First melon 30 days after sowing.
Earlier this summer wild hogs tore through the yard making the grass un-mowable. I decided to experiment a little by tilling up the ground with the tractor, mainly to level things out. This method worked okay, but more specialized equipment would be needed to efficiently smooth and level the area that was destroyed.
Not many days after the hog damage occurred, we happened to consume an uncharacteristically delicious honeydew melon from the grocery store. The sudden decision to plant a row of these melons in the newly tilled ground was made.
Despite the lack of planning that went into sowing the honeydew seeds, they came up in only a few days. I got excited and thought, "What the hell, lets plant cantaloupes and watermelons too!" In total, three store-bought melons were used for this impromptu melon patch.
For the next two plantings (cantaloupe and watermelon) we formed mounded rows before sowing the new seeds. We spaced the seeds about 2"-4" apart and watered once daily (unless it rained). The new sprouts emerged within 3 or 4 days. I have discovered that letting the garden fill with water between the rows is much easier than trying to water all the plants individually.
About three weeks after sowing, we thinned out the plants in each row.
After six weeks of growth and lots of help from the bees, we now have tiny honeydews, cantaloupes and watermelons starting to form. Hopefully, before August is over we will be feasting on melons from each row.
Honeydew at 30 days
If I had to change anything, I would have made the space between mounds wider and constructed a trellis or other kind of support to keep both the vines and fruit off the ground.
Thanks for stopping by, more to come in the following weeks.
That should be enough melons for the whole summer :)
It should be but you should see the number of people in his family....he had better share with his big sis (me). LOL :)
Great job, congratulations for both! the plantings and the post.
Good look with the harvest.
Good to see someone who is also interested in agriculture. About the water technique, Thank you very much i have definitely learnt something.
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STOPThanks everyone for the upvotes!
Thanks for showing us your step-by-step process here! This is very impressive for impromptu gardening :) Wish we had the climate for that in Ontario right now, but it's been an unusually cold summer. We haven't gone above 90 and it's already basically august. Very weird!
You're welcome. The growing season here may be fantastic but the summer heat can be brutal. The other day the low here was something around 86 at night! What is the high usually for Ontario? I figured 90 would be pretty close.
I hear that! I lived in Florida for a short time, close to Tampa. But I found surprisingly that the humidity in the summer months was comparable to Toronto (at it's worst).
In the country where I live now the high in the summer is usually about 90. But we've been having an unusually cool month with highs of 68. But in the city where I grew up, highs can be as much as 95 - 104 with humidity.
Hy,
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i love water melon :)
great job, keep working on that.
Great write-up and so awesome seeing the fruits of your labor! Pun Intended Hahaha!
I'm so glad to see your post got a curie vote, too! I submitted it but it still had to "make the cut"... which it did! Yay!
I'd like to invite you to join other homesteaders, gardeners, preppers, and like-minded Steemit users on our slack community. It's called SteemitHomesteaders and is a great place for us to chat, share stories, and support each other. More info is at the link below.
Congrats again, and I look forward to your next post!
https://steemit.com/steemithomesteaders/@greenacrehome/announcement-steemithomesteaders-slack-community
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STOPYummy!!
I wish I had soil like that.
Hard to grow anything in red clay.
That's a lot of melons planted in a small space! Keep us posted I am very interested in how it turns out...
Yes, maybe a few too many! But next time I will use a trellis to let them grow up, instead of sideways.
That's an excellent idea!
Wonderful crop. I hope you are now inspired to grow even more veggies next year. It looks like you have a lot of land.
wild hogs? Is this a common occurrence? Will they come back?
Thanks! Yes wild hogs, and yes very common to this area, but they're also pretty unpredictable. It's been a year or two since I've seen any before this last time. However, they came several times in the span of a week and tore up close to a 1/4 acre. A small (4-7) group of them would show up around 4 am in the morning just digging around uprooting everything. It's really amazing how much they can destroy in such a short time! They're known to be very intelligent, with an excellent memory, so its not too surprising they haven't returned after I shot at them the last time. Hopefully they won't! I read certain smells (humans and predators) will keep them away, only time will tell.
Save water and pee around the edges of your property then!
Looks like a good harvest coming your way. Melons are one thing that doesn't fit well in my raised bed garden unfortunately. Corn is another.
Cool project!
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STOPWow. You're going to be feasting on melons for a while. I need to make a space for melons this year I think. Thank you for sharing. Following you too see the harvest ;-)
Surely you will share this tremendous crop of yours with your ever so loving (youngest) nephew who adores you.....but mostly adores watermelon. :)