sphinxeyes
gardener
Suburbia, small garden in side yard, containers on larger back deck. Hot humid summers.
Posts: 154
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Post by sphinxeyes on Apr 12, 2009 17:21:18 GMT -5
About a week ago I moved three Minnesota Midget melon seedlings into my greenhouse. They had been doing very well in my basement under fluorescent lights, three in one wide pot. When their second leaves were established I transplanted them from the pot and planted one each into 3 gallon buckets. I used regular potting soil and gave them a good deep drink. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the roots were beginning to grow sideways and so I ripped off a few in the process of transplanting. They wilted right away after that, but later in the day I noticed they were standing upright again, so I thought they'd recover. They remained this way until today. This afternoon they were all wilted again. Could this be because they're growing deeper roots and I need to water for longer to really saturate the soil? Do they need fertilizer at this stage or is that only when they're producing fruit? At the moment it's 50 degrees outside, and in the afternoon on a sunny day the greenhouse can reach 80. But the nights are still in the 30s, so I have a heater I've been using to keep the temperature from freezing. Is the greenhouse getting too hot for the melons? The tomatoes and peppers are all thriving. Minnesota Midget is a northern variety, so does it need cooler temperatures? It's rained the past few days so I think the air is plenty humid and the heater isn't drying it out too much. Help! I don't want to lose my melons!
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Post by grungy on Apr 12, 2009 17:29:00 GMT -5
Yes and Yes. a weak solution. Daytime temps should be okay, might want to boost the nighttime ones.
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sphinxeyes
gardener
Suburbia, small garden in side yard, containers on larger back deck. Hot humid summers.
Posts: 154
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Post by sphinxeyes on Apr 12, 2009 18:53:08 GMT -5
Thanks! I gave them a deeper drink and drilled some holes around the bottom of the buckets. I just checked on them and they are standing up again. Yay! I'll try to regulate the temperature and only use the heater at night. What's the advisable range for the greenhouse temp? I've read that tomatoes and peppers should be kept above 55F, so would 55-65 be a good range?
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Post by canadamike on Apr 12, 2009 20:00:57 GMT -5
I all depends. Most of the time, professionals will keep the temperature lower to slow the growth of the plants and make them bulkier, If this is what you want, that's ok. But it is a bit cold for the melons. 70 would be a nice compromise I think, 60 during the night.
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Post by grungy on Apr 13, 2009 3:17:33 GMT -5
Second Michels advice, might even bump night time temps to 65F though 60 should be okay and may help give them a chance to make a great healthy recovery. Also may I suggest next year that you make paper pots or use peat pots (small sized around 2" or so) and transplant them pot and all as both melons and squash really don't like to have their roots disturbed. (This is just a suggestion, as this is the way I get around dealing with finicky plants.)
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loki
gopher
Posts: 15
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Post by loki on May 27, 2009 15:57:15 GMT -5
I think you are trying way too hard with these. They will mature just fine in zone 6 planted right into the soil! Melons are notoriously picky transplants. Every time you transplant them you set them back a few weeks. Damaging the roots is a NO NO. They need to be babied. And transplanting them into gallon pots is another problem. The larger the pots the harder to transplant. My advice, use black or green plastic and row cover. Put them in the ground mid April and cover with row cover (I put plastic pots around to keep the row cover tented. Then in mid-june, remover the row cover. You should have melons by August. MN midget are really early.
I disagree with the other poster. Melons need to be about 75 or more. They will mildew if kept much below that. It's OK to harden off other plants at lower temps, not melons. Night temps of 65 are probably OK though. But see below!
Here in northern UT, zone 5, my friend plants melons May1, transplants May 30 into this system, and takes the row covers off in July. She usually has 20 melons on a plant - and not early varities like yours, no problem. Lots of compost in the soil too!
I think what the row cover does here is keep the night temps up. It also heats the days a bit, but we have 30 - 40 degree changes day to night. This moderates it. The row covered plant grow twice as fast!
I'm trying rootrainers this year and planting seeds directly into the grownd and comparing the results. Rootrainers are very deep, but narrow, and are great at keeping the roots undamaged. They are sort of hard to get. The manufacturer is really lousy at service. Parks has large ones (I am using smaller ones, though they are the same depth).
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