Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Cucumbers and Watermelons
I seeded a few small pots with Talladega Cucumbers and Sugar Baby Watermelons. I usually start these way too early and have to deal with transplanting long skinny vines outside into bigger containers when it's still a little too cold for them thrive. I'll have to remember to do a better job of protecting these from the wind when I finally do get around to planting them out. It's been a while since I've had much luck with cucumbers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
What size containers will you put your Sugar Baby watermelons in? How many will you grow? I'm on my first year of a container garden (we have a decent sized patio at our home, but not much of a yard). Many seem to think I'm nuts for trying to grow watermelon, but I'm hopeful we'll be at least somewhat successful with them. We're in southeast Texas so our biggest issue seems to be the sheer heat!
I was going to plant them in one of the totes I use that holds about 10 gallons of potting soil and I figured I might growing two plants in there. But I was a little late getting them started so I've given up on watermelons this years. Tomatoes are hogging all my space now.
Sugar baby watermelons are a smaller size melon so space shouldn't be too much of a concern, as long as you can provide a nice stable trellis for the vines to stretch out on. Using a bigger container will help to balance out the water and nutrient supply. Bigger plants = bigger leaves = higher rate of transpiration.
Heat could certainly be a problem for you, especially if you're using plastic containers. Be sure to shade the container from the searing heat to protect the plants roots.
Sorry to hear your watermelons aren't working out this year. Mine are taking off - both the Sugar Babies and the Crimson Sweet that I gave up on and was replacing with the Sugar Babies. It's yet to be seen if they'll set fruit in this heat - approaching 100 in the shade. But the vines are growing fast and thick on the Crimson Sweet (a month or so older) and the Sugar Babies have fallen over already and one flowered even before that.
They're both in big terra cotta pots. I'm hoping it's enough space and not too bad with the heat. The older vine of the Crimson Sweet was wilting during the heat of the afternoon, but seems better the last week. My Diva cucumber is wilting daily, though, (and growing fast!), so I'm considering putting up shade cloth over the entire patio. I've already moved my tomatoes and strawberries into afternoon shade, which as definitely improved their outlook. It's brutal this year!
Thanks for your tips and your blog!
Post a Comment