This year we have had problems getting melons of any kind to germinate !! Watermelons, cantalope, three new varieties all are doing the same at about 20% germination !! Some are seeds that I saved and some were purchased and all are at about the same rate !! Could be the weather and the wind drying out the soil too quickly, but thought I would ask about others results !! How are yours doing ???? Just curious !!!
my first year with melons, currently going in pots. growing from purchased seeds and had 90% success but probably due to them being indoors.
Well I am just blaming it on the unusual weather this year. Until last few days wind has been drying out the soil to quickly for them to germinate I think. Wind has stopped and moisture is in the ground so I am trying again. Good luck with yours.
Your guess is probably a good one. If the soil can't stay moist, the seeds won't germinate. I solved this one by mulching the bed, making an opening in the mulch to plant in. This keeps the soil moist and the wind from drying things out too quickly. I live in the desert and things can dry out pretty quick. I had problems with slow melon germination this year. We had an unusually cold spring. I replanted watermelons when nights stayed above 50 degrees. I noticed yesterday morning that the seeds I just planted as well as the earlier ones are all coming up. I guess even though there wasn't frost, it was just to cold for watermelon seed.
We also had unusually cool weather earlier and that was probably a large part of the reason they didn`t germinate. We do not mulch due to the size of the garden. Its just too big. So I just take whatever nature throws at us. I have 67 tomatoes in the small garden along with a few volunteers. I can`t imagine the amount of mulch it would take for them, much less the other one.
My heavens! I have 11 tomato plants and that feels like a lot to me when I start harvesting. Sixty-seven tomato plants in the "small" garden. LOL! I get your point. I mulch with whatever I can find, but Mother Nature doesn't grow enough of anything in this desert to mulch 67 plants.
Yes it is a lot but I can them for winter use and hubby can eat them straight from the jar. He prefers the ones I can rather than store bought. Tomatoes in the winter from the supermarket are just nasty. They have no tomato flavor. I just consider them filler on a sandwich.
