That is a mystery Julianna. The only thing that crosses my mind would be for you to review and perhaps refine your hand pollination techniques because those are typical symptoms of fruits that have not been pollinated. Timeing is important too, so check on that. Are there no bees or other pollinators around?

I hope that you can figure it out. I had some volunteer plants that came up in the garden and climbed on a six foot chainlink fence. They put on quite a few melons, but some of them started aborting after they were bigger than eggs. I probably let that plant get too dry and that may have caused it. Of the ones that were full size and ripened, I did not like them, but my D.I.L. did not seem to find any thing wrong with them. ":^)
Bill P.

Hey Bill, thanks for the info. Could it be because I'm hand pollinating in the afternoon? The area gets an hour of afternoon shade, so I was taking advantage of that.

To pollinate, I basically took the male, pulled off the petals and leaving the stamen, then dabbed it into the female several times.

I do have bees and other pollinators, but perhaps have too many things that distract them. For example, a huge, gorgeous borage that they love. But my cucumbers did just fine and I didn't hand pollinate them.

I also grew some caserta squash (summer) as a trap plant. The plant did great and bloomed like crazy. In fact it's still blooming. Never got ONE squash. (I did not hand pollinate it) My friend, with whom I shared seed, got many. She lives in Oklahoma.

Maybe I need to try pollinating using the paintbrushes I bought? It's a real puzzle.

treated to Maxicrop, fish emulsion and compost tea. The soil is pretty good with lots of compost.

Something else to consider (besides switching your pollination efforts to early morning when the pollen is fresh instead of tacky) is your possible excess nitrogen feeding program.

Fruiting plants are much less tolerant of excess nitrogen than greens - it gets you, as we so often say, "lots of plant but little fruit". Timing the application of fertilizers is also more important with fruiting plants. Applied once blooming/fruiting begins only causes the plant to switch back to its leaf growth mode. Instead, feed well when first planted and then again after the first flush of blooms have set fruit. That way they will continue to ripen and you will get a new green growth spurt followed by a second bloom/fruit set period.

Air temps also must be considered. Like all other fruiting plants, excessively high air temps will prevent pollination - both natural and by hand. The pollen just isn't viable.

Just some thoughts for consideration. ;)

Dave

Thanks, Dave. I really don't think I gave them too much nitrogen. The fish emulsion, even though it has some in it, isn't that high. My other fruits did well (tomatoes, etc.).

But...that high air temp you mentioned, possible. We certainly had a few weeks of excessive heat (high 90s through the 100s...broke some records).

I'm glad to have the two fruits. That's better than year one and two! But I'll try again next year. Maybe I'll get four. :)

I agree with Dave, Julianna. Do it in the morning probably before ten A.M. if there is no dew, and yes, I think that I would try the little paint brush on some of them to see if that would help. I am assuming that you have enough male and female blooms to work with.
Good luck.
Bill P.

Thanks Bill. I do get plenty of blooms....more males than females, but every day there's at least three nice ladies. :)

It's strange to me....about pollination. I do hand pollinate on the early blooms of watermelon and cantaloupe to get some earlier fruits. However, after that, they always seem to get pollinated very well here and in fact I may have to prune off watermelons...I don't prune off cantaloupes or icebox watermelons...just the nice full sized varieties.

I agree with the above statements and apply emphasis on early morning pollination. Pollen is only viable for a few hours after the blooms open. Ever wonder why there are so many bees and other pollinators out at first light. If you miss this window any efforts would be wasted. You can also damage the flowers using improper techniques causing fruit to not set. Cantelopes and muskmelons and watermelons are very tricky I get less than 50% hand pollination results and I feel I'm pretty good at it. The squashes/pumpkins are much easier and are good choices to start out with. Whne every possible leave it up to mother nature. I would be very hard to convince that you have no natural pollinators. Honey bees are not the only pollinators of fruit. I would leave things be and let the proffesional pollinators do their job, it may seen slow at first but the plants will set fruit. You also mentioned that the melons get shade in the afternoon, melons need full sun to produce a good crop. the most intense sun is afternoon sun and with out it I would say two melons on one plant is above average, I'm surprised you have two vice one. Rodger