"Lisa Hurley" wrote in message
...
I have the same sort of question -- I have plenty of water and space -- but
am short on growing season, living in northern Montana -- zone 3. I
started
watermelon and cantaloupe under the grow lights -- so they are off and
growing early. I read somewhere that if I plant them in black plastic,
the
ground will stay warmer and I might actually get fruit -- anybody had any
experience with this method?

Lisa


"Laura" wrote in message
. ..
How do you grow Water Melons and Cantaloupes?

Laura




If you are going to do it properly, for a shorter season You MUST take
earlier varieties with smaller fruits, plant them earlier indoor and when
repotting them outdoor - make them "nests" - mixed manuar with a ground, but
also if the ground is cold we use manuar which didn't finish it's
transformation fully, so it produce some heating bellow, but it must not
have direct contact with the root, 30-50cm in the ground that manuar, then
ground and in it the plant. Also we make small banks of ground covered with
black plastic (wide 1m), what you have mentioned. Also we graft watermelon
on Lagenaria siceraria - vulgaris (latin name), bigger root, better
exploatation of nutrients from the ground, more resistant to droughts,
higher yield, earlier fruits come, and this plant is resistant to fusarium
(Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. niveum).
But maybe elsewhere is better way to grow them, this is only my point of
view.