Watermelons

[gary350]

gary350:
Very large melons are a 4 month crop, medium size melons are a 3 month, small melons are a 2 month crop. I will only grow small melons from now on we get a harvest 2 months sooner and we don't have 30 lbs of melon in the refrigerator for a week. I stopped growing in hills 35 years ago too many plants in the same location roots are in computation for moisture. I plant seeds 12" apart in a 30 ft long row then rake the vines in a clock wise circle. Vines shade out all the weeds and grass plants are almost zero maintenance. When vines get too long cut them shorter. My melons always have BER, I give them wood ash once a week, ash is about 30% calcium. Here is a pic of a 39 lb melon next to a 5 gallon bucket that was 8 years ago.

That is a beautiful watermelon!! Looks like my favorite to crimson sweet.
I was thinking I might need to start them from seed to give them a head start but my growing zone is the same as yours so if you can grow melons like that from seed I'll probably just plant the seeds.

Starting melons in pots is a good idea they are a hot weather crop and seeds don't germinate easy when we are still having 50° temperatures at night. I planted water melon seeds 3 times in the garden last summer before I finally got some plants.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Starting melons in pots is a good idea they are a hot weather crop and seeds don't germinate easy when we are still having 50° temperatures at night. I planted water melon seeds 3 times in the garden last summer before I finally got some plants.

I'm thinking I'll do both. I have never stared a watermelon or Cantaloupe from seed so I have no idea what I'm doing. I've been reading up on it and it seems that a couple of weeks is all it takes before they're ready to transplant into the garden. I'll more than likely plant them around the 10th or 15th of May so I guess I should wait a little bit before I start since today is only the 15th of April.