Growing Melons in the UK

[no_akira]

Youre lucky earth.goddess i've still got the packet they were bought as a birthday present from the nephew.

Melon. Pepito (F1)

No you have to water "water melons" everyday, "the clues in the name... "

The dalek gets 2/3 if an 8 litre watering can mostly every day. The soil in dalek is 95% (fresh in March) stable manure.

Out of this dalek I've got this melon, an outdoor cucumber & a waltham butternut squash all doing well

There is "trouble at mill" though I think I might have a wasp nest in the dalek?

Just noticed on packet in small writing "seeds washed inThiram"

[mosstrooper]

Evening jen, still no ripe melons here. The Minnesota Midget are getting to be a fair size now, on number 1 plant in the border they seem to be getting progressively bigger, so that the third melon to set is quite is a bit larger than the first? It's still putting on loads of growth and flowers too.
Mm number 2 in the border which is the one that was undermined by Moley has dropped all it's flowers and the four melons it has set haven't grown at all since last week.

The pgdr are still going mad(i'm glad these are in tubs) and the largest melons on these are growing so well i've slung them in onion bags tied to the frame.

I took two nectarines home (one each to keep the peace) and they were superb. The variety is Lord Napier and i would recommend it to anyone thinking of growing one.

I'll try to remember to take my camera next time.

[Earthgirl Jen]

OK don't hate me, I've just harvested melon number 2 from the greenhouse.
I went in this evening to water like I always do and just noticed that this one was going rather yellow. So I lifted it up to see how yellow it was underneath and it just came away from the vine

This one made a gorgeous shared desert, was 2oz heavier than the last one at 13.5oz, it practically popped when I went to cut it in half and was edible to the rind





Anyone else harvested any yet?

[mosstrooper]

Nice Getting bigger Jen but no signs of going yellow just yet
Is that the Collective Farm Woman melon?

[Earthgirl Jen]

Nice Getting bigger Jen but no signs of going yellow just yet[ATTACH=CONFIG]81896[/ATTACH]
Is that the Collective Farm Woman melon?

Yes, Collective Farm Woman melons sown on the 15th March,

They were planted into their final pots on the 8th may 2018


By the 4th June they were starting to flower


By the 7th June I'd had the first melon take


Nice looking melons by the way mosstrooper
Is that when you know your melons are ripe? when they change colour?
I looked mine up and reviews were mixed as to when they were ripe it depended on where and how they were grown and also the temperature.

[mosstrooper]

Hi jen,i watched a utube video of someone growing Minnesota Midget melons and theirs were sort of yellow. Now, these were in the US and i didn't realise colour depended on the temperature they are grown at.
Anyway, every time i visit i give the melons a little twist and there is no give so, i think yours were ready about a month and a half after setting so i may have another two weeks to wait

[Earthgirl Jen]

Weekly melon update Sun 22nd July 2018

Happy to report all plants still alive and all melons so far accounted for, still growing

The first greenhouse melon I harvested on the 11th July which up until then had no other melons on the plant has decided to start producing female flowers again (no surprise there) managed to get 2 female flowers hand pollinated yesterday, yet another week patiently waiting to see what 'may' happen.

The mildew which I thought may have taken hold this last week as the temps have been cooler wasn't that much worse, there have been a few more leaves showing it, mainly on the older leaves which I snipped off. If it appeared on a younger leaf then I have just rubbed it out with my finger. Yes I rubbed it off! I expected the make to problem worse and maybe spread, but I have been doing this now for the last 6 weeks and it hasn't made it any worse!

It looks like I could be eating melon number 3 this week, lovely yellow colour now and when I lifted it up it didn't want to come away from the stem, so I'll give it another couple of days


This week it's 'can you spot' the Sugarbaby watermelons as their foliage has decided to take on a growth spurt!


Whilst not being 'humongous' this one is a lot bigger than my hand, and the little tendril nearest to the stem is still healthy, will it get any bigger?!



Also interesting to note this week the Sugarbaby watermelons are throwing female flowers again, one on each plant today (there are 3 to this 30lit pot) had an open female flower and only one male flower... I hand pollinated just because I could. In my dreams it worked ...

[Earthgirl Jen]

Evening all

This evening I harvested Little and Large
Melons number 3 and 4. They both pollinated at roughly the same time although the one on the left was in the greenhouse and the one on the right was in the porch and had a much more consistent temperature as it didn't drop as 'drastically' at night. Thanks to that and glorious hot spell we had.
They weighed in at 14.5oz and 2lb 2oz!!! The biggest melon I've ever grown so far


The whole reason I grew 11 Collective farm woman melons in 4 large pots this year is wholly down to the fact I was expecting last years summer, which wet and cool for the majority of July and August here on the coast and these melons were bred to cope with these conditions and a short summer season.
That and the fact they are meant to be small melons and I thought that if I got ONE melon from each plant then I would be delighted.
I'm 'Flabbergasted' that I'm harvesting in July ! Thanks to this weather and I have a 2lb 2oz melon, the 2oz is awfully important you know

[Jungle Jane]

It’s been a good year for melons,I’m keeping mine to one per bucket & pinching out the others to get whopper melons hopefully,I made some hammocks today they’re getting a bit weighty

[Earthgirl Jen]

It’s been a good year for melons,I’m keeping mine to one per bucket & pinching out the others to get whopper melons hopefully,I made some hammocks today they’re getting a bit weighty

[ATTACH=CONFIG]81995[/ATTACH]

Thank you x for sharing pics JJ Well done you x Those are looking scrumptious I'm fully expecting yours to top my 2lb 2oz one (the 2oz is awfully important you know )
It's exciting isn't it x

[Earthgirl Jen]

Hi jen,i watched a utube video of someone growing Minnesota Midget melons and theirs were sort of yellow. Now, these were in the US and i didn't realise colour depended on the temperature they are grown at.
Anyway, every time i visit i give the melons a little twist and there is no give so, i think yours were ready about a month and a half after setting so i may have another two weeks to wait

mosstrooper picked any yet?
Just letting you know that of the 15 or so I thought I'd managed to hand pollinate in the porch, not one has grown any bigger than a 'large gooseberry' before it's turned yellow and dropped off, so today I took the porch melons in hand and this evening I have reduced all 5 melons to 2 or 3 mains stems also taking off any side shoots. I still have 3 melons that are slowly starting to turn in there so I was careful with their stems, (2 are growing on side-shoots) The biggest melon that I harvested a couple of days ago, it's main stem is already showing signs of further flowers and as we have still one week of July and August/Sept to go I'm waiting to see what might happen. I live in hope, 'fingers crossed'.

I haven't done it yet to the greenhouse ones but if I get a chance I'll have a look tomorrow, although the first melon that I harvested (and it was the only one on that plant) has produced female flowers this week and lots of them, I've hand pollinated 2 (hopefully at the same time ) and I'm removing any further flowers that show on this plant in the hope it will get the two I hand pollinated to grow?

I'm guessing at the moment that the ones on the porch just couldn't cope with the sheer quantity of foliage produced and it was all healthy ! It just didn't have enough energy to produce fruit as well as I had confined it to a pot and 'crammed' them in ....

The shock I have given the plants in there today will either be kill or cure...

[chris_m]

The first of my two Emirs fell off the stem when I was checking them this evening - so I've just eaten half of it, yum yum.
I'll be trying them again next year methinks.

[mosstrooper]

Still no ripe melons yet Jen, although the very first one that set may be getting the very beginning of a "crinkley bottom" where the stem attaches
Well done Chris,i'm getting a little jealous here like

[Earthgirl Jen]

Still no ripe melons yet Jen, although the very first one that set may be getting the very beginning of a "crinkley bottom" where the stem attaches
Well done Chris,i'm getting a little jealous here like

Watch out mosstrooper I woke up to this yesterday morning!

Melon number 5

It had split in the night ! It was sheer hell as I cut the edges off and had to eat the rest for breakfast

It was nowhere near as yellow as the rest of them were !

[Bluenowhere]

So excited my first two melons are ripe. Both from same vine. They literally fell of in my hand, good job they had their little net hammocks.

Can’t wait to try one later.



So hoping I’ve got this photo thing right (first ever attempt)