garden yields

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 12:53 pm

here is just a couple pics of whats growing and what I have picked...I am so excited my first attempt at watermelon and they are coming throu

garden yields Garden13

**AtlantaMarie** 8/18/2014, 1:46 pm

Woo-hoo, Eric! Your watermelon looks much better than mine!

Congrats!

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yolos 8/18/2014, 3:21 pm

Look at those leaves. Not a insect bite and no brown or yellow spots. Beautiful. Sorry, I always look at the leaves and not the fruit.

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 5:05 pm

Yeah, that does look really great. A neat trick is to have such big dark green leaves ... AND some fruit to go with it! Sometimes I get the most amazing leaves, but there's so much nitrogen available a plant doesn't want to give me any fruits! D'oh! Very Happy

Watermelon is seeming like a better and better idea to grow to me. I can't get enough of it when it's available, but it's so heavy that even the cheap ones wind up pretty expensive in stores! I tend to think of gardening that way, since I don't have unlimited land ... What can I grow that will cut down my grocery bill significantly or let me eat stuff too pricey to regularly buy? I think watermelon may be a better use of garden space, by that sort of metric, than I used to believe.

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 5:45 pm

haya Marc..one thing you gota beware with watermelons is they will grow..EVERYWHERE if you don't trim back the vines some. ya the melons are coming out nicely some of my other stuff not so much my cucumber and eggplant are not doing so well..but my zucchini is and my bush green beans that took are doing well

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 6:31 pm

Good, Eric! It's always nice to see some success stories. I think for most of us, most years have their share of misses mixed in with the nice big hits.

Do you trim back your watermelon vines, or advise it? A friend of mine is growing some kind of pumpkin, I think, and his vines are spreading ... maybe ten feet from the beds? Another pumpkin plant, he picked every fruit and flower off but one, in an attempt to grow a single super pumpkin. It's a beauty so far, but on the other plants, I don't think I've even seen a flower yet, just huge green vines and leaves.

plantoid 8/18/2014, 6:33 pm

I'm in the UK , the three two month old water melons I planted out four weeks ago have not yet come into flower. The weather has turned cool with plenty of rain .
This weekend might just brighten and warm up ,but I fear this year is not going to be a melon one for me.

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 7:13 pm

I personaly would trim vines..but gota beware of where to trim..incase you lose budding melons. this is my thoughts is when they start getting to far out of there beds trim them at a point past flowering parts. from what I understand the plant will then send more of its energy and such to the remaining vines and produce flowers and the melons kinda same thought on like tomatoes where you might trim off a lot of the plat say like 60% in favor of the fruit/flowering parts from what I understand you kind awana do that wth plants like grapes or other fast growing everywhere kinda plant to kinda control its growth and where it spends it resources

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 7:24 pm

I know that's popular to do toward the end of the season, to ripen existing fruits. I was going to do that last year to my tomatoes, but then discovered I liked green tomatoes so much I actually preferred lots of green tomatoes to fewer but riper ones.

How many melons do you expect to get per vine? I see some people expect what seems to me very few melon or big winter squash types(like butternut), so for them trimming down a plant to keep a couple of good fruit and being satisfied with that makes sense. But I don't know if better yields of good quality melons or large winter squash are common enough that leaving them to grow as they will isn't such a bad idea either.

I guess season length must play a part in how to answer that kind of question, but I'm just not sure of the nature of the plants. Last time I grew a successful butternut squash plant, after two were on the vine, a bunch of puppies ripped it to pieces, so my experiment ended early!

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 7:29 pm

this is my first year of successful watermelons so not sure how to answer that part..my trimming was more of control cause they were invading over into 3 of my other beds. I will have to take a pic of it and post it I only got 1 single melon to take out of 8 I planted in a 4x8 bed naitive soil and I have 2ft walking lanes between all my beds and this 1 melon was growing into the 2 4x4 beds near by and the other 4x8 bed next to it.

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 7:37 pm

Well, it will be interesting to see how it works out for you either way. The experiments continue!

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 7:46 pm

and this is just 1 plant

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Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 7:52 pm

Wow. I think I'd have to grow something that big outside my fenced in area, up in the hill behind my place, but dunno if the critters would leave it alone. Horrible soil though. But at least it could sprawl.

Eric Lingo 8/18/2014, 8:00 pm

ya luckily where I live don't have to worry to much about critters..occasional possum or some birds but that's it. and you can see why I mentioned trimming back on the vines..that growth is with some of it trimmed..LOL

**AtlantaMarie** 8/18/2014, 9:19 pm

Marc Iverson wrote:Watermelon is seeming like a better and better idea to grow to me. I can't get enough of it when it's available, but it's so heavy that even the cheap ones wind up pretty expensive in stores! I tend to think of gardening that way, since I don't have unlimited land ... What can I grow that will cut down my grocery bill significantly or let me eat stuff too pricey to regularly buy? I think watermelon may be a better use of garden space, by that sort of metric, than I used to believe.

Marc, I'm tellin' ya, you need to dehydrate it for the winter! OMG, you talk about intense...! You only need a small bite.

Just be aware that it's also quite sticky due to the sugar content. You can keep it between sheets of wax or parchment paper. And make sure you get all the seeds out before drying.

I know you don't have a dehydrator - you can use the oven. 135 degrees for a few hours. Put them on wire racks with pans or foil underneath the racks to catch the juice that drips.

Marc Iverson 8/18/2014, 10:53 pm

I remember you saying that, Marie. I do love watermelon -- the fruit, the candy, in fruit roll-ups. One day I'll definitely follow your suggestion and try it.

**AtlantaMarie** 8/19/2014, 7:45 am

Me, too! I've been so disappointed with our watermelons this year. Did not do well at all.

Of course, most of this season has been quite disappointing... Sounds like a lot of us this year.

Love the puppies! They're adorable!

Marc Iverson 8/19/2014, 12:16 pm

Thanks! And yes, they are. Very Happy

We're even boarding another one for a friend who's even younger, so there's even more cuteness than you think!

Eric Lingo 9/10/2014, 11:22 am

I am so excited picked my first ever watermelon..about 20-25lb. couldn't fit in the fridge so had to cut it in half..and it looks very nice and tastes even better. will get a pic of it here in a bit

**sanderson** 9/10/2014, 1:00 pm

Yes, Photo please. garden yields 3170584802

FamilyGardening 9/10/2014, 6:49 pm

so exciting!

we too are growing our very first watermelons....how did you know when your was ready?

happy gardening
rose

Eric Lingo 9/10/2014, 11:44 pm

my dad find some refernace on it on line...where on the vine towards the main body before the melon there will be a small clinger vine if that's brown aka dead..next near the melon its self will be a small leaf and if that's brown the melon is supposed to be done..it worked for our first one so I am sticking with that method..LOL

Eric Lingo 9/10/2014, 11:54 pm

**sanderson** 9/11/2014, 1:08 am

Ah, beautiful. Very Happy

FamilyGardening 9/11/2014, 5:02 am

oh boy does that look drooling

delicious!
rose

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