Melons take between 3 and 5 months from sowing to harvesting – thus seed shown in February should yield in June, and sowing in March will yield in July – give or take Temperature, Light, etc.
I sow my seed in a propagator during February or at the beginning of March – but check the seed packet, different varieties may have different requirements.
If you sow early you need to be prepared to “house” the plants, as they get bigger, until you can safely put them in the greenhouse – that’s fine if your greenhouse is heated, of course, but in a Cold greenhouse you may not want to put them out until sometime in May.
Young Melon Plant
I plant mine along the edge of the greenhouse (which leaves the taller, central, part of the greenhouse for the Tomatoes), and put one-per-pane of glass – so about 2′ apart. I have horizontal wires attached to the frame of the greenhouse to take the weight of the Melons and I have a cane tied vertically to the wires for each plant to climb up.
Greenhouse melons (Early July)
Note: The string was temporary, its not enough to support the weight of the fruit!
I let the plants grow up until they have 4 true leaves, then pinch out the tip. This encourages the “laterals” to grow. I keep the 4 strongest laterals – 2 on each side – and grow them to 6 leaves, and then pinch them out. These then form “sub-laterals” which will produce the fruit. I allow 4 -5 fruit to set per plant, and after that I remove any further flowers that form – so the plant can concentrate on fattening up the existing fruit. In practice some plants never manage to set 5 fruit – which is annoying as I love Melons!
The female flower has a little baby fruit behind it, whereas the male has a normal flower stalk. The male flowers come first – several weeks ahead of the female flowers, so don’t worry if you don’t have any female flowers initially. I pollinate the female flowers by pulling off a male flower, stripping the petals off, and poking it into the female flower – it will stay there which gives time for the pollen to transfer. I do this each day until the female flower closes (usually 2 or 3 days). If the female flower’s fruit starts to swell it has been pollinated - but even so many get to the size of a golf ball then turn yellow and wither – very annoying! Other folk use a small paintbrush to transfer pollen from Male flower to Female.
Melon Male Flower (no baby melon behind the flower)
For 2009 I’m trying several varieties – searching for the best flavour, and trying Watermelons too:
Edonis F1 (T & M 4 seeds £2.89) I grew this in 2008 and didn’t think they had great flavour (lousy summer though), but my house guests liked them (or were being polite!)
Bastion (Unwins 6 seeds £3.49) Unwins say “The tastiest melon we know” so I couldn’t afford not to try it!
Hearts of Gold (T&M 10 seeds £2.99). Early ripening, apparently.
Sweetheart (Unwins 15 seeds £1.99) Unwins say “Deliciously aromatic pink flesh makes Sweetheart such a worthwhile variety” – Couldn’t afford not to try that one either!
Watermelon Valentina F1
Raising and Planting
Time from Sowing to Harvesting : 3 – 5 months
Germination min. 18C/64F (I use a propagator)
Growing on min. 16C/61F ventilate at 27C/80F – I avoid night temperature falling below 10C
Plant out at 3 – 4 true leaves. In greenhouse border plant on ridges / mounds of prepared soil. This helps keep the stems dry and avoid “soft rot” / “collar rot”. In practice my plants are larger than this by mid to late May when I am happy to plant them out in the Cold Greenhouse, and I keep them in the (warmer) Conservatory until then
Planting distance 15″ for single cordon, 24″ for double cordon (which matches the standard width of a pane of glass in the greenhouse)
In early Spring maintain Min. 21C/70F at night and Min. 24C/75F during the day
Later increase to Min. 24C/75F at night and 30C/86F during the day
Ventilate during the day when temperature exceeds this, but close vents at night.
Training
Pinch out at 5′ – 6′ to encourage laterals. Stop / pinch out each lateral at 5 leaves, and sub-laterals at two leaves beyond the flower.
Remove any flowers produced on the stem.
Pollinate female flowers on different sub-laterals.
Remove fertilized fruit if more than 4 or 5 set per plant and have grown larger than golf balls.
Keep the greenhouse humid (damp down the path and mist the leaves), but keep a drier atmosphere during pollination and when the fruits are setting. As fruits begin to ripen aim for a drier atmosphere, but keep the soil / roots moist.
Support the fruit with nets once they get to Tennis ball size – e.g. nets or old stockings / tights
A very helpful article – thanks.