Melon

[Spunky]

How many of you have tried growing melons and how did you get on?
If any Im thinking of blackmail mountain watermelon and would be grown in a large cloche in full sun
Somethings telling me it's not going to be worth the hassle.......

[ancee]

I grew some musk melons in the poly tunnel last year, they worked really well. Of the four seeds I planted two worked. Each grew a melon, that grew big enough to have to be supported in a bra! On the beechgrove garden they were growing them in cold frames and did quite well with them. Mine tasted amazing, really sweet and juicy. The poly tunnel blew away in the winter storms, so couldn't do any this year though but next year I'm going to do some in my redundant cold frames

[BertieFox]

I know we are a bit further south here where it is easier but we had a very successful melon year here by growing them in a south facing greenhouse. The key thing in my view is to train the melon properly and stop the plants after the melons have 'set' a few leaves further on. Too many people have melon plants that just grow into a huge tangle but you need to keep them under bounds and only allow three or four fruit to form at the same time. That is why it is important to pick off the early flowers and embryo fruit until you have several female flowers all open at the same time and lots of male flowers with which to pollinate them. Then once the fruit has begun to swell, keep the plant within bounds by pinching out new growth.

We had a lot of 'late' melons this year which were still beginning to ripen well into autumn, but to be honest they weren't worth keeping, while the 'prime' ones were delicious.

[Scarlet]

I've tried in my GH, didn't have much luck to be honest. I harvested a couple but for the room they take up I'd prefer to grow something with better returns.

[bravo2zero]

I tried zucherino rampicante from seeds of italy a couple of times and was reasonably succesful but the work in training and tying in it wasnt worth it and i found out later that i was pinching out the wrong shoots. Had a look around for next year and found some promising ones in the real seed catalogue.

[sparrow100]

I grew a red star watermelon outside with no additional faffing - really REALLY tasty but the slugs like the baby fruits a lot so only one made it to being ripe. More pellets next year.

[Guest]

I tried petit gris de rennes melon from real seeds the last 2 years and wasn't impressed. First year I got fruit but not great. Tried this year the plants grew, but no fruit. I am trying a couple of different ones next year but that may be my last time growing them

[Kirk]

Grew Alaska 2 years ago and it was fairly successful.
I got 1 decent sized one, 1 small and 1 that was too small.
I did plant it late so probably fair.
Propogated it indoors then outside in a big pot, the mix was about half compost and half manure. Had to put 2 solid bamboos in and a trellis between them for it to climb (gave it a bit of guidance) and stood it in a shelterd sunny part. Also had to tie the second one into a cradle and the biggest was rested on a fine plastic mesh to keep it off the compost.

Did it mainly for fun, but turned out pretty good.

Did have to hand pollinate.

[sparrow100]

I tried petit gris de rennes melon from real seeds the last 2 years and wasn't impressed. First year I got fruit but not great. Tried this year the plants grew, but no fruit. I am trying a couple of different ones next year but that may be my last time growing them

Argh no! guess what's on my 2015 growing list?!

[greenishfing]

I've grown them a few times in my unheated greenhouse.. I've had the best results with "pepito". (Unwins) They are not too big so even in these northern climes they seem to have time to grow and ripen. You certainly know when you've got a ripe one as the smell that greets you when you open the greenhouse door is amazing - as is the taste.

This year however was a disaster as I planted them far too late.

[Kristen]

I've grown several varieties of Melon over the years (unheated greenhouse), lots of F1 varieties which cost-a-plenty and only about 4 seeds in a packet ... but, overall, I have found that Sweetheart does well for me - grows strongly, often pollinates without help, and carries enough fruit per plant to be worthwhile - usually can get to my target of 4 Melons per plant.

Training is important, and expect to have to hand pollinate (in a greenhouse at least). No idea how well they might do outside, or in a cold frame.

[kazmum]

I grew sweetheart melons this year in unheated blowaway greenhouse, trained it up the shelving. They pollinated without help and resulting melons were juicy and delicious. Kids loved them.