Growing Melons in the UK

[Earthgirl Jen]

So I finally have some fruits on my melons. They're in an unheated greenhouse. How many do I allow to grow and should I trim any of the leaves as foliage has gone nuts. Found seed packet and have tiger stripe a musk melon heritage type. Also how big do they get and when will I know they're ready? Thanks so much am a total melon novice!

Glad to hear your melons are finally making melons Bumblingbroccoli

Mine are also in an unheated greenhouse and doing fine, if the foliage encroaches onto another plant and tries to smother it, it is fine to cut back those few stems back to the melon 'patch/clump' so to speak, making sure you haven't cut off a melon!

Any chance of some pics?

Your heritage variety sounds like a bit like my 'Collective Farm Woman' melons and will probably get to the size of a tennis/cricket ball before they ripen. From the 'brief' look I've had online you should know when your's are ripe by the smell, and when they have their distinctive stripes showing up, although sometimes the stripes are not very well defined.

If you have melons the size of 'satsumas' and you can see them growing then leave them alone, if you have melons and they are about the size of grapes/gooseberries and turning yellow (I'm assuming your melons start off growing green?) then they aren't going to grow anymore and are dying so remove them from the stem.

You don't say how many you have and what size they are hence the reason for asking for some pics if you can.

My melons are also 'making a bid for freedom' lol... but the bulk of the leaves are healthy, as I've harvested a few from them they are now starting to throw more female flowers and some have taken. I said I would trim the leaves back in the greenhouse, but apart from trimming back encroaching leaves and mildew leaves I've left them get on with it

Hopefully this has helped and what you were expecting to hear, let me know please. x

[mosstrooper]

3 tonight Jen and the biggest Midget so far
Theres a couple of slightly larger ones still to come but i think that's the largest they will grow in the greenhouse.

[Earthgirl Jen]

It's getting late in the year for melons now i would think. This is my first year growing melons too and to date it's been about 6 weeks since the first fruit set. Now the plants are quite happily putting on more growth and new flowers but the way the nights are cutting in,i'm nipping off all of the melons that set since last week.
Perhaps leave two melons per plant and leave the foliage on to feed those two and you may get decent fruit.

I have no idea how big Tiger Stripe may grow but i.m also growing a musk melon in an unheated greenhouse (petite gris du Rennes) and they are shaping up to be about a pound and a half at the minute.
Good luck with them, they are very tasty and i will be growing some next year

Good advice mosstrooper
Pound and a half I'm jealous
Mine in the greenhouse are nowhere near that size, but the last couple of weeks we've had cold nights on the coast and this week has been warm but devoid of much sun, in fact today is the first day I have had to water pots outside in a week!

The nights are drawing in "far to quick' and the the forecast is still for the weather to be warm for us here in August ( usually August is very wet on the coast) and as usual most of what I grow is an experiment. I have more melons growing in the greenhouse and I've lots of male flowers on the melons in the porch, no females yet. But if I do before the end of the week I'm going to take my chances x

[mosstrooper]

Hi Jen,growing in the border is definitely better than growing in pots i've found this year.
The pgdr are going great guns in pots and if they taste as good as the Midgets do, they'll be in the border next year. Another poster said that they grew melons upwards on a trellis and now,having grown some i can see why so i'm gonna sort that out over the winter.
Hopefully we get some of that nice warm west coast weather again next year
BumblingBroccoli, just had a goggle and it seems Tiger Stripe is much like the melons we are growing,about a pound in weight although they take 80-90 days to mature'Hope you get some

[Bumblingbroccoli]

I have about 6 at the last count. A couple satsuma size and one s bit bigger. Stripes visible bug no tell tale smell yet. Will post prix when have worked out how! They are in big potato sacks though foliage trailing over staging.

[Bumblingbroccoli]

How do I upload photos ? It just keeps sending error message saying failed to upload jpeg...

[Jungle Jane]

How do I upload photos ? It just keeps sending error message saying failed to upload jpeg...

Usually it’s because the size is too big,can you crop the photo a bit or if you’re on a pc - Microsoft picture manager then resize to 800 x 600.

[Earthgirl Jen]

I have about 6 at the last count. A couple satsuma size and one s bit bigger. Stripes visible bug no tell tale smell yet. Will post prix when have worked out how! They are in big potato sacks though foliage trailing over staging.

Bumblingbroccoli leave them alone, you live in a warmer part of the country than me and look forward to hopefully 6 maturing! We are at the beginning of Aug ! x

[Earthgirl Jen]

CFW melon number 6 (from the greenhouse) just happened to fall off the vine yesterday morning! It weighed in at 15oz and was delicious last night

[Earthgirl Jen]

Today I have good and Fab news

The Fab news is I harvested 4 melons today, weighing just over 8lb !!!
The good news is ... I was thankful for my harvest of 3 watermelons this year.



This last week on the Coast in Pembrokeshire it has been very humid and not that warm.I can honestly say today is the first day we've seen any decent sunshine for this last week. The Sugarbaby watermelons started the week with a touch of spider mite on their leaves, I haven't had much time this week to have a good look at them except to make sure they were watered. By the time I had a good look this morning, they were smothered and as they inhabit an area in close proximity to tomatoes, cucumbers, CFW melons and mini sweet red peppers all of which could succumb to this pest, they had to go.

So it was with 'heavy heart' I decided to harvest the 3 watermelons and get rid of the already forming grapes (baby watermelons), they hadn't put on any noticeable growth this week and as the forecast for us here on the coast is for temps of less than 20c for the foreseeable future, the most I might get by the time we reach September is 'tennis balls' I decided to end the Sugarbaby watermelons for this year. x

Details to follow tomorrow with the weekly update

[Earthgirl Jen]

First of all to finish yesterday's post the yellow Collective Farm Woman melon was the second largest one from the porch and I could just smell it was ripe yesterday morning and it just pulled from the vine. It weighed 1lb 14oz so it was just 4oz less than my largest and was melon number 7

As for the Sugarbaby watermelons well last year my largest was 1 1/2lb. This years were started at the same time as the ones I grew last year and both of the biggest weighed in at 2 and a half lb. One was 1oz less, one was 1oz more so they evened themselves out. The smallest watermelon was 1lb 3oz.

it just goes to show how much hotter this year has been and the melons have LOVED the heat. I'm happy with my harvest of one melon per plant.



Apologies for the terrible pic as I was so anxious to taste it I took no time or care on how I cut it open!
When you smell a watermelon, that is what you expect to taste although often with shop bought ones, you end up with a watery flesh that tastes of nothing in particular... A homegrown one tastes just like it smells, divine

[Earthgirl Jen]

Weekly melon update 5th Aug 2018

Well first of all melon number 8 & 9 fell of the vines this afternoon. I could smell them. The one on the left actually came from the greenhouse and took during the very hot weather hence it weighed 1lb 3oz. The one on the right came from the porch and weighed just over 14oz.


The 2 melons from last week have now grown into little and a lot larger! lol... I currently have 3 like the larger (approx satsuma size) one growing on the plants in the green house.


I currently have lots of walnuts! growing in the greenhouse... lol ... about 5 all newly appeared within the last week! Whether they'll grow and flourish remains to be seen and as always will rely on our weather here on the West Coast of Wales. As we are still in the 1st week of August, I'll take what I can get and hope to harvest some extra in Sept.

[mosstrooper]

Wow! Thats some impressive results there Jen, 2 and a half pounds is a fair whopper

[mosstrooper]

Well, here's yesterdays melon that wasn't ready yesterday
It's the biggest Midget this year at 1 pound 7 ounces. This is the last of the border melons, the ones that are left are all in pots and reaching about 10 ounces.
Still waiting on pgdr.

[Earthgirl Jen]

Well, here's yesterdays melon that wasn't ready yesterday[ATTACH=CONFIG]82412[/ATTACH]
It's the biggest Midget this year at 1 pound 7 ounces. This is the last of the border melons, the ones that are left are all in pots and reaching about 10 ounces.
Still waiting on pgdr.

Thank you, It was the warmer weather that helped the watermelons this year, I just kept them growing

Impressive melons also mosstrooper ! Like you've said your border melons have been larger than the pots, but the pots are doing ok. The pgdr will get there we are only at the beginning of Aug!

By the way I've saved the seed from the largest CFW in the porch and you are welcome to some if you'd like to try them next year x

Melon number 10 was ready this evening, was a respectable 12 and a half oz


I guess we will both be trying different ways of growing next year, like you I'm already making plans... lol... And I'll be sowing the seeds just as early, as already the last couple of weeks have been a lot cooler and humid here. The leaves on the melons in the greenhouse are starting to show signs of stress/mildew, mainly on the leaves that have hung down OFF the bench. The ones on the bench despite convoluted/extortionate growth have been much happier ?

The porch melons have had a much happier time, more constant temp, much less condensation, I guess it was just the way I grew them that meant they only produced one per plant.

1st lesson learnt, when growing in pots, have patience and wait for 2 or 3 female flowers to appear together before trying to pollinate them!