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!!)

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