Growing Melons in the UK

[Jungle Jane]

I picked my largest melon the other day,just over 1kg it’s on the windowsill ripening up too I ate a smaller ripened one with my daughter the other day & it was so juicy,all emir variety...

[Earthgirl Jen]

I have finally picked the first/largest melon, I am trying to get the photo on here but it doesn't seem to want to work at the moment, I weighed it and it came out at 2lb 5.5oz, it has gone onto the kitchen windowsill to get some sun/light to finish off the ripening. if I can get the photo bit working I will add it onto here asap..

Woop Woop! I bet your'e chuffed they didn't rot this year? Well I am for you x That's a bleeding good size BUFFS, I am SO pleased for you x

Are a windows or Apple user, If your'e an Apple user I can help with pics...

[Earthgirl Jen]

I picked my largest melon the other day,just over 1kg it’s on the windowsill ripening up too I ate a smaller ripened one with my daughter the other day & it was so juicy,all emir variety...

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Quite an achievement Jane for an outside grown melon lovely x Woop!
I sincerely think most folk looking at this thread will think so what?
My response would be...

HAVE you actually TASTED tasted one yet! xxx

Nuff Said

[BUFFS]

Woop Woop! I bet your'e chuffed they didn't rot this year? Well I am for you x That's a bleeding good size BUFFS, I am SO pleased for you x

Are a windows or Apple user, If your'e an Apple user I can help with pics...

I have a old Microsoft phone that requires me to throw a couple of shovels of coal on, to get it working properly, I think it has alexander bells signature on it as its that old.. I don't have to use a tripod and lens cover though , I upgraded..

[BUFFS]

Just a postnote, the other 7 melons have bit the dust with the constant cold since the start of August, so it seems some things do not change..

[goosander]

Buffs. Mine have done the same. Showing off my great crop of melons almost the size of a Jaffa orange. Now they are just lying there and the plants have died. My melon pear plants are full of melons so just wondering what will now go wrong with them.
Bob.

[boatsman]

I don't know what happened with my melons. I had a lot of flowers, but they were all apparently male. As I wasn't sure I tried hand pollination with a cotton swab but nothing happened and all the plants died.

[Mark_Riga]

Melons are not supposed to keep very long and this one was going a bit furry round the stalk and had a small patch (you can see the nick) needing to be cut out but otherwise it is very good and very sweet (a slice is missing from the half on the left). It was probably picked about the 10th Oct.



Unfortunately, I don't know the variety. I've got 6 empty packets but none are like it. Arava (F1) is similar but was early with green tasty flesh. This has green flesh also but smooth skin and was a lot later.

I think I just found it - in a 4 pack of DeRee seeds. It is a honey Dew Melon - and the pack isn't empty!
I have another 2 melons left of this type but I don't think they will be as sweet as, although the plant had died, they were not quite as yellow but we shall see.

So next year, I'll try Arava (if I can find it), honey dew and probably granite and 5 desert, both from real seeds and may be a water melon.

[Earthgirl Jen]

Well done Mark, I found one of my Collective farm Woman melons 'lurking' at the back of my fridge about 6 wks after I picked it and just like you a small part had started to go off ... But cut that bit out and the rest was really tasty...

This year I'm growing my own saved seed from Collective Farm Woman and Prescott Fond Blanc. Just like you bought from real seeds... maybe we can swap some just for fun... I shall be be sowing them at the beginning of March this year. While this may seem a bit early for most and despite the fact I'm on the West Coast of Wales so we don't get much frost, we also don't seem to have that long a growing period here for melons.
They will require a bit more fuss they were worth it...
So I'll start a new thread for 2019 melons shortly and we can all compare growing notes as I will be doing a few things different this year x

Melons are not supposed to keep very long and this one was going a bit furry round the stalk and had a small patch (you can see the nick) needing to be cut out but otherwise it is very good and very sweet (a slice is missing from the half on the left). It was probably picked about the 10th Oct.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]84194[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately, I don't know the variety. I've got 6 empty packets but none are like it. Arava (F1) is similar but was early with green tasty flesh. This has green flesh also but smooth skin and was a lot later.

I think I just found it - in a 4 pack of DeRee seeds. It is a honey Dew Melon - and the pack isn't empty!
I have another 2 melons left of this type but I don't think they will be as sweet as, although the plant had died, they were not quite as yellow but we shall see.

So next year, I'll try Arava (if I can find it), honey dew and probably granite and 5 desert, both from real seeds and may be a water melon.

[Laudan]

Newbie

Hi

Thank you much for documenting all your melon escapades!
I have read through it all and I am still not sure if I should go with the RHS advice which says pinch out growing tip after 5 leaves and then keep the 4 strongest side shoots....or just let them do their thing. It all sounds quite complicated.
I started my Minnesota midgets/rich sweetness and Prescott fond bland in March and have kept them in conservatory. They all have roughly 4 sets of leaves and are in 8 litre poly pots and romping away already.
Shall I just leave them and let them do their thing? Also my greenhouse is only 5ft by 6ft and they are in poly pots as I don’t have a border will they be ok to just scramble over each Other? Sorry for all the questions!

Thank you again for taking so much time...l like you say there really isn’t much info around in growing melons in the UK so you have really helped me and many others bless you!

[Earthgirl Jen]

Hi

Thank you much for documenting all your melon escapades!
I have read through it all and I am still not sure if I should go with the RHS advice which says pinch out growing tip after 5 leaves and then keep the 4 strongest side shoots....or just let them do their thing. It all sounds quite complicated.
I started my Minnesota midgets/rich sweetness and Prescott fond bland in March and have kept them in conservatory. They all have roughly 4 sets of leaves and are in 8 litre poly pots and romping away already.
Shall I just leave them and let them do their thing? Also my greenhouse is only 5ft by 6ft and they are in poly pots as I don’t have a border will they be ok to just scramble over each Other? Sorry for all the questions!

Thank you again for taking so much time...l like you say there really isn’t much info around in growing melons in the UK so you have really helped me and many others bless you!

Apologies for the late reply Laudan and thank you for the kind words.

I would go with the RHS advice rather than mine, they have the knowledge. Last year I just wanted a melon from each plant and that was what I got. I had a lot of trouble trying to get a second melon to take once one had formed. So pinch out, don't be in a rush to pollinate the first female flower you see, wait until there are at least 3 or 4. (possibly 2 per plant for you as yours are in 8 lit pots) A healthy happy plant will soon start to put out female flowers.

Heat is the key with melons, as I said my front porch has a proper roof which means the night time temps didn't drop as low as in my unheated greenhouse. The temps didn't drop below 15c for most of the summer. Although on the coast here for most of August the night time temps were between 5-10c and the melons sulked.

They will be fine in pots (as that's what you have) as long a you feed them (half strength) every other watering. Melons are greedy feeders. Mine in theory last year had at least 10 litres of compost each and that was possibly why I only had one melon per plant also. I shall be trying different ways this year to see what the difference is.

As for training them it's up to to you I didn't and they were a 'mess' of leaves which were all fine and healthy and it was quite fun to explore between the 'growth' and be surprised with finding a melon...lol...

We are all learning together and I hope this helps x

[Gillykat]

I've got 6 water melon 'Sugar Baby' currently growing well on my south-facing living room windowsill under a basic Wilko propagator I only sowed them (as well as various tomatoes & cucumber) early last week and had the propagator in my airing cupboard for extra warmth for two/three days until stuff started to germinate. Now it's on the windowsill in full sun all day and brought on to desk at night so no chance of getting chilled.

I don't normally like the weather TOO hot but I'm praying for lots of lovely sun and heat this year just t see how well these melons grow in my greenhouse on the allotment.

[Brack]

I have 3 sugar baby watermelons in the greenhouse now (my daughter sowed them a month ago). They're planted in the ground with some manure and compost, we'll see how they (and the passion fruit) go.

[mosstrooper]

Laudan, Minnesota Midget doesn't need pinching out. They only set 3 or 4 fruit so give them around 18"between pots and let them get on.Ignore the advice on the RHS page about pinching out tips,its nonsense. Between us on here last year we muddled through ok

[Urban]

whats considered the most reliable cropping good tasting melon for the uk in a greenhouse?

I fancy growing some this year, never had much luck with them in the past, hopefully we will get another summer like last year