Farm1 wrote:
....
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'm always glad to ramble on at length.
i hope the warm weather and sunshine holds long
enough that you can have a good harvest.


....
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.

you're welcome. there's always some luck, but
i also make sure to add to the positive chances
in various ways.


songbird

In article , "Farm1"
wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message

You mates look to be having an interesting time. Fires to the South, and
floods to the North.

Yes, we had to leave one night because of one of the fires near us and they
have had a right rollicking up north today. Some people have now been
flooded twice in 2 years.

I'll be starting some lettuce, and snow peas this week-end.

So it must be getting slightly warmer?

Not really warmer, but sunnier. We finally have had some sun on the
ground again (north side of hill) the last few days. Mid-December to
mid-January is our coldest time as you might expect (usually 55F/26F).
We had a good lick of rain from mid-October (just as the grapes finished
being harvested), until Christmas. We are about back to average by now.
For the last 3 years, February has been warm here, and almost Summery
(if I can say that), then it slides back into winter rains until May.

The last couple of years I haven't been able to garden much, so I am
looking forward to doing it right this year. No experiments, just going
for maximum production.

Does your government still encourage logging?

--
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
or
E Pluribus Unum
Next time vote Green Party

songbird wrote:
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.


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.


songbird

I planted some halloween punkins seed from england and some jam melon
seeds from tasmania or victoria and for the last month they have
produces masses of flowers and not melons,but in the last week or so
have started a few melons but what I thought was punkins was mellons or
vice versa,maybe, the one I thought was pumpkin is about two inches
round and has stripes like a melon the other so far is smaller at the
moment but oval with no stripes.

Use granular fertilizer to your plant. Most granular fertilizers are applied at a rate of 11/2 pounds per 100 square feet. Scatter the fertilizer around the plants and water it well. But make sure that the fertilizer does not come in contact with the plant, as this may cause the plant to burn. You can use base nutrients Sensi bloom which will work well. This will help the plant to get the energy they need to produce high quality fruit.

In article ,
allen73 wrote:

'Farm1[_4_ Wrote:
;976801']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?

Use granular fertilizer to your plant. Most granular fertilizers are
applied at a rate of 11/2 pounds per 100 square feet. Scatter the
fertilizer around the plants and water it well. But make sure that the
fertilizer does not come in contact with the plant, as this may cause
the plant to burn. You can use base nutrients Sensi bloom which will
work well. This will help the plant to get the energy they need to
produce high quality fruit.

Allen, Farm1 is in NSW Australia. Her weather is the equivalent of our
August. She wants her melons to ripen, not to go vegetative, which is
what your course of action would lead to. When plants start running out
of warmth, and food, they try to set their fruit as quickly as they can.
Spring and mid-summer are the times for nitrogen.

--
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
or
E Pluribus Unum
Next time vote Green Party

"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-

Allen, Farm1 is in NSW Australia.

:-)) You remembered!

Her weather is the equivalent of our
August. She wants her melons to ripen,

........and today I harvested the first one. Not having ever grown them
before, I wondered if they were ripe when you knocked on them. The one I
harvested knocked beautifully but it wasn't quite ripe. It was tasty and
certainly had a good watermelony flavour, but I think another week or so
would have been better. Not to worry, my grandkids will scoff it down
anyway.

I've also got 2 different types of ripe plums (well prunes really but I've
never really known what the difference between the plums and prunes is
supposed to be- these are both officially 'prunes'), ripe apples and strawbs
and zucchs and the basket I took to my offspring's place full of garden
goodies looked gorgeous with a dozen eggs added along with some herbs and a
few other things that I now can't bring to mind.

Farm1 wrote:
....
.......and today I harvested the first one. Not having ever grown them
before, I wondered if they were ripe when you knocked on them. The one I
harvested knocked beautifully but it wasn't quite ripe. It was tasty and
certainly had a good watermelony flavour, but I think another week or so
would have been better. Not to worry, my grandkids will scoff it down
anyway.

i would like to hear more "how to tell a
melon is ripe" descriptions...

since i've not grown them it would come
in handy.


I've also got 2 different types of ripe plums (well prunes really but I've
never really known what the difference between the plums and prunes is
supposed to be- these are both officially 'prunes'),

for me prunes have always been dried plums.


ripe apples and strawbs
and zucchs and the basket I took to my offspring's place full of garden
goodies looked gorgeous with a dozen eggs added along with some herbs and a
few other things that I now can't bring to mind.

nice to hear about green, growing and ripe
when i'm looking at snow... today it is
supposed to rain and get warmer again. after
-3F the other night i'm ok with that.


songbird

In article , "Farm1"
wrote:

"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-

Allen, Farm1 is in NSW Australia.

:-)) You remembered!

Her weather is the equivalent of our
August. She wants her melons to ripen,

.......and today I harvested the first one. Not having ever grown them
before, I wondered if they were ripe when you knocked on them. The one I
harvested knocked beautifully but it wasn't quite ripe. It was tasty and
certainly had a good watermelony flavour, but I think another week or so
would have been better. Not to worry, my grandkids will scoff it down
anyway.

I've also got 2 different types of ripe plums (well prunes really but I've
never really known what the difference between the plums and prunes is
supposed to be- these are both officially 'prunes'), ripe apples and strawbs
and zucchs and the basket I took to my offspring's place full of garden
goodies looked gorgeous with a dozen eggs added along with some herbs and a
few other things that I now can't bring to mind.

If I remember correctly, Bill Who Putters, once said if the melon sounds
like your head when you tap it, it's not ripe. If it sounds like your
stomach when you tap it, it's over ripe, but if it sounds like your
chest when you tap it, it IS ripe.

Maybe once Bill Who Putters digs himself out of the snow, he'll respond.

--
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
or
E Pluribus Unum
Next time vote Green Party

"songbird" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:
...
.......and today I harvested the first one. Not having ever grown them
before, I wondered if they were ripe when you knocked on them. The one I
harvested knocked beautifully but it wasn't quite ripe. It was tasty and
certainly had a good watermelony flavour, but I think another week or so
would have been better. Not to worry, my grandkids will scoff it down
anyway.

i would like to hear more "how to tell a
melon is ripe" descriptions...


:-)) So would I!

since i've not grown them it would come
in handy.


I've also got 2 different types of ripe plums (well prunes really but
I've never really known what the difference between the plums and
prunes is
supposed to be- these are both officially 'prunes'),

for me prunes have always been dried plums.

The varieties I have (Robe de Sargent and D'Agen) are both sold here as
prunes but since prunes come from plums I guess it is like you say probalby
just a case of if they are dried or not. Either way, they are very tasty.


ripe apples and strawbs
and zucchs and the basket I took to my offspring's place full of garden
goodies looked gorgeous with a dozen eggs added along with some herbs and
a
few other things that I now can't bring to mind.

nice to hear about green, growing and ripe
when i'm looking at snow... today it is
supposed to rain and get warmer again. after
-3F the other night i'm ok with that.

Yes, I can imagine. Those storms in the NE of the US look diabolical. I
think after seeing the pics that I'd even prefer stinking heat and bushfires
over those sorts of conditions any day.

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

"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-

Allen, Farm1 is in NSW Australia.

:-)) You remembered!

Her weather is the equivalent of our
August. She wants her melons to ripen,

.......and today I harvested the first one. Not having ever grown them
before, I wondered if they were ripe when you knocked on them. The one I
harvested knocked beautifully but it wasn't quite ripe. It was tasty and
certainly had a good watermelony flavour, but I think another week or so
would have been better. Not to worry, my grandkids will scoff it down
anyway.

I've also got 2 different types of ripe plums (well prunes really but
I've
never really known what the difference between the plums and prunes is
supposed to be- these are both officially 'prunes'), ripe apples and
strawbs
and zucchs and the basket I took to my offspring's place full of garden
goodies looked gorgeous with a dozen eggs added along with some herbs and
a
few other things that I now can't bring to mind.

If I remember correctly, Bill Who Putters, once said if the melon sounds
like your head when you tap it, it's not ripe. If it sounds like your
stomach when you tap it, it's over ripe, but if it sounds like your
chest when you tap it, it IS ripe.

Maybe once Bill Who Putters digs himself out of the snow, he'll respond.

LOL. After having just spent the time rapping the various parts of my body,
I can tell the differnece in sound and what you write does make sense.