Slings for melons?

retired member 2 4/17/2011, 9:49 pm

I was reading Mel's advice on growing melons and he suggested slings. How do you put a melon in a sling and what do you make it out of? I planted one square of cantalope and one of a small watermelon. I am planning on using the nylon trellis for them as they are in the same bed with tomatoes.

I planted a Butternut squash today from seed, but after reading a little more about them in the SFG book, I thinkk I am going to remove them tommorrow. Sound too agressive to me.

fiddleman 4/17/2011, 10:35 pm

In one of my books (30+ years old version of Crockett's Victory Garden pg. 168. ) James Crocket had this to say about it "The only problem with this vertical melon garden is that the fruit is usually too heavy for the foliage to support, so the gardener has to lend a helping hand. When the melons grow to about the size of grapefruit, I bag each individual fruit with some mesh material that will support the melons as they continue to grow. I use either an old nylon stocking or an onion bag or plastic netting, tying it with twine to the fence. The melons can continue to grow without bearing the full burden of their own weight."

Sounds sensible enough, though I haven't ever grown melons vertically myself, I would think this good advice.

Mark

westie42 4/17/2011, 10:45 pm

My butternut can get 20 feet away from the seedling and still provide mature fruit. Not something I would want to master on a SFG trellis. There are bush type butternuts but have never gotten good production from them like the older varieties give. Just avoid netting your melons with material that could rot or deteriorate in the sun and rain.

shannon1 4/18/2011, 2:52 am

I the new SFG book Mel said they grew pumpkins 7 feet in the air that the vines just get stout enough to hold them and no longer recomends slinging them like he did in the old SFG book. study

I don't know if that is true of mellons too but perhaps if you grew one of the smaller types it might.

acara 4/18/2011, 7:51 am

I'd recommend slinging melons (in an SFG/container); if for no other reason than if one drops, it does epic damage to the other/rest of the plants in the container/bed.

Somehow the melon always seems to to survive the drop ..... probably because the blow is softened by all the plants that break its fall on the way down.

As far a what to sling them with ..... I've used both cheesecloth and pantyhose sucessfully.

retired member 2 4/18/2011, 8:28 am

I have a lot of plastic mesh bags that onions come in so I thought Iwould use those. Once they are in the sling, what do you fasten them to?

acara 4/18/2011, 8:35 am

clb58 wrote:I have a lot of plastic mesh bags that onions come in so I thought Iwould use those. Once they are in the sling, what do you fasten them to?

I've used those before (and the lemon/lime mesh bags) .... just fashion an "S" hook out of a piece of heavy gauge wire & hook them onto your wire cage trellis (hook goes right through the mesh). I've also used trashbag ties (the paper covered wire ones) to attach the mesh to the structure.

nancy 4/18/2011, 9:26 am

Last year we put a tomato cage around the melon plant and then tied sections of panty hose to the rungs. It made a hammock for the melons. Unfortunately I used my old "skinny" nylons and they didn't really expand enough. This year I will buy queen sized from the dollar store. It works well if you can keep the melon in its hammock!

MasonGarden 4/18/2011, 11:26 am

Does anyone have pictures of their melons in a sling?

nancy 4/18/2011, 11:31 am

I can't post pictures from work, but I have one in my gallery. If you can't find it, I'll try to post in in this thread when I get home. It's even titled "melons in a sling". Very Happy

MasonGarden 4/18/2011, 11:39 am

Thanks, Nancy. Your response clicked a thought so I went to google images and found these:

Slings for melons? Melon_10

It looks like in both cases they are using cattle panel fencing for the trellis as well. Looks nice and sturdy!

nancy 4/18/2011, 7:22 pm

Here is the picture of my sugar baby melon in its sling from last year:

Slings for melons? 20100710

Those are indeed silver / sparkly panty hose. My ex-husband bought them for me one year for Christmas. I don't think I ever wore them.

Old Hippie 4/18/2011, 7:25 pm

very fancy!! LOL! I love it.

Gwynn

acara 4/18/2011, 7:59 pm

Pantyhose FTW !!!!

Very Happy

MasonGarden 4/18/2011, 9:08 pm

Disco melons! smiles

Old Hippie 4/19/2011, 1:26 am

acara wrote:Pantyhose FTW !!!!

Pantyhose Free the Whales?? :scratch:

Gwynn

boffer 4/19/2011, 1:38 am

OH, I wanted to ask in another thread, hippies didn't used to wear pantie hose, what's up with that? Razz

Old Hippie 4/19/2011, 2:36 am

LOL! You are right about that but then when we pastored a church I was expected to look somewhat respectable. I caved in to the establishment and started shaving my legs, wearing various undergarments I had previously rebelled against and from then on it was a downward spiral into conformity and eventually suburbia. Sad

Gwynn

acara 4/19/2011, 6:39 am

Old Hippie wrote:
acara wrote:Pantyhose FTW !!!!

Pantyhose Free the Whales?? :scratch:

Gwynn

Sorry.....

Pantyhose FTW = Pantyhose, For-The-Win

nancy 4/19/2011, 9:05 am

I'm so glad you spelled that out. I didn't want to have to ask (thanks OH!!). My brains said For the Women or For the Watermelons. jocolor

Smartchick 4/19/2011, 11:26 am

I use pantyhose as well to sling canteloupe. I stick them inside the hose and then tie the top to the trellis or frame somewhere. It's nice becuase when canteloupe are ripe they literally slip off the vine. When you notice the slings drooping you know your canteloupe are ripe! Last year I grew them on nylon trellis successfully. I have also grown butternut squash in the SFG and while the vine does grow quite rapidly, I just kept weaving it in an out of the trellis. No need to sling those as the stems grew rather thick on their own - same for acorn squash.

Old Hippie 4/19/2011, 10:30 pm

nancy wrote:I'm so glad you spelled that out. I didn't want to have to ask (thanks OH!!). My brains said For the Women or For the Watermelons.

Well, I looked it up on line and there were several... but a couple of them were not useable on this forum and I didn't think it was what Acara meant anyway.

Thanks Acara. I don't text at all so am not up on all the shorthand that goes with it. You obviously let slide my comment about your pantyhose. LOL!

Gwynn

boffer 4/19/2011, 10:32 pm

Shhh...I'm not sure if his wife knows about his pantyhose.

Old Hippie 4/19/2011, 10:41 pm

boffer wrote:Shhh...I'm not sure if his wife knows about his pantyhose.

Ooops!

Gwynn

ashort 4/19/2011, 10:44 pm

Took a chance.... :?:

Googled it..... Shocked

Yep, its been done - melons in bras... cheers

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