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Eastern Shore of VA

At the beginning of the season I planted three plants.
251 Kent in my home garden.
209 Schinicker and 296 Barber in some marsh land a friend of mine owns.
The Barber was dug up by the neighbors dog, so I planted a 193 Bright on its place.
Both plants were destroyed by voles a month ago.
The Bright was cut off evenly with the soil surface.
The Schinicker was leveled to the ground.
My friend works in advertising so he was away for the last three weeks.
Called me this morning.
" been out to your patch lately?"
I apologized for leaving the dead plants and promised to come pull them and the fabric up this weekend.
"I don't see but one dead plant".
They were dead.I saw them.
" you might want to come check on them".
The 209 Schinicker bounced back. Posted some diary pics and you can see how overgrown the patch looks.
There was a nice melon there too.
Open pollinated, I'm guessing 25-27 DAP.
OTT of 130.
I have hopes of a monster yet !

7/30/2015 9:14:32 PM

Grant, AL

Good to hear Ben! You can tell you have worked hard this season and hopefully you will be rewarded with a real big one.

7/30/2015 10:38:26 PM

Eastern Shore of VA

Thanks Charles .
I thought my season was over,losing all my plants to voles.
Thank God for second chances!

7/31/2015 6:37:59 AM

formerly RGG

So get some poison for the voles and get to growing I suppose. Glad to hear you are still in the game Ben ! Wilted plants don't often bounce back like that. But I remember last year Chris grafted plant went down to stump disease but he did not pull the plant right away. Later he noticed there melon had kept on growing. It was a late melon and ended up growing his heaviest 2014 melon and ho took it to the North Carolina State Fair and won first place.

7/31/2015 7:34:39 AM

formerly RGG

I didn't mean to call you a "ho" Chris. LOL One day maybe I will learn to always check my typing for errors before I post things.

7/31/2015 12:20:06 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

With all this talk about secondary rooting, I took a close look at my plants and found that I had very little secondary roots at the leaf nodes. Susan had told me they will poke thru the weed barrier but I think I got the heavy duty stuff. So I have 2 questions as a result..

Have any big melons been grown just from the stump with no secondary roots?

I cut up the fabric under some key nodes as had been suggested. I can bury them just a tad to encourage the root. Question is can an older vine suddenly put a root down or is there a window of opportunity? Because with pumpkins they often seem to dry out if not taken advantage of early in the lifespan of the vine.

thanks!

7/31/2015 1:24:44 PM

Eastern Shore of VA

Good to still be in the game Dennis.
I think I could be the spokesman for mole max lol.
I've spread so much in my home garden that it's all you can smell outside after last nights rain.

Orangeneck-
I think they will root fine.
Where my stump went down on my 251 Kent the other day,
Brother Dave suggested to cut back the fabric and pin the vines down.
Pinned it at 5 different nodes along the melon vine on Wednesday.
They were rooted this morning.
Plant was planted out May 15 th.

7/31/2015 3:54:50 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Good to know, thanks!

7/31/2015 6:27:53 PM

Eastern Shore of VA

It worked for me.
Hope it works for you.
This is my first rodeo this year.

7/31/2015 7:11:38 PM

Frankfort Ohio

orangeneck I think the key for rooting is moisture we had tons of rain in june and I have sand down on my landscape fabric so it stayed wet I have unreal rooting

7/31/2015 7:18:21 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Thanks Jed its always seemed like the info about secondary roots with watermelons is so hard to find. I'm starting to feel like, yes, do it. From the beginning dummy it is as important for watermelons as it is for pumpkins. But nobody's written a book on melons like we have for pumpkins. At least when I read the poking books 9 years ago I knew what is a good question and what might be stupid! I appreciate all the help and tips I learn from you guys.

8/1/2015 12:13:03 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

* the pumpkin books bahahahaha

8/1/2015 12:14:35 AM

SW Ohio

Seems like I remember Todd Dawson saying he had stump rooting only when he grew his 282. Maybe we can get him to chime in.

8/1/2015 5:43:29 AM

sevierville, Tn

Orangeneck,i grew a 253 in 2011 with 0 vine roots. I used very heavy fabric that they couldn't root through.

8/1/2015 8:38:20 AM

formerly RGG

It would be nice to hear from Todd on here. I hope he decides to grow some watermelons next year.

8/1/2015 8:22:53 PM

South Arkansas

The 326 was grown on a plant with no vine roots.

8/1/2015 11:35:20 PM