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These are stunning plants, trellises, and photographs!

(How do they manage to mow the grass? ;o)

digits

Thanks! The sticks are placed so that they are spread apart to accommodate a lawn mower. The plants all grow in raised beds, they climb up and then out above where the grass is. Some of those melons weigh thirty pounds, ergo the need for the bracing (red string), which they recycled from a local store. They like the red because it is easy to find at the end of the season when they compost the plants. I wish I'd taken pictures of the rows of vegetables and beans, but that will have to be next year.

They are the best photographs of veggies I've ever seen.

WOW!! What type melon are those large ones? Are seeds available? Are directions to building the trelis available? WOW!!

WOW!! (had to say it one more time)

DL

Thanks, Folks. I am saving the seeds of the melon given me by them, and would love to share some when they are dry and ready. I can also describe how to build the trellis. It's not that hard. The melons are a variety of winter melon. I also have another variety of winter melon which is long but also very large--the kind one finds in Oriental stores all cut up into hunks. Is there a central location at GardenWeb for us to contact each other? Which zone do you live in? I have to start my melons in May indoors for them to have enough time to grow. They also take quite a bit of attention during the growing season.

Wow, those round winter melons and fuzzy melons look great. It makes me think of my mother's winter melon soup. I bought winter melon seeds this year. It took me several rounds to germinate the seeds. Finally the seeds germinated but the plants grew very slow. Would you share seeds of the roung winter melon? I only need five seeds. All my seeds are commercial seeds except one yard long bean. So let me know what is the best trade.

Such beautiful, beautiful plants. Thanks for putting the pictures online. I think I will have to look at these pictures everyday...they are so inspiring.
lolly_gardener.

That is really a show garden, and I wish I had taken more pictures to share. Thanks for your enthusiasm.
Luong, I can give you some seeds for next year. How can this be done? By the way, I have lots of seeds and do not need anything in trade.

Gardentrekker,
My email is open to GW members. You send me your adress. I will send you a stamp envelop with everything you need to put the seeds in and return back to me anytime.

Hi gardentrekker,

Really amazing melons and good work!. I know how it feels when you look at your crop and eat from your garden harvest.

I did have a success with BottleGourds and i am still waiting for my SnakeGourds to come out.

Anyway, Some questions i have for you is:

#1. What do you use for disease and insect prevention?
So far i haven't sprayed anything except some garlic water and i don't like to use any chemicals. I usually plant some garlic pods in the soil next to the vegetables.

#2. What compost/manure did u mix in the soil? Did u use Gardening Soil from HD, Lowes?

#3. Can you tell me how to make the trellis? Right now i am using my backyard fence for the gourds that i put in pots.

I live in Houston, TX where the climate should be perfect for Asian vegetables but we have unusual rains this summer. And so i tried growing them in pots.

Thanks

Hi Parapudi, As I mentioned in the first posting, this is the garden of my friends. I do have a melon garden though not as pretty because I did not build an extensive trellis system, having only to support eight plants. Each plant should only support one melon if you want them to grow big. Somehow, if you have two melons on one vine, they never add up to the weight one melon would have been. Soil prep is vital, and compost, manure, and an organic fertilizer (dry and in bags from garden shops), as well as diligent watering will get you quite the yield. I would certainly grow them if I lived in Houston. They like a pH of around 6to 7. I think it is well worth it to have your soil tested so that you can amend it as needed, and Fall is the time to get it ready for next year. I will make a posting on trellis building when I can get help from my son to post diagrams, but it really is not so difficult, and they are so beautiful. I highly doubt a backyard fence is strong enough since these pictures show the young melons. Some of them grew to thirty some pounds. In terms of disease prevention, my experience is that if you have soil that is not already contaminated, and your soil is well balanced, bugs etc. will not be able to take over. I do get some striped cucumber beetles, and I usually pick them off the blossoms by putting one hand underneath and touch it on top with my other (they drop as soon as they feel something is after them), and squish them as soon as them drop into my hand. The fact that the vine grows up onto a trellis prevents concentrations of bugs under the leaves as I found in my zucchini. The trellises also allow good air circulation, so that fungi don't get a foothold. Hope I have answered your questions. I will post trellis building diagrams some time.

I love seeing the plants, melons etc ...can you tell me what those melons taste like...are they a fruit type melon like cantaloupe or watermelon or a squash/pumpkin type?

ruthieg, Both the long melons (hairy melon) and the round melons (winter melon) taste bland. There is more water content in the round ones, so the texture is more like watermelon. The way Asians eat these melons is to flavor them with soup or meat--steam, stir fry etc. The trellis with all the leaves shows bitter melons, though it is hard to see them in the picture. However, you will find many other pictures of them in this web posted by other people. It is definitely an acquired taste in terms of bitter melon, as the name implies. However it is quite easy to grow and the plants and blossoms give off a most heavenly scent, and that certainly makes it worthwhile for those who do not find them delectible.

Hi those are great pictures of the melons I posted the other day about some Korean Watermelon types to replace My big OrangGlo melon that I have been growing for ten years now. I love the way that thy are trellest up and will have to give that a try . I'm diabled now and can't grow the typical large garden that every one knows. and will have to go to all raised beds.Great photos and good work If you can try and get a broud garden area photo I would love to see what all they are growing there it must be really nice.
George W. Z5-6 Mo.

georgew79, Raised beds are the way to go, since it makes growing most everything easier. This year I used the tall trellis system in my garden, but in the past, I have used a medium height one that looks something like the frame of a box. Both systems keep the melons off the ground, and if you can keep the leaves from brushing and scratching on the baby melons on windy days, they will grow up to be beautiful blemish-free ones. One thing I would like to note, is that each melon must be supported with some string on the stem--I do them criss-cross on the stem and tie it to the trellis itself. Otherwise they will fall to the ground when they are half grown.

How did you include pictures in your posting?

maricybele, I am afraid I cannot tell you how it is done since my son did it for me on his computer. I live in the country where there is no high speed internet, and he told me it would take me a long time if I were to try myself. Perhaps someone else might be able to help. I wish I knew since I have more pictures I'd like to post. Good luck.

Hi how are you i would love to get some of these seeds for my nephew. He is going to be starting a garden this year and hes from korea my brother adopted him and a little girl from china im trying to get to no them and when they came over this summer they were asking alot of questions about my vegtable garden. Something from there homeland would be nice i think thank you bonnie

Yr melon looks really great. Is your garden located in Asia?

I would like to learn how to grow such wonderful melons.

Thks in advance ..

Hi ..

I thought you guys may be interested in this .. strange looking fruit .. square fruit to be exact.

Have you ever seen square watermelon before?

I have found an interesting book on growing Square WaterMelon .. yes .. you heard me right .. SQUARE WATERMELON !!

Here is a link that might be useful: Square WaterMelon

The linked GardenWeb thread has posters who talk about the fruit-in-bottle trick. I understand that this is quite popular in Italy with an alcoholic beverage filling the bottle at the end of the growing season.

What do we call this - a cordial?

Steve's digits

Here is a link that might be useful: Square Watermelon....I just gotta ask

Hi! sorry I have not responded sooner. I will be more than happy to send you some seeds, Bonnie, so I will find your e-mail and get in touch when I can.
brrgreen, this garden is in Upstate New York. As long as the seeds are started mid-May, there is enough time to grow them.
These melons love water so rain won't bother them as long as the soil drains well. They do not like their roots in constantly wet soil, (unlike luffa which loves all the water you can provide).

Now I know how to keep my melons and cukes off the ground.
thank you for these awesome pics!

gardentreker,

Thanks for taking the time to share this great garden with us.

Would you or anyone who's been trying at this kind of garden update us on the progress?

Would love to get some seeds, for both the winter melon (both kinds) and the fuzzy melon. Any one have some? I can trade for bitter melon seeds or lufa's.

Thanks in advance.