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Help with melons neede please
Maud is in the garden
Posts: 581
Have tried growing melons for the first time, but really dont know how to support them.They are in the greenhouse in pots at the mo. Have had several suggestions but they are too rude to repeat. Mum did suggets to using my old bras, nows there a thought. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posts
Tights-old or otherwise
Thanks sotongeoff think they maight work better than bras as i dont know what cup size melons will get to. At the moment plants are in largish pots with 3 canes around and plants growing up.
I use hairnets. They expand to suit the size of the fruit. Found the cheapest in Wilko's
What not to use are the nets that I was given which came with the caterers packs of dried peas. My sister thought these would work , I tried them and my fruit rotted - they could not breath me thinks .The hairnets idea sounds good I am trying that this year!
Hi this is the first time I've tried to grow melons, the trouble is the first two I bought have died, I don't want this one to, is there something I should know what am i doing wrong?
please tell me something about them
How are you growing them?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm trying for the first time too - but mine are only two inches high, just a couple of true leaves! Feeling that perhaps I left it too long before sowing... but maybe they'll catch up. Will watch this thread with interest and start saving my old tights.
Here are my melons and cuc's in compost in the windowsill 15.04.14. Kept moist, planting in compost in pots in greenhouse in about 10 days, say, the last week of May. Feed from mid June. (Toms in background, leeks foreground) I keep them covered in clingfilm till germination. Melon main shoot nipped out at 18" and two lower shoots trained up wires at 45 degrees. Bags of water as adult plants. Encourage pollinaters, I grow a Marigold in the greenhouse. These are Emir Cantaloupes.
This is one of last years efforts and I found it a poor year. Jennifer, I suggest you keep yours indoors and warm for a while and Rosie's will catch up. I don't know your location but I grow in Derby's if thats of any relevence. Hairnets will allow more air around the fruit than tights incidentally..One final thing, I only aim for 2 or 3 fruit per shoot, i.e. 4 to 6 per plant.
By the way, I lied in the above post. The photo was mad e today, 15.05.2014. Oops, sorry