I would be careful with the manure application. If you don't use "aged"
manure (2 or more years old), you will get a lot of other things growing in
our garden that you will have to remove.

Sometimes it takes a long time for the female flowers to come on. Have you
had your soil tested? I used to watch a master gardner with a TV program in
Arkansas. He always said that to get your plants to bloom, trees to put on
fruit, etc., to add a super phosphate (0 - 50 - 0). You would do that
before next years crop. Here in Kansas, we have plenty in the soil already
and apparently don't have to add any.

I have always been disappointed with sugar babies. I get them to grow, but
they are always either green or over ripe when I pick them. I find I cant
use the normal methods to tell when they are ripe. I would like to
recommend Crimson Sweet. They are bigger than sugar babies, but not giants
like Black Diamonds. They also taste very good. I also tried Dixie King, a
very good yellow fleshed melon.

I water mine until the melons look like they are getting ready to ripen. If
they get a lot of water at ripening time, they will split. It is my
personal idea that you shouldn't start melons indoors and then transplant
them outside. The reason I feel that way is because they have a tap root
that goes deep into the soil for water. Those I have grown inside and then
transplanted outside, would die if I didn't water them every other day. I
think the tap root on those just went round and round inside the container
they were planted in. If the tap root had been allowed to grow straight
down like it was supposed to, it should have had plenty of water. Melon
growers tell you to check the tendril and its associated leaf closest to the
melon when you are checking for ripeness. When they have both dried up,
that indicates the melon is ripe. I find that if I have used transplants,
they dry up if I don't water them, and that doesn't necessarily mean they
are ripe.

Have fun and enjoy your melons. Dwayne



"Puckdropper" wrote in message
...
I've got 5 watermelon about halfway between softball and soccer ball
size. I only put miracle grown on them once, and just made sure the
soil didn't get too dry. This is the second planting, the last frost
got the first one...

Walmart had three sizes, the sugar baby (soccer ball size), "normal" and
"huge," whatever they were called. I'm guessing you went with either
the sugar baby or normal ones.

Puckdropper

Theresa V. wrote:
"brickled" wrote in message many things
factor
into how well your plants will do but most problems go

back to one's soil. do you regularly add organic matter?

As in...what, cow patties? No. It isn't clay or sandy soil (I'm not
sure,
since I just moved into this apt. complex). To me, it's regular dirt.
But
there are wood chips all around. I've watered it regularly, plus we have
had
some heavy rains this summer. I don't know what variety it is yet as I
got
it from Wal-mart.

I don't think I've been over-fertilizing it. I know that many times I've
forgotten (plus, I ahve gone on some short trips--as this is the summer
season).


are the flowers you're seeing the first flowers of the summer or has
there
been plenty around for some time?


There have been plenty around for a while.

I could take some pictures and put them up on a web site if you'd like
to
see.

Theresa



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