Quote:
Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b
Well, I'm impressed. Gorgeous melons, great melon patch. 59 days! We can't hardly ripen a tomato in 59 days!
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Yes, I was surprized. We have a Watermelon carnival the first Saturday in August and I planted them for that.
I normally spray with a garlic - pepper tea to repell and confuse insects and predators, but hadn't sprayed the melons with anything.
The Roots Biopack stimulates seed growth and causes the plants to repel cucumber beatles.
If you look at the trellis to the right of the melon patch, the vines you see are 3 varieties of Japanese Cucumber separated by climbing lima beans. They were treated with the drench also.
The reason I'm using Roots Biopack is it's a cheap sourse of bacilis pumilus. I don't use it as a drench, just drench the seeds or transplants (dip the whole tray) and again when thinning the hills. Repels the beatles and doesn't interfere with the polinators.
After the predators attacked (deer mostly - hoof prints) I didn't think it would work since they had gotten a taste of the melons, but I bagged all the rinds and removed them, then sprayed melons and vines with the garlic - pepper spray with a molasses sticker. To my surprize it worked. No more damage. If it rained or we had a heavy dew I resprayed. Then after 2 weeks we had 3 days of drizzleing rain. It was't dry enough to spray and the damage resumed. Thats when the clothes hampers were installed. Lot of trouble - backbreaking work and makes it hard to tell when the melon is ripe. Next I installed .080 weedeater line 3' off the ground and that worked for the deer but not the other animals. Seriously considering chicken wire and electric fencing for this year.
Anyway I'm still smiling and enjoying gardening and trying to figure things out. claud