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Post by bluelacedredhead on Aug 26, 2008 20:19:27 GMT -5
P.S. I just adore that poster of the Exposition. I can't possibly go on such short notice  , but next year being their 20th Anniversary...Now wouldn't that be something to see!!! And those melons are stunning! |
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Post by canadamike on Aug 26, 2008 21:08:52 GMT -5
Wherever you are Wendy, I'll send you seeds. They are amazing. I never saw one like them, and I have grown lots...For the first time in 22 years, I can say I know a way to grow melons AND get fruits without relying on a great summer or tunnels/greenhouses...
I'll get my car back from the garage tomorrow and will take pictures of mine. I haven't been to the garden in 3 days...and the weather was great...they must be much larger now...
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Post by canadamike on Aug 28, 2008 2:45:11 GMT -5
Here is a picture of 3 of my 5 melons taken yesterday. They are close to 4 pounds each and still growing strongly. By far my biggest, healthiest melons this year. Do you see any mildew, any traces of downy mildew on the leaves? They both are taking a big toll elsewhere on the patch.  |
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Post by Jim on Aug 28, 2008 13:49:23 GMT -5
nice melons my friend  |
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Post by landarc on Aug 28, 2008 16:44:48 GMT -5
Canada Michel has nice melons  |
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Post by Jim on Aug 28, 2008 17:01:07 GMT -5
Mike can I please have a few seeds after the harvest?
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Post by canadamike on Aug 28, 2008 21:04:47 GMT -5
Yes Landarc, That's why I get the men bras ads  As you can see I need one  There will be seed for people here of course, do not worry. I went to the farm today, and to my surprise, they had incredibly increased in size. My french friend Michel says the are renowned for that, they can grow exponentially fast at the end when water is aplenty. which sure is the case this year... So I will cover them tomorrow and for the next weeks in order for them to manufacture sugar and flavor, not keep on growing and become watery tasting. I would say the melons have each increased by about a bit less than 2 pounds in the last 2 days, there is a huge difference. Not so for the 2 later/smaller ones, although they did put on some weight. They are market size already, about where the others were last week or so. I went today to my friends CSA operation, and their melons and tomato patches are a dreadful thing to look at. Most melons are baseball size with maybe 10% of the leaf mass still alive, albeit very barely. It is even worse for their tomatoes, and we had a lot of cultivars in common, as we grew them together and shared plants. We have the same soil, it is in the same village, so climate and rain were the same. The only difference is I restrained myself to go in the patches under rainy conditions, especially once the evidence of disease was clear. It was hard to resist the urge, but it paid off. And I trimmed nothing, I did not want any wounds to be open in those conditions. I will have a huge harvest of tomatoes, and many very big monsters. Bloody Butcher, New big Dwarf and Extreme Bush are thefirst to produce ripen fruit. I have missed my chances to hybridise or self, except for 1 melon, but I have kept the patch mostly alive for the melons, although a lot are diseased, and the maters are perfectly healthy, except the leftover plants I put in the lower area of the garden, which are as sick as hell, but I was trowing them in the compost pile anyway and had planned to put nothing there. I just made some raised bed and said ''what the heck'' I can only get tomatoes if it goes well... it did not, but I have maybe 30 pounds or so to harvest from there, better than nothing anyway... |
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Post by bell4562 on Aug 29, 2008 5:49:27 GMT -5
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Post by canadamike on Aug 29, 2008 6:14:26 GMT -5
This is unbearable for a lot of us in the cold and the rain, Michel, but they sure look good and delicious...
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Post by biorag on Aug 30, 2008 0:07:29 GMT -5
FOR HG's MEMBERS !!!!! Vous etes tous invités à la fête du potimarron au chateau de Lunéville. VENEZ NOMBREUX !! Maybe I'll be there with my wife !? |
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Post by canadamike on Aug 30, 2008 11:45:54 GMT -5
How are your Lunéville doing Gérard?
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Aug 30, 2008 21:38:29 GMT -5
Merci, Michel. Okay, that's enough French for this week I hope the Downy Mildew doesn't attack your lovely melons as quickly and as forcibly as it did my Old Time TN. I didn't go to the garden yesterday at all and tonight after work I thought I should go see how everything looks. All the melon plants were dead!!! So I brought the 5 fruit to the porch to (hopefully) ripen. Guess I'll be making a few jars of Peach/Melon conserve if they all ripen at once. |
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Post by canadamike on Aug 30, 2008 21:58:25 GMT -5
I've had the attack too. »I lodt one leaf of Lunéville. That's the second occurence this year. I treated after the first with sulfur. Today they were OK. I might treat again tomorrow, I think it would be a good idea. But for a lot of them, it is too late. There seems to be some resistance, although plants are weakened, in a certain number of them, none like the Lunéville whatsoever.
I have a disease I never saw in aquashes, and my books are in a box somewhere as we are moving soo. There is like inflated bubbles, dark green in the leaves, no insect there, and the fruits are all warted , but the skin is normal, like if they had pebbles under them. No leasions yet, they are like a copper leaf that has been stamped and stretched.
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Post by biorag on Aug 31, 2008 0:05:56 GMT -5
How are your Lunéville doing Gérard? Hello Michel ! They are doing well for three of them, but they are not oval but round !? |
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Post by canadamike on Aug 31, 2008 0:55:16 GMT -5
That is the original form. Mine were oval but are becoming round getting bigger. One is round already. This is good. Apparently, the oval shape showed up later in the lin. The ones they have at the chateau are round. It might be that its growth varies according to environmental conditions...
Did you eat any?
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, but next year being their 20th Anniversary...Now wouldn't that be something to see!!!
