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Beautiful!

You're going to need some help eating those. ;-)

Your pictures have given me another nudge toward growing melons next year.

Jim

Wow! I envy you. :) How did you keep the weeds out? And what did you fertilze with?

Abby

Holy cow! That is phenomenal! Do you sell them?

Glad you enjoyed the pics. I am having a very good year with all my melon varieties, I have 6 watermelon varieties and 8 other melons. The smaller melons are all growing along the fence on a string trellis that is getting so heavy that I need to figure out a way to make some hammocks for the melons.

phantom-white, the whole melon patch is covered in black plastic except the holes for the plants I will surely do it this way next year also. I have only fertilized once through my drip system and I used Miracle Grow I also put alot of compost in the garden this year (21 tons) and I put a handful of bonemeal in the hole with each plant. I guess I should fertilize again.

msyoohoo, no I do not sell them we just like melons so I decided to grow them this year for the first time. Beginners luck I guess.

Here are more pics of other varieties.

Dale

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Here is the last of them from today.

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Dale

WOW!!!!!
I use plastic as well, but only have 4 plants. We've had a slow cool spring and limited heat so far, but my melons are sizing up.
What varieties are you growing?

That's a healthy looking melon patch. Congrats.

My watermelon varieties are

Summer Flavor 420
Blacktail Mountain
Georgia Rattlesnake
Royal Golden
Cream of Saskatchewan
Tendersweet Orange

and my small melons are

Hale's Best
Israel Cantaloupe
Collective Farm Women
Ambrosia
Jenny Lind
Charentais (spelling ?)
Minnesota Midget

If anyone has any pics of these varieties I would love to see them.

Dale

See if your library has the book "melons for the passionate grower", most of those are photoed in there, or just use google images.

Here is a link that might be useful: Just drop name into search bar.

Thanks fishymamas but I am just looking to converse with people that have grown them on this forum so that I can get thier input on how they did and how thier melons turned out.

Dale

thepodpiper: I loved those pics. Our melons, except for water melons, die of any number of diseases long before they reach eating size. You have to live an in area free of all the diseases that effect them.

I've grown 'Cream of Saskatchewan' before, which ripens early and will split readily when ripe...no good for shipping, but the flesh was yellow and tasty.

Amazing! Congratulations on the beautiful patch.
Are my eyes deceiving me or is one of those pictures of a watermelon growing between two fence slats??

Hi Podpiper,
I'm growing 3 kinds of watermelon,
OrangeGlo
Blacktail Mountain
Missouri Yellow

and 6 kinds of melon
Hale's Best
Kansas
Missouri Gold
Oran's Melon
Thayer
Minnesota Midget

I've gotten 1 Hale's and 3 Midgets so far- and the midgets are very good - nice and sweet, and fairly musky, but they REALLY ripen fast once they start. On saturday I checked all melons, and none were ripe, but a few looked like they migh be about to start to turn - Sunday it rained all day and I couldnt' go look. Monday after work, i had 2 midgets laying on the ground loose from the vine and fully ripe!

Cream of Saskatchewan:
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Tendersweet Oranges Fleshed:
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I have grown the Royal Golden back in the 60's as strictly a novelty. Did not care for its eating qualities. Have not grown the Rattlesnake since the 50's. On the cantaloupe side I have grown the Jenny Lind and the Haogen, but not since the digital camera.
You have one good looking melon patch.

Very very Nice! Since this is your first year you get the Blue Ribbon :). BTW - also since this is year #1 you may find out that the loupes don't keep very long after picking. My watermelons usually last 3 weeks stored under leantoo and the loupes last 2 weeks or so in the fridge but only 2-4 days under the leantoo (in shade but in outside temps). Happy Harvest!

The Golden Jenny from Baker Creek is very nice.

dale,

awesome pics!

i am going to have my first garden this year...we just moved out of the city.

i want to grow these melosn:
Ambrosia
Charentais
Minnesota Midget how did yours turn out...? which ones were tasty to you?

It's good to see this thread come up again. I did in fact have a very good year with melons last year although only a few will make it back for another season. The Summer Flavor is the only watermelon coming back and the Minnesota Midget and the Hale's Best Jumbo melon will also get a spot.

tammysf, the Ambrosia and the Charentais melons seemed to grow good but i was not impressed. The Minnesota Midget was very sweet as were the Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe's. The Hale's best were the very best tasting cantaloupe I have ever eaten.

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Dale

Awesome. I think I'll grow Hales Best based on your recommendation. I bet your boy loved all that watermelon!

Jon