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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 27, 2011 19:22:22 GMT -5
I figured I'd post on how my efforts at creating my own watermelon landrace is going. It seems to be going very well! I'm not sure if just because i went all out and mulched several weeks before i planted the melons, if it's because this is the first time planting melons with a soaker hose, or if it's just a great year for watermelon here. None of the melons are large yet, but i have one that is growing at a very fast rate. All the other melons are hidden under the foliage and mass of leaves, but i have counted at least 10 more all with varying degrees of color/shade, and shapes and sizes. But, yeah this looks like it might be the best year for me that i have ever grown any type of melon. Hopefully this landrace experiment will pay off. The black bees (Melissodes bimaculatus) which normally visit my corn are the main pollinators for the watermelons as well. They seem to be the best at cross pollinating them much better than i could, since i have watched them go from flower to flower to flower to flower. P.s. I also saw a native bee yesterday (possibly a small bumblebee) pollinating runner bean flowers. It was amazingly skillful at opening the red flowers, and going from one to the next. Just thought I'd throw that observation in there for the people who say beans are rarely pollinated by bees.
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Post by raymondo on Jul 28, 2011 2:10:22 GMT -5
The plants are looking good and I couldn't agree more about bees and pollinating ability. Theirs is far better than ours. I'm doing melon pollinations, both selfing and crossing, as part of a research project and I find it easiest to do in the lab under a microscope.
As an aside, I've watched bees work ordinary bean flowers so I'm wary of potential crossing in the bean patch.
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Post by Hristo on Jul 28, 2011 2:32:12 GMT -5
Looking at your photos is as if I look the weeds in my garden - Purslane, Setaria spp., and my "favourite" the bindweed! How do you deal with it? I was forced to use herbicides to deal with it, otherwise melons and watermelons were overwhelmed by the bindweeds, even squashes had hard time with it.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 28, 2011 10:07:06 GMT -5
Hristo, the truth is at this point i'm having a hard time dealing with the weeds, so in some way's that becomes another element in whether the watermelons live or die. Purslane is actually pretty easy to pull, but most of the time it really doesn't bother me that much and i like having it around to improve the soil from time to time. But, the bind weed is truly horrible, and at this point i really can't pull it out because it pulls on the delicate watermelon plants too. There are some grasses and a few other weeds in this patch which are rather annoying as well, but with the watermelons spreading out and covering everything it's hard to get to any of them.
Is there an herbicide that kills weeds, but does not harm melon plants? I wouldn't think there would be any. Certainly not one specific to only kill grasses, purslane, bindweed, etc., and leave watermelons alone. But, feel free to tell me if there is one. Bindweed is by far the worst though.
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Post by Hristo on Jul 28, 2011 12:30:03 GMT -5
Purslane is not a big problem as it's low grower and do not use too much water to grow, but the bindweed is a real problem. I spray once or twice in spring the old bindweed plants, then I'm trying to hoe/weed the seedlings before they establish.
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Post by gakaren on Jul 28, 2011 21:09:46 GMT -5
How big are your melon patches? If they aren't too large why don't you lay down some newspapers or cardboard to block the weeds? Let the plants come up & they lay it down...hold it down with a bit of soil, rocks or mulch. And water it as you go so that it stays in place until you have something to hold it there.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 28, 2011 22:54:37 GMT -5
How big are your melon patches? If they aren't too large why don't you lay down some newspapers or cardboard to block the weeds? Let the plants come up & they lay it down...hold it down with a bit of soil, rocks or mulch. And water it as you go so that it stays in place until you have something to hold it there. That's a great idea. I may have to try that next year. I had been planning to lay down straw, but i forgot to go get a bale of it, so it never happened unfortunately.
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Post by littleminnie on Jul 30, 2011 20:05:57 GMT -5
I took a similar pic yesterday. Great minds think alike I guess. ;D
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Aug 1, 2011 14:44:08 GMT -5
littleminnie, looking good!
Mind if i ask how other people's watermelons (or other melons) are doing so far? Any pictures?
Joseph, Aednik, Canadamike, Toad, etc... How are your watermelons / other melons doing so far?
-Andrew
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 1, 2011 17:34:34 GMT -5
Bad year for watermelons in my garden. I had perhaps a 3% germination rate. Here are a couple photos of watermelons planted a few feet apart from each other on the same day and how they are growing: Each photo is of two plants. I guess there is no need to say which melon I expect will be included in "Joseph's Best" landrace next year. Here's what a couple rows of cantaloupe looked like today: The row on the left of the irrigation pipe is "Joseph's Best". Here's a photo of a volunteer plant. It has the largest fruit so far but many others are only slightly behind.
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Post by Anton on Aug 2, 2011 17:16:45 GMT -5
Thanks for updating us on your melons people, its very interesting to hear reports and see pictures from other people's gardens. I only have a few watermelon plants this year, and most are in my greenhouse. Part of the plants in the greenhouse; fruit of Yellow JB F1 peeking out in the lower-left corner. Golden Midget: For some reason a watermelon volunteer popped up in the middle of my muskmelon patch outside. I have no idea how it got there. At least initially it grew quicker than any of the muskmelon plants, which I found surprising and impressive. However it was only today that I saw the first (male) flower on the plant. I doubt it will set any fruit that will have enough time to ripen. On July 22: And on August 2:
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Post by toad on Aug 4, 2011 15:11:19 GMT -5
068 by skrubtudse, on Flickr Her are my watermelons last week. Top left: The biggest, my own F1 hybrid (Sugar Baby x White Seeded Besvirino Assyrian Watermelon), is close to ripening. I wait for it to turn a little bit more yellow on the spot where it rests and get no sun. I've selfed it. I plan to play with this, and next year cross it with some of the others. Actually I made it the father of the bottom right little watermelon. Top middle: Skorospelyi Saharnyi, also close to ripening. I've selfed it. Top right: Ultra Skorospelyi, now dropped of, I was too late giving it at rescuestring :-( Bottom row: All are the cultivar Bonanza, the left and middle have both been selfed, the right have been crossed with my own hybrid. I grow them in selfwatering boxes, to be able to leave the greenhouse for a week during summerholidays. We have a wet and dark summer, so I'm surprised how well the watermelons are growing. But temperatures have been OK for my climate.
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Post by mickey on Aug 4, 2011 16:33:29 GMT -5
Here are the melons we got from the seeds of the walmart watermelon we bought this spring and planted the seeds. The Walmart sticker on it said "Diamond 99" photo taken Aug. 2 Attachments:
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Post by seedywen on Aug 4, 2011 16:42:34 GMT -5
Had pretty much given up on growing muskmelon or watermelon but these photos renew hope! Maybe if I obtain seeds from some of you, intrepid, breeders for northern climes!
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Post by toad on Aug 5, 2011 14:19:33 GMT -5
DSCN5579 by skrubtudse, on Flickr Harvested the first watermelon from greenhouse today ;D It is my hybrid, and weigh 3 kg (aprox. 6 pounds) I still have a lot to learn about watermelons, so different from melons. I find it difficult to know when to harvest. This maybe should have waited a few days more on the wine. A little more in my blog: toads.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/watermelon-harvest/
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