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Melons 2016

10 years ago

Anyone growing any melons this year?

This is my first year planting watermelon and muskmelon..I planted the varieties Cream of Saskatchewan and Minnesota Midget. I have a few plants of each. So far, the watermelons are setting a few fruit and sending out a LOT of vines, and the muskmelon is flowering lots but doesn't seem to be setting any fruit yet. I can't see anything other than flowers on those plants. :/

For those of you who have grown these before, how am I doing on time? I know it really depends on the year, too. I've got one melon that is nearly tennis ball sized, but everything else is no bigger than a golf ball. Most are just marble sized..I'm guessing these will either grow quickly or shrivel up. Will the rest grow quickly?

We've been getting a lot of rain, so I haven't been watering much..how much rain/water per week do these plants have? Do you start pinching flowers off at some point to ripen the fruit you have? Or do you just leave your plants alone? How often do you fertilize?

Since I transplanted them (I was fertilizing them up to that point) I've only fertilized once (...oops?) about a week ago. We do have fertile-ish clay soil though.

Anyone else?

Comments (23)

  • 10 years ago

    Your screwed for time. If there is not fruit you will get small golf ball sized melons here unless we have an amazing hot next 3 months

  • 10 years ago

    Really?! How does anyone get larger melons in our climate, then? I started mine inside like you are supposed to, and they've been planted out since June 1. Sigh.

  • 10 years ago

    Melons need fertilizer like crazy every week and let them almost dry out in heat and water in morning

  • 10 years ago

    You have to greenhouse or cover them. I did last year and got smaller sized melons with a greenhouse and planted them early May and heated them. i may have got crappy variety they say growing from seeds is faster than growing from potted as the potted plants don't at all tolerate being transpotted and takes a month to recover where as a seed just grows. I did both and still got crappy results. My spot was incredibly hot also but just didn't take well maybe not enough night time heat ?

  • 10 years ago

    I think I'm going to get ripe ones, actually! There are 3 or 4 watermelons that look nearly ready, and lots of muskmelons have set and are growing quickly. Since they are just the Minnesota Midget variety, they don't have to get very big. I'll probably thin them out a bit and pinch off the remaining flowers and hopefully everything will ripen.

  • 10 years ago

    If you are getting some nice days I am sure they will do fine, they have close to a month to grow unless we get early frost, best of luck!

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Melons don't just need to be above zero. They need warmer night temps

    how big are your melons now? trick here is to have them already almost finished by sept which is only possible with greenhouse or covers

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    There are 3 or 4 watermelons that are basically the mature size mentioned online for Cream of Saskatchewan. Plus another 4-5 that are just a bit smaller.

    Most of the muskmelons are about 2/3 of the size they should be at maturity.

    Next week looks like it is going to be hot, so hopefully that will help. We've had sooo much rain, and CoS is a very thin skinned melon, so I hope they don't start cracking!

    I think some of the watermelons for sure will be done and picked before September. They were short season growers (CoS: 80-85 days, MM: 60-65 days). Minnesota Midget sulked for a bit longer after I planted them out (I started from seed). I guess we'll have to see how the nights go temperature wise.

  • 10 years ago

    I tried muskmelons for the first time this year. They grew pretty well until they got slammed by hail. They recovered, and then got slammed by hail again. Then they recovered again, but more hail. Out of three plants, I found one melon that survived and might ripen for me, about the size of a grapefruit now. Next time I will cover them for the whole season, they need more heat and less hail!

  • 9 years ago

    In 2013 I grew Halona (75 days) and Passport (85 days) from Veseys.

    Sprouted inside and planted out in June in an old compost pile with black geotextile to increase heat. Below photo is June 21. You can see the small sprouts in the holes.


    July 29 you can see the golfball sized fruit. I removed all blossoms that formed within 50 days of my areas average first frost. Allows the plants to push growth to fruit that will actually ripen in time.

    August 31. Many ripe.

    However, at the exact same time of year Costco was getting Ontario grown melons for $3 each that taste just as good. I have limited space so ended up no longer planting these large vines and transitioned over to stuff I can't buy locally (Black currants, ect).


  • 9 years ago

    This has been a very cool and wet August for our area, so although I'm not letting any new fruit form, the stuff I've got is taking a long time. Size wise, they are larger than they are "supposed" to be! Maybe from all the water. But they don't look ready to separate from the vine yet, so I guess I may have to start covering them if we continue to have a cool fall.

  • 9 years ago

    They will be good until you hit minus temps just make sure you pick them before that happens. You can easily leave them another month here. They won't grow much. I read an article years ago it said melons shut down growth after 5-10degrees .thats why we really only have two months tops of melon season here. I grew mine in a greenhouse last year and it didn't help much. Just keep trying every year I guess .i found pumpkins to be a lot more rewarding melons I have a few decent sized now like bowling balls .

  • 9 years ago

    Growing melons is difficult if you live in a zone with little heat units

  • 9 years ago

    Last summer would have been a goood one for melon growing here in Alberta, though this summer we really did lack with the heat units in comparison.

  • 9 years ago

    Yeah, based on how well they did this year, which was relatively cool with lots of overcast rainy days, I know I would have lots of ripe ones in a more "typical" year. I still have 8 or so very large watermelons that are nearly done, and lots of muskmelons...I'm just not sure how much more time the muskmelons will need and with how cool some of the nights have been, I won't be surprised if I don't get much from them this year. They have mostly all turned the right color, but the stems still look very green and attached. Which is too bad, because I think if they had even another week, or at most 2, of really nice warm weather, I'd have a big harvest. :/

    I'll try again next year though! But I think I'll probably prune off even more fruit early on so that there are only a handful to ripen on the muskmelons.

  • 9 years ago

    So I picked my first watermelon (Taste of Saskatchewan)...I'm starting to get worried about frost, last night was only 4 or 5 above and tonight has the potential to be colder. And I don't have enough blankets to cover everything in the garden. So I chose the ripest one and picked it. The tendrils had dried up awhile ago, and the spot on the bottom was creamy yellow. But I was kind of waiting for the stem to look less...green or something. I had the cut the stem, it didn't just easily pull away. Or is that only with other kinds of melons that the fruit is supposed to slip off the vine?

    Anyway, I was holding my breath cutting into it, but it seemed ripe and is very sweet and juicy. Most of the seeds are dark brown, but there are a few white ones, so maybe it would have been best with a few more days. I'm not sure what to do with all this watermelon! If this one is ripe, there are a few more that will be ready in the next few days.


  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am an hour south east of Saskatoon, SK (between Watrous and Colonsay)...zone 2b. I'm fairly satisfied - though my muskmelons will be a bust this year - because we had such a cool wet summer. I know it could have been a complete loss!

  • 9 years ago

    Yes, sounds like you may be 2 hrs from me, I have a good crop of melons and squash. In fact I have about 75 hondew melons in my garden . Although not large 3-5 inches.they are ripening. The fruit is of a smaller variety. I will post pictures at a later time .

  • 9 years ago

    Great job! Here in the north (and you are worse than I), sometimes you just have to focus on the fact that at least you got 1 good fruit! I mean as long as I get to taste each variety each year I am happy. A great crop is a bonus. Good luck with your weather. When I grew melons I kept it to max 3 melons per plant to ensure they ripened by mid-September.

  • 9 years ago

    So in the end, I did get a few ripe muskmelon, thanks to us not having a frost yet! I had given up on them and was just cleaning up the vines in the garden yesterday, and noticed that there were a few that were looking quite yellow-toned. I brought them in and cut one open....extremely juicy, and extremely sweet! Much sweeter than the cantelope I've had from the store. The first one I cut into may have even been a touch overripe. So I'm glad I got to try them! Not as successful as the watermelons, but I would definitely try again next year and hope for hotter weather.

  • 9 years ago

    Good to hear weeper, only a few light frosts here as well, killed off the grape leaves but I had already picked the fruit.

  • 9 years ago

    We actually got a ripe cantaloupe this year - didn't do anything special for it, no extra fertilizer or anything.

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