In article , "Farm1"
wrote:
"songbird" wrote in message
news
Farm1 wrote:
songbird wrote:
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'm only getting experience by accident.
i've not even read up on them.
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.
if you have 2 to 3 more months of frost
free weather then you have a longer season
than we do (by about a month).
the limitation is leaf area to melon
size given all other things being ok.
if the plants are big and only have a
few fruits then you're good.
we have only grown rockmelons here the
past few years, but the melon size is about
the same as a mini watermelon so i think
the amount of sugars needed for ripeness is
also going to be similar enough that the
comparison isn't too bad.
we could get melons to finish if we had
them up to size before early to mid August.
we didn't let new fruits set after that as
we wanted sugars to go into the fruits
already set. a few plants that didn't have
any on to begin with we let set fruits just
to see what would happen, but they didn't
make it to full size or any edible ripeness.
are you well above sea level? what is
your late season normally like?
for us we'd be just about done with any
new fruit setting.
i think you have up to two more weeks
where you can let plants put on more fruits
if they will. after two more weeks i'd pull
most plants that don't have fruits already and
reuse the space for something else. leave
one test plant and let it fruit if it can
but only one fruit as i think the weakening
light will make it a waste anyways.
Now that is excellent thoughts! I was thinking that I might need to stop
more fruits starting or even remove some to ensure that what I do have on
the plant can get to harvest. Nice to know that I was on a similar wave
length.
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.
sounds ok from here, except i'd make sure that
plants putting on new fruits have more water on
the nodes that have rooted closest to the new
fruits. you want those to get up to full size
as quickly as possible.
I'll let you know how they go.
good luck.
Thanks bird. This gardneing caper is always about holding one's tongue in
the right position - either that or it's just plain dumb luck.
So, it is a "C peruviana". Another Solanaceae, for those other
gardeners trying to figure out a crop rotation for their garden beds.
Just the term Physalis is a little vague as there are over half-a-dozen
of this genera: Tomatillo, Physalis alkekengi, Physalis minima, Physalis
heterophylla, Physalis peruviana, Physalis longifolia, Physalis
coztomatl, Physalis angulata.
Our garden is only 600 sq. ft. (57 sq. m.), and tomatoes, and peppers
(Solanaceae) are already staples there. Calculating in something like
eggplant (melanzana), or tomatillo (physalis) into a 3 year rotation is
intimidating.
I'm constantly lusting after more garden space, especially flat land (as
I get older), and with full sun.
Good luck with your experiment.
"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments."
-- Janet Kilburn
Phillips
--
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
or
E Pluribus Unum
Next time vote Green Party