"Billy" wrote in message
...
In article , "Farm1"
wrote:

"songbird" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:

I'm growing mini watermelons for the first time and I have a few tiny
melons
that have set on my vines so in the current heat we are getting I
should
be
able to get them to harvest if I can keep up the water to them.

Does anyone know if theyd need anything at this stage of summer other
than
heat and water to keep them ramping along?

wish i were a melon expert.

so do I! It's never been reliably hot aroudn here for logn enough for me
to
become a melon expert and i love watermelosn and rockmelons (which you'd
call canteloups)

i'd say you're doing fine if you
can keep up with them.

will you have enough time yet to set
more fruit and get it to ripen? if so i
would lightly feed at the outwards nodes
with your favorite liquid fertilizer.

the biggest is now aobut the sice of my two cleched fists held together
and
they are supposed to be 'mini' watermelons so I'm hoping htye will hav
enough time to get to harvesting. We should still get a full 2 or even 3
more months with a frost.

I've been keeping the water up and I've given some food but not a lot. I
figure little and not too often might be better than too much food.

I'll let you know how they go.

Fran, glad to see you getting chatty again. Excitement isn't all that
it's cracked up to be.

I have about as much chance of winning the Lotto as being able to get a
watermelon to ripeness given my terroire;O) Consequently, I don't have
any firsthand information for you. However I do have the
"Vegetable Gardener' Bible" by Edward C. Smith.
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetable-Gard...-Gardening/dp/
1580172121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206815454&sr=1-1
(Available at a library near most of us.)

and he suggests moderate and even watering until the melons have reached
full size, and then little to no watering while they ripen.

I hope that helps some.

Well that sounds like good advice and even makes sense. I know that things
that couldn't be grown in this area 40 years ago, can now be grown so each
year it's a case of trying something new. This year the new, is the mini
watermelons and physalis. The physalis are looking great - now I just need
to figure ut what to do with them when they are ripe and also finding out if
they are ripe when the calyxs (sp?) go papery or is it before then?