Learning about crops - Watermelons

I've grown watermelons for two years now.  In the first year (2011), we did the old tried and true method of letting the runners splay out wherever they please.  This past year, however, we trellised the watermelons.  I built an angled trellis out of 2x4's, 2x3's, conduit, and wire fence material.  Watermelon starters were planted at the base of the trellis with the vines trained upward.  I deliberately chose a smaller variety of watermelon that wouldn't put as much strain on the tendrils from the weight of fruit.  Once the fruit became sizable, I made a melon sling out of women's panty hose to help support the weight until it was time to pick.

Companion Plants
Companion plants for watermelons are the marigold (deters beetles), nasturtium (deters bugs and beetles), and oregano (general pest protection).

Growing Watermelons
Melons like nutrient-rich soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5.  General fertilizers work just fine.  They like an air temperature at least 65 degrees, warmer is preferable.  As you'd imagine by the plant name, they need a lot of water.  The plants double in size in the month of July. 

Insect Pests
Cucumber beetles typically prefer cucumbers and muskmelons, but they will occasionally feast on watermelons, too. Insecticidal soap is a safe, effective treatment for most cucumber beetle infestations. If you've endured major cucumber beetle attacks in the past, keep them from getting to your vines with row covers—just be sure to remove the covers when the vines begin to flower so that bees can pollinate them, which is necessary for the plant to set fruit. Spraying young plants with kaolin clay may deter beetles from feeding.

Squash vine borer larvae tunnel into watermelon vines, chewing inner tissue near the base and filling the stem with moist, slimy castings. The attacked vines wilt suddenly and girdled vines rot and die.

From organicgardening.com

Squash vine borers, which are most damaging to winter squash, look like 1-inch-long white caterpillars. They tunnel into stems and can go undetected until a vine wilts. Keep a constant lookout for entry holes at the base of the plants, surrounded by yellow, sawdustlike droppings. Cut a slit along afflicted stems and remove and destroy the larvae inside, or inject the stems with Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki). Hill up soil over the stem wounds to encourage the plant to sprout new roots there.

To prevent borer damage, keep an eye out for the adult borer, a wasplike orange-and-black moth; it lays eggs at the base of the stem in late June or early July in the North, or in April to early summer in the South. During these times, check the base of the stems and just below the surface of the soil regularly for very tiny red-and-orange eggs. Rub the eggs with your finger to destroy them.

How to Tell When a Watermelon is Ripe
Here are a few ways to tell when a watermelon is ripe.

• The little tendril at the point of attachment turns brown and dries up. In some melon types, the tendril dries up a week before the melon is actually ripe.
• Rinds of unripe watermelons have a shiny gloss.  Ripe melons don't have the shine so the rinds have a dull appearance.
• The fruit produces a dull, muffled "thud" sound when thumped, rather than a sharp or metallic one.

Nutritional Information on Watermelons

Watermelons are a "good source" (10-19% of RDA) of Vitamin A.  There are also notable quantities of Lysine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper, Manganese, Vitamin B6, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid.

Thinking about 2014

It's almost January 2014 so it's getting closer to time to start seeds for planting.  Last year, I started the first batch on February 10th.  I think I'll start them sooner this year.  I also want to expand my gardening into the spring beyond simply sowing snow peas (or sugar snap peas) so I may really need to start soon.

I got my first nudge toward seed starting this year when both the Baker Creek and Southern Exposure seed catalogs arrived a few weeks ago.  I glanced through each of them and, unfortunately, wasn't inspired to try anything new this year.  I imagine something will pique my interest, though.

I ordered too many tomato and pepper seeds last year so I plan to grow the same varieties of those this year.  I'll plant fewer cayenne peppers and more bell peppers, though.

Fixing the gate, a December harvest

I made a quick trip to the plot today.  The gate needed to be repaired.  When we got the plot, the gate was donated to us.  Unfortunately, whomever made it didn't anticipate the nails they used coming out over time as the gate swung and flexed.  No pictures, but I made a temporary fix (deck screws to the rescue!) to last until the spring.  I'll likely build a whole new gate in the spring, anyway.

While I was there, I wandered inside to see if much had changed since our last trip out.  It was nice to see that some of the garlic has come up through the leaf bed covering I put down.  I also saw some rye grass coming up here and there.

I also took a look at the daikon to see if any was finally large enough to harvest.  Sure enough, there was!  I pulled somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total in the box.  As I started removing the tops to put into the compost bin, it occurred to me that the greenery might be of use, too.  I reasoned that since some people eat radish greens, since daikon is a type of radish, their greens should be edible, too.  As a result, I kept the greenery that wasn't rotting or looking too frost burnt.

I ended up making some soup today using one of the daikons and two or three of the tops.  It turned out well.

Not including the one that I had for lunch, the daikons (minus tops) weighed 16.2 oz.