first melon here was sweet
I had a thought about this, regarding soil. The only melons I've tried that were not in ground or a compost row over ground, were grown in my rain gutter buckets. Those buckets contained compost, a second different compost, horse manure, 10-10-10, peat, and perlite. They grow peppers, eggplant, peas, and lettuce very well.
A couple years ago I tried cantaloupe (the same Sarah's Choice) in them, grown up a trellis. The striped cucumber beetles wilted most of them. Those cantaloupe, the few that formed, were indeed tasteless even at full slip. I had withheld water at the end, but I don't recall for how long. I never tried again in buckets. Clearly there were a lot of nutrients missing for good melons.
This one I picked yesterday was vining through a hot pepper row - raised compost rows under black woven ground cover. I haven't used the drip for most of August, but it has rained a lot. The gauge read 3-1/2" last week, and 1/4" the overnight before I picked. It was splitting. It was not ready to slip, so I cut it off. Felt like picking up a cannonball, very heavy and solid. It was sweet with great flavor, but I think it would have been even sweeter in a few days, had it not split. That was an F3 from the original Sarah's Choice F1.
It don't look like much but I'd take 3 dozen like that, spread out, if I could make it happen. I'd laid the top back on for the last pic.
|