Melons
After last year's "6 plants, 2.5 melons total" crop, I thought I'd go for
more this year. Had about 20 melon plants in the greenhouse (mixed varieties, inc. watermelons) Plants grew well and put out flowers, but the female flowers didn't come until end of August, by which point it was too late to get anything (I did hand pollinate a couple, but the fruit never got more than golf ball sized, and the plants started to die back) Any idea how to encourage female flowers earlier for next year? (I knwo the male ones typically come first, but they were flowering in April/May, the females shoudln't be 3 months behind!!) -- |
Melons
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Melons
Roy Bailey wrote:
Any idea how to encourage female flowers earlier for next year? The trick is to pinch out the growing shoot when the plants have produced about 4 or 5 leaves. This encourages side shoots which tend to produce the female flowers (the plant thinks it is under threat of destruction and starts reproducing.) Some of the books suggest then allowing four of these side shoots to grow on, but in this country, even in a greenhouse, I would suggest one or two. A-ha! Cheers. I would never have figured that one out. I've always encouraged the main stem to grow in a similar way to how the tomatoes grow! Dammit. Better luck next year, eh? :-) |
Melons
On 11 Oct, 11:20, wrote:
Roy Bailey wrote: Any idea how to encourage female flowers earlier for next year? The trick is to pinch out the growing shoot when the plants have produced about 4 or 5 leaves. This encourages side shoots which tend to produce the female flowers (the plant thinks it is under threat of destruction and starts reproducing.) Some of the books suggest then allowing four of these side shoots to grow on, but in this country, even in a greenhouse, I would suggest one or two. A-ha! *Cheers. *I would never have figured that one out. *I've always encouraged the main stem to grow in a similar way to how the tomatoes grow! Dammit. Better luck next year, eh? *:-) Yes, thanks Roy also from me. I always thought that the production of female flowers must be governed by temperature, but maybe it is just that higher temperatures stimulate more side shoots anyway. I find that pollination by small paintbrush is my most successful method. |
Melons
In article
, sutartsorric writes On 11 Oct, 11:20, wrote: A-ha! *Cheers. *I would never have figured that one out. *I've always encouraged the main stem to grow in a similar way to how the tomatoes grow! Dammit. Better luck next year, eh? *:-) Yes, thanks Roy also from me. I always thought that the production of female flowers must be governed by temperature, but maybe it is just that higher temperatures stimulate more side shoots anyway. I find that pollination by small paintbrush is my most successful method. Glad to have been of help. I don't have a greenhouse as such, so I grow normally try growing Sweetheart melons in large pots against a south-facing wall - not normally with a great deal of success. This year I had some large sheets of glass to lean against the wall and I strung horizontal wires to support the plants. Most of the 7 or 8 plants produced a melon; some two, and we had the first one last night. Delicious! Another tip is to keep the area around the stem of the plant dry to prevent it rotting away. Either raise the plant up on a little hillock, or make the top inch of the growing medium sand. In my case I watered only around the side of the pot. Roy. -- Roy Bailey West Berkshire. |
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