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Planting melons
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:01 pm
by Chicken6
I'm growing two types of melon Collective Farm Woman and Minnesota Midget
but the info on the packet doesn't refer to spacing and I'm trying to work out how many I can fit in
the space I have available in the tunnel.
How far apart should they be spaced?
One types is said to only grow 4ft vines if that makes any difference.
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:39 pm
by Millymollymandy
I've only grown Charentaise melons so I don't know what kind yours are. If we get a hot summer they will grow like wildfire and send shoots in all directions so need to have at least a m2 of space for each plant, and they'll still all grow into each other like pumpkins do. After mine had set enough fruit I went round and chopped back a lot of the growth like I do pumpkins.
In cooler weather they didn't grow so well though!
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:37 pm
by jampot
can those melons be grown in a smallish green house mmm?
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:27 pm
by Odsox
What you can do in a greenhouse (if you have the patience) is to train them up into the roof space and still grow stuff underneath.
Ideally put a substantial shelf or even a small table so that you can put a large(ish) pot about half way up the end wall and train the runners on strings along each side of the ridge.
When the melon fruit starts to swell you will probably need to support the fruits with pieces of netting.
A bit time consuming but makes good use of a finite resource.
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 4:02 pm
by Chicken6
I have
Odsox wrote:What you can do in a greenhouse (if you have the patience) is to train them up into the roof space and still grow stuff underneath.
Ideally put a substantial shelf or even a small table so that you can put a large(ish) pot about half way up the end wall and train the runners on strings along each side of the ridge.
When the melon fruit starts to swell you will probably need to support the fruits with pieces of netting.
A bit time consuming but makes good use of a finite resource.
Well I have staging along one side of the tunnel and I've built it in sections so that the width is reduced from 60cm's down to 30cm to allow better planting underneath. Could I put a couple in pots on this maybe be the pot should be placed along the stagin where the leg sits underneath for added support. There are three legs.
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:13 pm
by jampot
sounds possible then, i'll give it a go and see what (if anything) comes of it!
Re: Planting melons
Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:30 pm
by Rohen
Thats interesting because I want to do charentais melons this year and I have some large pots but not really much space in the greenhouse
String and nets Ok