If your climate grants you at least 120 frost free growing days, you can stick melon seeds right in the garden soil. Otherwise, sow indoors no moe than a month before the last frost date, placing three or four seeds each in 3-inch pots, 1/4 inch deep. Keep them between 80 and degrees 90 degree F. to encourage germination, moderating to 75 degrees once the plants come up. Further lower the temperature one week before setting out plants. After the last frost, when the soil has had a chance to warm, set three young plants per hill, spacing the hill 3 feet in one direction and 6 feet apart in the other. A garden bed that pitches to the south will help melons to mature faster. Failing that, you can take advantage of the soil warming effects of black plastic. Floating row covers will shelter the young plants for their first month of outdoor life; remove them when you see female blossoms identified by a swelling at the base. Although a good supply of manure is important to early development, melons will be at their best if you cut back on water in the last two weeks before the anticipated harvest.
HARVEST HEIRLOOM MELONS
Use the fragrance test to determine whem cantaloupe are ready to be harvested; they won't ripen and sweeten further after having been cut. Or, give a poke where stem meets fruit, and a ripe contaloupe will begin to come free. A yellowing of the rind is a sign that honeydews should be cut from the vine; they'll be ready to eat when they're further ripened indoors for a few days, at which point you'll pick up their characteristic scent.
SAVING HEIRLOOM MELON SEEDS
Melons will cross with melons, but not with thei cuke, squash, and pumpkin relatives. To maintain a variety as is, isolate plants at least 200 feet, or pollinate by hand. The seeds are ready to be collected whem a melon is ready to eat. Rinse them and dry on glass plates.
$16.95
$16.95
66634 - SAVING SEEDS
The Gardener's Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds
by Marc Rogers
Learn how to select, harvest, and store seeds from more that 100 vegetables and flowers commonly grown in home gardens.
192 pages, 6 x 9, paperback,
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$12.95
66918 - Soil Scoop
Called one of the "50 Favorite Gardening Products" by Organic Gardening, this general purpose digging tool has a patented spoon shaped blade with a sharply pointed tip and serrated edges. By using it with the point down - opposite of how you'd hold a trowel- it works like a natural extension of your hand. Use the Soil Scoop to dig holes, furrow, weed, cut roots, and open soil bags. Also great for pots & containers
