Hi All,
Can I grow Melons from the seeds of shop bought Melons?

In article ,
Neil Cairns wrote:
Hi All,
Can I grow Melons from the seeds of shop bought Melons?

Yes. But don't expect them to fruit! That isn't because the plants
won't do so, but because melons are very tricky in the UK, need to
be grown under glass, and the varieties sold in the shops will not
be the specialist ones needed for semi-reliable cropping in the UK.
Don't bother with watermelons - they need a LOT more heat.

Now, the same does NOT apply to pumpkins and many squashes, which
are much hardier. I grow some Katsuba squashes (a hubbard type)
from supermarket seed, and they are fine. Not a brilliant crop,
and only some fruit ripen, but adequate. Butternut squashes are
trickier, though.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 25/11/05 15:54, in article , "newsb"
wrote:

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes
In article ,
Neil Cairns wrote:
Hi All,
Can I grow Melons from the seeds of shop bought Melons?

Yes. But don't expect them to fruit! That isn't because the plants
won't do so, but because melons are very tricky in the UK, need to
be grown under glass, and the varieties sold in the shops will not
be the specialist ones needed for semi-reliable cropping in the UK.
Don't bother with watermelons - they need a LOT more heat.


I grew half a dozen melon plants from shop bought melons this year - in
the greenhouse. Can't remember the variety - but they were the very
sweet orange fleshed sort that you see a lot in the southern half of
France. They weren't in a fantastic position - also, a bit late, in
smallish pots and largely ignored I'm afraid. Even so, three of them
gave birth, two of those with two melons. Very small fruits (bit bigger
than an orange but smaller than a grapefruit) - but they did get
reasonably ripe and were edible. Not quite as juicy as the parents but
not too bad.

I might have invented cocktail melons

Plant Breeder's Rights for you, then! Cantaloupe melons or Charentais,
perhaps?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article ,
newsb writes:
|
| I grew half a dozen melon plants from shop bought melons this year - in
| the greenhouse. Can't remember the variety - but they were the very
| sweet orange fleshed sort that you see a lot in the southern half of
| France. They weren't in a fantastic position - also, a bit late, in
| smallish pots and largely ignored I'm afraid. Even so, three of them
| gave birth, two of those with two melons. Very small fruits (bit bigger
| than an orange but smaller than a grapefruit) - but they did get
| reasonably ripe and were edible. Not quite as juicy as the parents but
| not too bad.

Yes, precisely. Without a greenhouse, there isn't much chance, and
even with one you had only a 50% success rate. In my (limited)
experience, the smaller pots and neglect actually increase the
setting rate of many plants (but reduce the size of the fruit).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Neil Cairns wrote:
Hi All,
Can I grow Melons from the seeds of shop bought Melons?

Yes but you might have to do the 'birds and bees' bit! For this you
need a sable brush from your art shop.

One trick I saw somewhere long before that seemed to have helped
germination was just before planting time, snip out the pointed end so
that you see a tiny gap. Initially youll get some fruits dropping off
whilst still small but you'll know when you have success. I copied the
idea I saw in a Victorian book and supported the fruit with a cradle or
hammock of fruit netting if growing along steel horizontal lines as we
did as the fruit can become very heavy. We got one or two to the size
of a rugby ball and they were of course delicious.

You might want to pick out the leader stem after some time as we got one
stem to a length of about 25 feet.


Richard.

--
We trade our health in search of wealth,
We scrimp and toil and save;
We trade our wealth in search of health,
But only find the grave.

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

I grew half a dozen melon plants from shop bought melons this year - in
the greenhouse. Can't remember the variety - but they were the very
sweet orange fleshed sort that you see a lot in the southern half of
France.

Ogen?

They weren't in a fantastic position - also, a bit late, in
smallish pots and largely ignored I'm afraid. Even so, three of them
gave birth, two of those with two melons. Very small fruits (bit bigger
than an orange but smaller than a grapefruit) - but they did get
reasonably ripe and were edible. Not quite as juicy as the parents but
not too bad.

I might have invented cocktail melons

No, I did that back in the last millennium, growing some Ogen melon pips
in an outside bed. The largest was about the size of a satsums, but most
were ping-pong ball size. [1]

Plant Breeder's Rights for you, then! Cantaloupe melons or Charentais,
perhaps?

Hmmmm - do a bit of pollination and grow Long Green Cantaloup...

[1] Fruit, not pips.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

Plant Breeder's Rights for you, then! Cantaloupe melons or Charentais,
perhaps?

Hmmmm - do a bit of pollination and grow Long Green Cantaloup...

Or some serious GM, and breed a large, white melon that eats grass.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

Plant Breeder's Rights for you, then! Cantaloupe melons or Charentais,
perhaps?

Hmmmm - do a bit of pollination and grow Long Green Cantaloup...

Or some serious GM, and breed a large, white melon that eats grass.

Even more hmmmmmmmmmm.

A large fluffy white melon that eats grass, and you can milk, and when
it's ripe, use the pelt for molishing warm coats and gloves?

The idea sounds almost as attractive as a haggis - I'll get to work
straight away.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On 25 Nov 2005 16:20:58 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:


In article ,
newsb writes:
|
| I grew half a dozen melon plants from shop bought melons this year - in
| the greenhouse. Can't remember the variety - but they were the very
| sweet orange fleshed sort that you see a lot in the southern half of
| France. They weren't in a fantastic position - also, a bit late, in
| smallish pots and largely ignored I'm afraid. Even so, three of them
| gave birth, two of those with two melons. Very small fruits (bit bigger
| than an orange but smaller than a grapefruit) - but they did get
| reasonably ripe and were edible. Not quite as juicy as the parents but
| not too bad.

Yes, precisely. Without a greenhouse, there isn't much chance, and
even with one you had only a 50% success rate. In my (limited)
experience, the smaller pots and neglect actually increase the
setting rate of many plants (but reduce the size of the fruit).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Thanks I will give it a try this spring and let you all know how I get
on.
Neil

In article , Sacha
writes

I might have invented cocktail melons

Plant Breeder's Rights for you, then! Cantaloupe melons or Charentais,
perhaps?

Thanks - Charentais it was

--
regards andyw