Watermelon seedlings

oldrocker

I got 7 starts that took out of 10.

Be putting them in the ground soon.

Come on sunshine and stay away cicadas, lil basturds better not eat them

pitdogg2

Cicada's do not have mouths...
You referring to grubs?

oldrocker

I did not know that, probably why I'm not the best at gardening

oldrocker

But dammit I got 7, yes 7 starts

pitdogg2

Yep once they fly they die quickly. Mate lay eggs die...

Hermitism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoHWCMnpFE

OleBoot

https://youtu.be/b3VSMqVIRXA

gudnoyez

https://youtu.be/mBP7jPFtmRk

oldrocker

Excellent music choices, added them all to my favorites list.

pitdogg2

Gosh that Tennessee Ernie Ford brings back childhood memories. My Mom and Dad would drag us kids miles to some Podunk towns county fair to see Tennessee Ernie Ford....

OleBoot

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Gosh that Tennessee Ernie Ford brings back childhood memories. My Mom and Dad would drag us kids miles to some Podunk towns county fair to see Tennessee Ernie Ford....

I got parked at my granny's during the school holidays (Mum worked) and spent pretty much a whole summer listening to my youngest uncle playing a 78 of "Sixteen Tons" over and over again.

tonyb

Hmmm, wonder if that works for inflatables. I mean...if you bury one, will a whole bunch suddenly appear ? Asking for Bruce, he's kinda like that.

oldrocker

Okay folks, I'm up to 16 out of 21 nicely developed, good looking starts.

If I can get 2-3 melons per start, add in our current "out of control" inflation rate.
That makes each of these tasty treats say around 50 bucks a pop.

That should be approx. $1,600.00 to $2,400.00 bucks, enough for some new cables

Hell, who am I kidding.
I'll be lucky if 2 or 3 take and the way things are going, the damn rabbits will get em.

Little buggers already chowing down on my green beans

pitdogg2

you need a good Hasenpfeffer recipe..... except Rabbit no good in summer.....unless you want the fever....then by all means dig in

tonyb

You've got to send those little varmints a message....

oldrocker

Checked the video on the trail cams, gotsa lotsa of the dog giving it her all.

pitdogg2

http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/rabbitkeepaway.html

txcoastal1

pitdogg2 wrote: »

http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/rabbitkeepaway.html

Easier and mo' fun with a pellet ****

tonyp063

OleBoot wrote: »

pitdogg2 wrote: »

Gosh that Tennessee Ernie Ford brings back childhood memories. My Mom and Dad would drag us kids miles to some Podunk towns county fair to see Tennessee Ernie Ford....

I got parked at my granny's during the school holidays (Mum worked) and spent pretty much a whole summer listening to my youngest uncle playing a 78 of "Sixteen Tons" over and over again.

That would tend to make ....... an impression.... on a person.

oldrocker

Getting closer.

msg

Nice. What are those blue things?

oldrocker

Plastic pallets.

msg

Are they made specifically for aiding in growing melons, like for keeping them off the ground? I thought maybe they were foam or something.

I wasn't going to have a garden this year, but decided at the last minute to try Square Foot Gardening, and built a 4x4x1 box to start with. Got some tomatoes and jalapeños. I need to think of other stuff to grow, and am thinking about building a small greenhouse for the cooler months.

Nothing like the taste and satisfaction of homegrown stuff.

mrbiron

This is our first veggie garden at our new house. Keeping it relatively small for now. We started seedlings indoors for a couple months before transplanting. Lost a few in the process when we had some rare 90+ degree days early on.

I don’t have any current photos on hand, but it’s coming in well, but slow. Toms, green peps, penos, cukes, pole beans, squash, and zucchini. Found two plants in the compost pile, so I moved those over as well. One was a tomato and I think the other is pumpkin.

Watermelon, in New England….maybe next year.

oldrocker

They are just basic plastic pallets that I got from where my Wife works.

I've never grown watermelon or cantaloupe and it's advised to keep the fruit off the ground which the pallets do very well.
Cantaloupe's have vined like crazy, no fruit yet.

FWIW, I tilled the spot, raked it a bit, put down weed barrier, cut holes in barrier, dug holes, added compost/dirt and planted the seedlings.

If it continues to work this well, next year I plan on using pallets on all ground dwelling items as weeding is a thing of the past. Heck I might just do both gardens completely with them.

I have cukes, beans, tomatoes, various peppers "mild/hot/brutal", corn, carrots, onions and yellow squash. Might be more, don't remember off hand.

Had my first ever problem with the squash vine borer, pesky little bug that killed the squash but I restarted more elsewhere and is doing fine.

Daughter has TONS of herbs & spices all doing well. Spearmint and lemon balm tea's are great.

I can't remember all the stuff she has, it's quite a variety.

msg

Those vine borers are sneaky little #&%*. Last time I tried to grow squash and zuchinni, they started of beautifully, and then all the leaves started to yellow and get crunchy. Next, the zuchinni and squash already on the vines started to grow into weird shapes and shriveled. Found that sneaky little #&%* well after it was too late. I never knew wee beasties like that existed until then. Pure evil they are.

oldrocker

Yes Sir, them are some nasty bastages for sure and I've never had this issue.

I'm wondering if it had anything to do with my compost recipe or the 17 year cicada?
I don't track patterns of insects that much in the gardens but this year it seems the insects and activities
are much different than previous years.

I was able to save one plant by putting some mulch around the base that appeared to be under attack and in distress.

It is now producing squash, yesterday I picked and cooked one, it looked fine internally and tasted good.

FWIW, up to 9 baby watermelons. YEAH!!!

oldrocker

Starting to pop.

oldrocker

Still growing.


One fell down in the pallet, had a nice square shape to it

NotaSuv

They grow them in square shaped molds in Japan.....sell for pretty good money.............

oldrocker

Wife told me about that, suggested we try a few that way next year.
I think the total count is around 16.

Cantaloupe on the other hand is real slow, had tons of flowers yet just a few melons.

Found this suggestion online.

Why are my plants not producing fruit?
Typically when a cantaloupe plant doesn’t produce fruits (or produces small fruits that shrivel up and die before developing fully), it’s a pollination problem. While cantaloupes are self-pollinating—meaning they have both male flowers and female flowers on the vine, if you don’t have many bees or other pollinators to spread the pollen, you’re out of luck!

For the long-term, we recommend increasing pollinator activity by planting lots of pollinator-friendly plants in your garden. For the short-term, you might need to hand pollinate your cantaloupe vines. To do this:

Carefully remove a male flower from the plant. Male flowers have a stamen, which is a pollen covered stalk in the center of the flower.
Strip away the petals of the male flower so that only the stamen is left.
Find a female flower—they will sit atop an immature, tiny melon. **Insert the stamen from the male flower into an open female flower and gently tap the stamen on the stigma (a small, sticky knob in the female flower).
Try to coat the stigma with as much pollen as possible. As long as there is pollen left on the stamen, you can use the same male flower several times on other female flowers.

I ain't doing that, I'd never live that one down..