Growing Cantaloupe

[boatfixer]

Anyone have any luck growing cantaloupe? I have a Farmers Seed and Nursery catalog and have been looking at some of the varieties for northern climates. Any suggestions or tips?

[KEN W]

The earliest vatieties aren't the best tasting but then again they are early.My favorite is Athena.Also Passport for an early honeydew type.I've grown about 20 different varieties.

You are pretty far north,but it can be done.Need plenty of room.Start the seeds the first of May inside.....4 or so to a

pot.When they come up,if you don't have a greenhouse put them outside every day and bring in at night.

Lay down black plastic where you are going to put them to warm up the soil.Plant out the last week of May if it looks like no more frost coming.

Cut a hole in the plastic and picnh out the weakest of the 4 plants.Plant 3 per hill.Space about 2 feet or so apart.You will need about 5-6 feet on each side to allow plants to spread.

Now comes what makes the difference in if you get them ripe or not......I place wire cages laying down(concrete wire works good or page fencing)over them that are about 4 feet long end to end.Just bend the wire into a U shape.Stake them down.Then put clear plastic over the cages and bury ends in soil.Cut a few holes in the plastic to allow heat out.The plants will love it.

After about 3-4 weeks they will be hitting the cages and they should be removed.I then use bobby pins the anchor the vines to the ground to keep them from rolling in the wind and breaking.

When the melons are golf ball size I elevate them on upside down pots to get them up in the warm sunshine......it takes 45 days from the day they are polinated to ripe fruit.

Now that is a lot of work.....but any of these steps will help get ripe fruit before frost.

1.Plant early varieties

2.start indoors 4 weeks before last frost

3.Use Black Plastic mulch for heat

4.Put wire cages and clear plastic over the transplants.Reemay spon-bonded material layed over them helps also,but not as much as clear plastic.

5.Pin down the vines with Bobby Pins

6.Elevate the melons

[boatfixer]

Thanks Ken, I've heard it takes some work but thats gardening sometimes. One of my twins loves cantaloupe and says he's counting on me to grow him some.

[delcecchi]

I have grown them in Rochester by just planting seeds. But we are a zone and 300 miles warmer. I found I had to watch out for those vine boring bugs, whatever they are called, like the ones that get in squash vines.

[KEN W]

Looking at Farmer's webpage.....I see they have Athena.....the best eating Cantalope.....sold in stores.But it takes a longer growing season.They also have Alaska.Nice size melons and 10 days or so earlier.That is the one I would recommend trying.

Those bugs are squash beetles.They don't do a lot of damage.....but carry disease which kills the plants.

[sparcebag]

Last spring I was clearing a lot on a lake,I filled with any fill soil I got cheap for a driveway,Filled graded and thought I'd use the area as a extra garden,Cantaloupe,water melon,4 different squash,cukes,Luffa.Poor soil produced the biggest best melons I ever grew! Last fall I graveled No garden there this year.Oh ya the weeds were terrible,but I just cut em off with a hoe thinking this garden wont produce,seeing I've tried melons in my Great soil garden.

[Dotch]

 Originally Posted By: delcecchi

I have grown them in Rochester by just planting seeds. But we are a zone and 300 miles warmer. I found I had to watch out for those vine boring bugs, whatever they are called, like the ones that get in squash vines.

Neat observation delcecchi. Sounds like you've experienced the dreaded squash vine borers just like I have in gardens growing up near Spring Valley and my present location near New Richland/Ellendale. They're actually a type of moth that tends to be active during the day. They normally attack pumpkins and squash but sometimes pick on cukes and melons too. They lay their eggs at the base of the plant and the larva burrow into the stem making chemical control difficult. Cultural control is probably the most effective method of dealing with them. Cutting a longitudinal slit in the stalk near the hole where the excrement (frass) comes out and and removing the cream colored larva can keep them from killing the plant. From experience the stems do heal. After harvest, turning the soil to expose the silken cocoons will help get rid of the crop of moths for next year.

Another early variety I've had some luck with is Fastbreak, rated 65 days, about the same as the Alaska melon. Not as good as some of our fuller season (85 day) melons but better than what you can buy in the store.