Me melons are suffering! Help appreciated.

[Lunaeros]

Hellooo, I'm new to gardening completely and planted some watermelon seeds about in mid august. I live in New Zealand, and planted them the same time the packet said to. The problem is that they're still so small, and a bit yellow...some have completely wilted, but I'm just trying to save the ones that look good. I have been growing them in those little mini-pot things and leaving them out in the sun and giving them lots of water.

I have also planted some cucumber. And I think there may be a stray butternut there. They are on the outer-most of the plant tray...and they look good to my untrained bad gardener eye. Green and flourishing. Tbh I don't even know if the oval shaped darkest green one is butternut but I'm glad it's not completely ducked. The packet said to re-pot after 2-4 weeks, but they've only grown to this size now. I would reeeally love some advice! I feel like they're my babies and I'm killing them. Pics here and thank you!

 

[MoonShadows]

Hard to tell without pictures, but I did some searching and here is a website that discusses 2 fungal diseases with watermelons.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/watermelon-vine-turning-yellow-50158.html

I never heard of growing watermelons in "mini pots". The seeds are usually sewn right in the ground, and the vines get very long.

OH...I just saw you pics....they are just seedlings now. Could be too much water...doubt if it is fungus at this point. What soil (make up) did you use to start the seeds.

 

[Tjohn]

In my experience, melons and squash do not do well in those pots for long. I would get them out and into the ground as soon as possible, making sure to take the netting off first. Most of the plants I tried starting in those things died right after getting their first set of leaves and even after transplanting they were a bit iffy. Squash and melons don't like their roots disturbed.

 

[Lunaeros]

In my experience, melons and squash do not do well in those pots for long. I would get them out and into the ground as soon as possible, making sure to take the netting off first. Most of the plants I tried starting in those things died right after getting their first set of leaves and even after transplanting they were a bit iffy. Squash and melons don't like their roots disturbed.

I didn't know this! Thank you very much - I will be relocating them to a much bigger spot today so they can spread their vines, cheers!

 

[Lunaeros]

Hard to tell without pictures, but I did some searching and here is a website that discusses 2 fungal diseases with watermelons.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/watermelon-vine-turning-yellow-50158.html

I never heard of growing watermelons in "mini pots". The seeds are usually sewn right in the ground, and the vines get very long.

OH...I just saw you pics....they are just seedlings now. Could be too much water...doubt if it is fungus at this point. What soil (make up) did you use to start the seeds.

On another site I actually asked around and it turns out those pot thingys don't actually have nutrients in them! I need to buy fertilizer... Could be that I've been starving them! No wonder they're still so small and yellowing. Thank you for the site on fungal infections, I'll bookmark it and look out for it as they're growing so I'll know how to spot it. If I don't make any more giant "whoops"'s then I'll reward the generosity of this site with pics of the harvest. Cheers for the advice!!

 

[alp]

When you seed something in pot, you might need to add a very weak feed when you have a pair of decent leaves. When they are strong enough, it might be a good idea to plant them out. I now spray a bit of cinnamon over the top of the newly germinated seedlings and as we are cold here, I also withhold watering a bit for my indoor seedlings. It might not work your way though.

 

[Lunaeros]

When you seed something in pot, you might need to add a very weak feed when you have a pair of decent leaves. When they are strong enough, it might be a good idea to plant them out. I now spray a bit of cinnamon over the top of the newly germinated seedlings and as we are cold here, I also withhold watering a bit for my indoor seedlings. It might not work your way though.

I've planted them outside in the yard. I put them in normal sandy soil mixed with strawberry mix soil and a nitrogen based fertiliser with bone and blood fertiliser. Hopefully they'll start looking more chipper in a week! I hope I didn't muck it up or the cat digs them up :O
They all had roots that we going past the little pots! Hopefully now they'll grow faster with the fertiliser and the space and uh, not die lol. I'll look into spraying cinnamon on the seedlings, we have lots of it in the kitchen heheh

 

[alp]

Have a look at this, but you can learn something else from him

.

I have any way.

Also, if you key in your kind of melon, you might get something you find useful..

I remember when people try to grow melon (galia, yellow or cantaloupe here), they keep saying that they are very hungry feeders.. Hope you put them in a sunny spot. Make sure you upload your melons when they are ripe. I will try mine in February when it's warmer. Last year's crop was a failure. Total, but the UK is a cold country .. I saw the flowers on my selno de piedo .. I so love its flavour .. I don't have a greenhouse.

 

[Lunaeros]

Have a look at this, but you can learn something else from him

.

I have any way.

Also, if you key in your kind of melon, you might get something you find useful..

I remember when people try to grow melon (galia, yellow or cantaloupe here), they keep saying that they are very hungry feeders.. Hope you put them in a sunny spot. Make sure you upload your melons when they are ripe. I will try mine in February when it's warmer. Last year's crop was a failure. Total, but the UK is a cold country .. I saw the flowers on my selno de piedo .. I so love its flavour .. I don't have a greenhouse.

Will definitely key in! (It's a candy red watermelon...candy sounds nice right? hahah) And I will take progress pics and upload the melons when ripe if they make it! If not, then there's still the butternut/cucumber ...(if I don't screw those up as well D: )

 

[alp]

Let me tell my experience with melons. I have kept the selno de piedo seeds and germinated them and they grew to about 3 feet indoors which has a glass roof, but is baiscally my lean to. Two of them only as I didn't want to keep too many. In the end, the flowers died and nothing came out of them.

Yet, at the back end of the garden which is constantly being heated by the setting sun. One of the same old warty and spiky melon plants sprang up again. As the flavour wasn't there (bought the seeds on the internet and didn't even remember the name!). This is the 2nd year running and of course, it fruited, 3 of them. What you can do is to find the hottest or the sunniest place you could find and try to leave one of two seeds or seedlings there. If you have clay soil, you basically don't need buy any special compost. You can enrich the soil before hand...with organic matter, horse manure, even urine ..straws. You don't need to buy any special seeds, just keep water melon, galia or yellow melon seeds and have a go. Next year, I will try again.