My spring garden still has a small, sunny unused space. I'd like to plant 1 pumpkin & 1 w-melon hill.Bad idea?
Question:I know that these plants need lots of room, and good drainage. The space in question does not meet the 6ft row spacing x 4ft hill spacing; however, can they be grown using some sort of caging or containment method? The available space has about 3-4ft of spacing from the main garden area (just enough worked up soil for 2 hills). I thought it would be a fun project for me and my 5 yr old daughter to try and grow a jack-o-latern for use in October, and also some watermelon for summer enjoyment. Both of the plants to be used are "med-large fruit with trailing vines" varieties-which I prefer to have (not the miniatures). Can I grow these sprawling plants with success (using some containment method)? Thanks.
Answers:
You should be good,put a hill about 6 inches high but you need to plant two or three of each for them to gerinate, two or three seeds twogether in one small hole. The vines grow long but when they come up againest a fence or something solid it will either grow up it or turn. Give it a shot what have you got to lose
You need to plant many melon seeds, just to get a few of them to grow. you almost need to plant a whole pack of seeds (like 100 seeds) just for a bout 10 plants to make it.
I tried this once, and planted about 300 seeds, my garden is 40ft long x 34 ft wide, and I grew about 10 decent melons from all that. I say it's a waste of time and space, when you can go to the local store and pick one up for a few bux.
And if you let the vines go up fences or trellis's, the weight
of the melon will eventually get too heavy, and make the vine cut itself, thus killing anything on that vine. Another no no with melons.
grow sunflower plants together, they grow straight up and produce lots of seeds that you can eat together.
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