. Anything with stems that can't support their own weight gets labelled as a climber, but I think we need terms for at least two sub-categories:

1. Plants which grow long floppy stems BUT which have no means to climb or are indifferent to orientation. For example, Nasturtiums are NOT true climbers, they simply spawl outwards and can be made to go up with enough effort and ties. Plants in this category are perfectly happy if left to grow horizontally.

2. Plants which have special adaptations to climb and will do so aggressively as soon as they find support. E.g. various legumes with their little curling hooks, or kiwis which will curl up anything vertical in the vicinity.

I think the cucumber family are a bit of a mix between the two types depending on the exact species. I've never grown melons before, so I don't know how desperate they are to go up instead of out.

[SkyChild]

Thanks folks!

Yes Wendy C it's Sweet granite I'm trying. And it's a sheltered South-facing sunny garden or I wouldn't even attempt them outdoors.

The lack of a greenhouse makes me a bit "do or die" when it comes to testing what I can grow outside. I started them on the windowsill. They might not do anything this far North but it's what I've got, so just going to wait and see

Ok folks, Front to back it is. Sorry if it seemed a silly question, but I just wanted to give them the best chance and if there'd been a huge no-no for one of them, I knew I could rely on you guys to point me in the right direction.

Today's task - rigging up some kind of support

[Kristen]

just to let them sprawl horizontally and not train them upwards at all.

I train mine "upwards", in the greenhouse, but its purely a matter of space. I have lots of plants in the greenhouse and can't afford the luxury of letting them sprawl.

Outside I wouldn't dream of letting Winter Squash climb - I'm quite happy for each plant to sprawl over sever square meters, to save me having to support the weight of the fruit on a climbing-frame