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please don't die muskmelon
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Posted by bela67 oh6 (My Page) on Thu, Jul 30, 09 at 10:16
| So after my mom told me she has no luck with muskmelons I decided to plant one for fun. I do love them but really didn't expect much luck. Well it took off like crazy and now has a few melons, one being almost to size.. now the dread, its dying slowly the center of the plant is now brown but not brittle and other leaves are following suit. I looked up the problem and it seems my soil is too acidic and the weather is not helping with the coolest july on record, doesn't look like i can save the plant this year but can prep the soil for next year. I hope to get a melon from it but it doesn't seem likely : ( anyone else have this problem with melons? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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Not only melons but cukes. I would have a ton by now, but plants are still only a foot tall. Tomatoes seem to be doing well now, but brussels sprouts are still 2 foot and the corn stalks are all shorter than normal. Here, we finally had a single 90 degree day this week, but decent growing temps have not been here since way back in April. Rain has drowned almost everything and that, with temps in the 60's its hard to grow anything. I planted cantaloupe and seedless watermelons as well as a pollinator indoors about the beginning of April. They were planted outside on June 1, and 3/4 of the healthy plants died. I had about 30 originally. Whats left are still stunted and only one has a single blossom and no fruits on any. Wish I could help you. Suggest that you get a good concise soil test done, not only for soil pH but for other items beyond NPK. Soil for melons need potassium and also many minerals and micronutreints. Even with the soil ammendments I made, the garden has not given me much this year.
Good luck! |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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| its tough! i love mid 70s but garden does not. i have many giant green tomatoes and if and when we finally get a string of hot sunny days i will be up to my eyeballs in maters! peppers not so much my plants are about a foot tall and two doors down my moms plants are bushes. the only real difference between last years crop and this is i used straw instead of the black fabric. i will go back to black fabric next year. my mom has it now and i think it has helped warm the soil for her. i do plan on getting a good soil test done for next year. should i test it this fall or early next year? |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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I have crossed fingers for the melon patch. I should have honeydews by now but they are small, same with the watermelons.
The muskmelons are only golf ball sized.
I have black plastic down, it's this cool weather.
Up to me eyballs in squashes, mater plants are loaded, 6 ft tall right now. Cukes need some sun, can't even pick enough for one batch of pickles in one day right now.
But, it is Basil Pesto time, yeah! |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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| Have you inspected the vines for borers? If not you should. If you find holes and "sawdust": take a unbent paperclip, stick it in the hole to kill the borer inside; dust with veggie safe pest dust; then cover that part of the vine with soil; and pin to the ground with a garden pin made for this purpose, or anything that will hold the vine to the ground. If you catch borers in time the vine can be saved. |
UPDATE to my musk.. : (
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| So the vine never died and my melons continued to grow happily.. Yesterday I went out to check out the garden and noticed my biggest melon with seeds and stringy stuff on top of it.. weird so walk around and notice a golf ball sized HOLE in the back of it!!! I about cried!! What would do that? Tons of gnats and flies were inside of the nice orange flesh. I went back in and left it there. My mom suggested my resident turtle?? I find low hanging tomatoes with obvious turtle nibbles in them so I know he is around.. I have two other melons on that vine and I propped those up onto coffee cans to try and save them. |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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| Gophers! They do this all the time in my garden. I have to raise all fruits, melons, squashes, etc. off the ground if I'm to get anything not pre-eaten. |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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| Possums LOVE melons!! Especially smelly ones (melons that is)! I made a 'contraption' from a motion sensing floodlight assembly wired to an AC outlet on a short post, that would also switch on a very loud and annoying untrasonic wavering sound. It goes between audible to ultrasonic so it chases away most varmints at night. The nice thing is its sensitive enough to switch on when it gets dark, senses even small animals and turns on two bright floods aimed at the melon plants. After 10-15 minutes, it shuts off and resets. I have successfully used several years now and have not seen a single melon damaged. Even though I started both cantaloupe and seedless watermelons indoors back in April, they are just now producing and I only see one marble sized melon so far. I found out after trapping a possum several years ago, that they were the varmints doing all the damages to the melons. I live trapped the big possum and reset the trap the next day, but left it empty of any bait and caught the two babies the following two nights, talk about missing mom! Nasty little critters, but are now about 25 miles away. I don't know what the equivilent name of a gopher is in zone 5-6, but a Woodchuck is MUCH larger, and I have never seen a groundhog or gopher around here. Voles, on the other hand are also very nasty and have eaten all my tulip and crocus bulbs, sweet potatoes and regular potatoes |
RE: please don't die muskmelon
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| Yea I would figure a possum over a gopher or woodchuck since my dog brought me a baby one a few weeks back.. that really chaps my hide!!@ ok i guess i need to get some alarms like ken suggested! My husband is an electrician so ill get him on the job!! although there was only a hole in the melon, wouldn't the possum eat the whole thing? maybe it got scared.. |
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