      |
BACKYARD MELONS: (Updated March 1998)
|
|
General Melon Culture:
LATE APRIL: It's time to plant the seed indoors to produce your melon transplants. I like to use a "peat pellet" as a starting "pot". These dry wafers can be purchased at many good gardening stores. They shouldn't cost much more than 7-10 cents each. They puff up when soaked in water and provide a great starting pot for melons, which hate to have their roots disturbed once they have germinated. Plant two or three seeds per pellet, and thin to two plants each once they are well up. I usually start the watermelon and muskmelon seeds about mid-April and plant them under rowcovers in late April or very early May, depending on how settled the Spring weather is. In late April, you should work the soil in the melon area of the garden, enriching the muskmelon area with compost and well composted manure, but leaving most of the fertilizer off of the watermelon area. Watermelons hate lots of fertilizer and water, and will produce poor quality if you over-suppy either.
BERMING THE PLANTING BEDS: Once the garden soil is well worked, mound the planting row about 6-10 inches above the rest of the garden, with the raised area about 2-3 feet across. Apply black plastic down the raised bed, tucking the edges of the plastic a few inches into the soil. Melons love the warm soil generated by the black plastic and you will GREATLY appreciate the weed suppression later in the season. About a week after the seedling melons emerge in your peat pellet planting pots, cut a 4-5 inch hole through the plastic, and plant the melon, peat pellet and all, through the black plastic. If you are really advanced, you will have drip irrigation emitters under the plastic. If not, poke a number of holes to allow future irrigation water to penetrate under the plastic. I find it difficult to get water under the plastic this way, but the melons seem to get roots to the edge real well and thrive during the summer.
COVERING THE MELONS: Do this! Melons respond in warm protected conditions, and reward you for the protection of row covers, as our nights don't really warm up until well into June. The row covers will get your plants off to a great start, ready for warm weather fruit setting and growth. Place the floating row cover (spun pollyester is great) over the plants to give them the protection they need during nightly low temperatures. Mellons need heat, so don't worry about too much heat under the cover, as long as the plants have water. You can irrigate the plants right through the row cover, when necessary. Take the covers off once the weather has settled down to 75-80 degrees every day, usually late May to early June in Central Washington.
Varieties:
Sensible choices for varieties: Plant what you, your neighbors and family will like, but use varieties that ripen over a period of the summer. Main points- don't plant very much of any one thing on the same planting date, even if you like that variety. They will all come on in a rush- glutting the market for fruit. You may like watermelon, but you probably won't eat more than one a week during the Late July through September harvest season. Each watermelon hill produces about two good melons. People like fruit as gifts, but appreciate melons most during hot summer weather. Plan accordingly. Vine ripened honeydews, charentais, and muskmelons do not keep very long, and tend to come on in a rush in Late July and August.
Suggested watermelon varieties: (ones that have been very successful in East Wenatchee, WA - 750 ft. elevation, relatively warm Central Washington site.) ---: Park's Whopper- a consistent, high quality, medium-large melon that ripens during Late July and early August. Parker & Paradise- excellent mid-season Aug-Mid-Sept.), Paradise especially. Crimson Sweet- the best late season melon (Sept.) and Long Chrimson, which performed well for us in 1997.
Avoid commonly sold southern varieties, bush, or "early icebox" types, especially "Sugar Baby" and Micky Lee. I have also had poor productivity with seedless Watermelons. Boy, have I tried, but I give up- they're not worth the effort, unless you have limitless room in the garden.
Typical Family-sized home garden Watermelon. Picture taken in August, about 1-2 weeks prior to harvest. 20-25 pounds.
A Just-uncovered June Melon Garden Picture
An August Picture of the Same Garden
It is sometimes difficult to be sure that a watermelon is ripe. I look for a dried spoon, followed by a dried tendril where the vine connects to the melon stem, and (usually) a creamy white to yellowing color of the skin where the melon contacts the soil. ( PICTURE )
Other melons:
There are many other sorts of melons you could try. There is much more quality out there, waiting to be tried. Cantelope (muskmelons) are just great, and you should have them in the fruit salad mix, but the varieties of honeydews, charentais, and others listed below will soon switch you away from the ho-hum world of "store" cantelope. Plant them as described in the watermelon section above.
a Charentais Melon Picture
The best home garden melon varieties I've tried include: Morning Dew**, Venus Honeydew*, Earli Dew, Honey Girl, Alenore (Charentais type), Ogan, Sweet Thing*, Charmel Charentais*, Passport. (*=don't miss). "Morning Dew", available from Harris Seeds, has been a special family favorite. Venus ( a picture) a "can't mess this one up" honeydew, is crack resistant when it rains late in the season.
These muskmelons, honeydews and other type melons need more frequent irrigation water, fertilizer and general care than watermelons during the growing season, but they are generally easy to grow and can be a "special treat" part of the garden in all but the coolest summer season areas. Be careful with watering late in the summer when these melons are near-ripe. A jolt of irrigation (or heavy rain) can cause the fruit to split.
Good sources for the melon varieties mentioned above: Willhite Seed Inc., P.O. Box 23, Poolville, TX 76487. Park Seed, 1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, SC 29647-0001. Burpee, 300 Park Ave., Warminster, PA 18991-0001. Harris Seed, 60 Saginaw Drive, P.O. Box 22960, Rochester, NY 14692-2960.
