Growing Watermelons on Tomato Cages

We are fortunate to live in Zone 7b where (in theory) watermelons planted in our Kitchen Garden should thrive in our long, hot growing season. Oh, would that it were as simple as that!

Here's a bit of backstory:

Our first year here (2009), we had a couple of rows of tomatoes and peppers in the newly-christened Way Back. That's when it was still a 1/4 acre wasteland of weeds, wild blackberry bushes, and rocks. The soil was pathetic, to put it mildly, having been scraped clean whenever Duke Energy installed the transmission lines overhead; the previous owners had simply ignored this diamond-in-the-rough part of their property. We knew we had our work cut out for us, but I don't think either imagined what a tough-row-to-hoe we'd tackled.

Our next two years (2010 & 2011) were about putting our much-revised 4-year plan into action. We focused on growing the basics like tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash in the Kitchen Garden, and on getting the soil in better shape. And while the garden we planted in 2012 was more ambitious, medical circumstances caused us to abandon most of our efforts to the forces of Mother Nature. Still, we were headed in the right direction...just not there yet.

Our Kitchen Garden of 2013 was the first "according to plan" version, with cool season crops (followed by a cover crop of beans) in the raised beds of the Box Garden; corn, peas, and pumpkins in the Block Garden; and warm season crops in a 4-year rotation in the four rows of the Row Garden. One of those rows (Row #1 in 2013) was designated for the cucurbit family of cucumbers (grown on an A-frame trellis formed from repurposed lattice panels), cantaloupes (really, muskmelons), yellow squash, zucchini, and watermelons.

I trialed using black landscape fabric as a weed barrier on all of my rows in 2013, cutting X's in the fabric at appropriate spacing to plant either seeds or transplants. My watermelon seeds didn't germinate, so I purchased transplants of Sugar Baby, Crimson Sweet, and Jubilee watermelons. These went in in mid-May, and by 6/26/13 I was reporting in my journal that we had 10 small fruits on flourishing vines.

Unfortunately, some critter (raccoon? groundhog? turtle?) ate holes in every single melon by the end of July. When a few more melons (mostly Sugar Babies) started appearing, I put them inside nursery pots, thinking "out of sight, out of mouth." They/It ate those melons, too. Such a heart-breaking day.

There had to be a better way.

Because we got such good results with the cukes growing on a trellis, I thought the answer might lie in that direction: upward. But I was out of lattice to repurpose. What I did have in abundance was tomato cages. I wondered if they might work.

Moving to Row #2 in the rotation, I "planted" the tomato cages at the same time as the transplants (started from seeds) of Crimson Sweet, Sugar Baby, and Jubilee...again cutting X's in black landscape fabric that covered the row. According to my garden journal, the date was 5/26/14 (much later than intended, due to cooler weather at the beginning of the season).

As the vines grew up, I wrapped and wove them over and around the rungs of the tomato cages. I knew I was going to run into an issue with the weight of the individual fruits, so I was trying to "build" a strong vine system as I went along. Soon the male flowers appeared. Not long after, the female flowers...and the bees...showed up. Imagine my excitement when I took this picture of the first melon of 2014! 

By this time, the vines had grown up well past the top rung, even with my wrapping and weaving, and the fruits were becoming quite heavy, as you can see with this Jubilee (pictured below). And I had begun to research support options in earnest.

While several sites suggested using mesh bags like onions come in, I didn't have those readily available since I grow all the onions we use. Some sites recommended slings made from pantyhose, but I rarely wear pantyhose anymore. I was using a gallon milk jug, perforated in the bottom for drainage and zip-tied to the cage supporting my cantaloupes, but I knew that wouldn't be large enough for a watermelon, even the smaller Sugar Baby (pictured).

I settled upon making slings or little hammocks out of an old summer-weight row cover. I cut 44" lengths of it into strips of about 10-12" in width, knotting them on the ends around the rung above where a melon had formed, securing the ends with clothespins. I knew that the weight would increase as the fruit matured, so I was trying to provide some growing room in the sling.

As the original melons grew, the row cover slings began to show their age. Many had small holes that became large tears, and one melon ripped its row cover in two...sending the now-unsupported fruit crashing to the ground. Another simply cracked open from lack of sufficient support when its sling tore, as seen in this picture. 

At that point, I started making the slings from old t-shirts, which provide much more support. Sling material question solved!

What I didn't realize was just how much the weight of a growing melon would pressure the tomato cage. Thomas had to "retrofit" the cages with support from a steel fence post, driven into the space between two cages, which I then tied to the post. This triage prevented both cages from toppling over mid-season.

I also placed upturned plastic 3-gallon nursery pots under the growing melons nearest to the ground, to give them extra support. And then the rains started, adding extra water-weight to the nearly-ripe fruit.

We harvested 5 melons on 8/8/14: 2 Crimson Sweets, 2 Jubilees, and 1 Sugar Baby. While the CSs appeared to be ripe, I had my doubts about the others. But vine failure, probably due to squash vine borers, led me to try to save the largest of the fruit. Would they be ready to eat?

We chilled a couple and cut into the largest of the Crimsons this morning. When I pierced the rind with the knife, it popped open with a crack...a good sign! And it tasted every bit as good as it looks in this picture. 

So, using tomato cages to trellis watermelons turned out to be a good idea, getting the vines off the ground and providing needed protection from critters for the fruit. The proof was in the tasting!

What will we do differently next year? 

1. For sure, we will sink the fence-post support system at the time of transplanting. 

2. We will definitely use t-shirt strips (12-15" in width) as sling-material. 

3. We will also cut a 4-6" long split in the ends to make them easier to knot around the rungs.

4. I will prune the vines more enthusiastically, especially the side shoots, to keep the plants cleaner and more manageable. With less green vegetation, there will be less pest-pressure.

As always, happy hoeing!

The Good, The Bad, and The Wicked-Ugly

It's about that time. Baseball has its All Star Game, usually played on or near my birthday...the halfway point between Opening Day and The World Series. 

Here in Zone 7/Piedmont NC, it's the halfway point in our 2013 warm season veggie gardens, 3 months from the Average Last Frost Date (typically quoted as April 15) and 3 months until the Average First Frost Date (typically quoted as October 15). So how're things going, you ask? Let's take stock, shall we?

Starting with The Good, as you can tell in that photo above, the new tuteur in the Center Square of the Box Garden is a green success! The Kentucky Wonder pole beans are beginning to produce, now that the vines have reached great heights. And while the Scarlet Runner Beans (an old-world variety I'm trialing this year) haven't made any beans yet, they are showing off their striking red flowers (seen close-up). The dwarf sunflowers add contrasting color to draw the eye...and carry out the theme introduced in the stenciling I did on the topper.

What may not be evident from that picture is how over-the-moon happy I am with the raised beds in the Box Garden. Although I have long enjoyed using landscape timbers and recycled crates to create (mainly flower) beds for aesthetic reasons, I have resisted joining the raised bed army now for years, mainly because I simply didn't understand how veggies could do as well in intensive growing conditions as they could in regular garden rows.

I have maintained a healthy skepticism, say we say, about the almost religious fervor some folks use when singing the praises of the intensely-marketed Square Foot Gardening, mainly because (1) Mr. Mel takes credit for "inventing" something (intensive garden practices) that have been in use for a couple centuries in France and other countries...what he should be credited with is inventing a catchy name and a clever way to market the concept in order to garner fame and fortune; (2) in the Way Back Kitchen Garden, we have plenty of room for "raised rows," 40' long x 4' wide, with 3' aisles; and, (3) truth be told, many intensively-planted raised beds tend to look...well, 'unkempt' is the kindest word I can use.

OK, sign me up as a soldier! I am a convert to raised beds, primarily because I can control the soil-mix, allowing me to grow decent carrots and beets for the first time here in our hard-pack, clay-soil heaven...and I figured out that I can keep them from getting too rangy-looking simply by daily maintenance. Plus, I can garden intensively without feeling the need to hammer-and-nail a square-foot grid on my boxes...which Mr. Mel insists makes them SFG-official. So there!

Also in The Good column here at the midpoint, I have to sing praises of the two varieties of bush beans (all seeds of which I got at the Seed Exchange at Old Salem last January) which have been extremely productive, and of a new variety of salad tomato I was encouraged to try by MG friend JA called Sun Gold. At this point, I'm almost ready to start looking for the 'pause button' on both of these, as I cannot just stroll out to the garden to observe anymore...I must take some kind of container to harvest (bush) green beans and Sun Gold tomatoes!

In the "coming along nicely" category are the three varieties of okra (a beautiful row as you can see above, just starting to flower) and the trellised Kentucky Wonder pole beans (just beginning to flower and produce), below. The peppers are starting to yield a green one here and there, with several jalapeños and one giant sweet red on the vines. The newly-planted pumpkins (replacing the two rows and one grow bag of garlic) have all germinated and are adding inches daily. And, slowly but surely the replacement cantaloupes (from seed) are starting to flower (but not fruit)...remember, lost the first seedlings to cutworms. 

The rest of the row of tomatoes are loaded with green and ripening fruit. The pink-fruited heirloom/OP German Johnsons (below) are ripening daily, and I picked my first ones today, including those two you see below. The Celebrities have one or two ready every couple of days, and the Big Daddys have one about every three days. And you should see the salad variety I started from seed, the Juliets...just loaded with green tomatoes!

Mmmm. Tomatoes. That leads me into The Bad category. I have fingers and toes crossed that I will be able to harvest all the fruit currently ripening on the tomato vines...since I have seen evidence of blight on the leaves. Late blight, not typically seen outside of the Mountains, has been confirmed in Guilford County, and I think all this wet weather we've had this season will only make fungal problems worse. I've used Neem oil, which has some fungicide properties, but it has been raining too much to apply Serenade...my next and only remaining organic line of defense. I do have seven replacement plants ready in containers if necessary to pull any (remember the suckers I started earlier this year?), but we are nearing the last date to plant tomatoes (July 15). I feel like it's a race at this point.

Also in The Bad category falls the cucurbit row, in general. While I have harvested enough Straight 8 cucumbers to make dill pickles; enough yellow squash to eat and freeze a few; and enough zucchini to have them grilled as well as grated for zucchini bread (making the latter today), I see signs of fungal damage here, too. Losing leaves at a rapid rate on all. Had to take out at least three squash plants due to wilt. And the squash bugs are still laying their eggs on the remaining leaves. Grrrrr.

But nothing...nothing...compares to the downright Wicked-Ugly category. I have lost my entire crop of ripening watermelons and corn...to raccoons. Remember, I thought I'd lost the corn to wind damage? Well, it righted itself and set ears...and now all I have to show are empty cobs and stripped shucks. Here's the heart-breaking evidence...first, today's destruction: the remaining 6 Sugar Baby watermelons; next, the remains of the Silver Queen crop.  

Makes me want to whack something with my National Wildlife membership card.

On Distraction and Destruction...in the Garden

In case this needs clearing up for some reason, gardening is my avocation...probably in both senses of the word.

From Word.A.Day: avocation

PRONUNCIATION: av-uh-KAY-shuhn)

MEANING: noun 1. One's regular job or occupation.
2. An activity taken up besides the regular work; a hobby.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin avocare (to call away), from a- (off, away) + vocare (to call), from vox (voice). Earliest documented use: before 1617.

NOTES: Originally the word vocation was used in a religious sense, as a divine calling. If a vocation was a calling, literally speaking, an avocation was a calling away, a distraction, which could be a hobby or a diversion. Sometimes the business that calls away can be of greater importance.Over time the two opposite senses of the word avocation became muddled and now it can connote either sense depending on the context. [Emphasis mine]

A distraction that has become so important to my life that it has become my "calling." An occupation, as in "occupying" my time and attention. Yep, that's gardening! I ask you, what else can be so life-affirming, physically challenging, mentally stimulating (honest, I'm always researching new ideas, etc), rewarding...and put good food on the table, too?!

I also ask you what can be so life-affirming and so heart-breaking at the same time? I'm experiencing more than my share of the latter emotion at the moment.

Let's let the pictures do the talking, shall we?

Here's a shot of one of the 8 Sugar Baby watermelons I snapped last week. So proud I was!



Ah, who said "pride goeth before the fall"? Turns out the biblical verse is nearer the truth than I imagined:

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18, King James Version (KJV)

Destruction, indeed. So what did THAT, you ask? Best guess, we have one or more raccoons visiting the garden. He/she/they got another of the ripening watermelons in the Row Garden and three ears of corn from the Block Garden.

I have blamed the squirrels for this damage to the almost ripe tomatoes, done a few days ago. Maybe I rushed to judgment? See what you think:



Learned my lesson...am now picking all tomatoes before they get too tasty-looking. Means I can't go out to the garden and get a warm, ripe juicy tomato for my BLT, but that's the price we pay, eh?

Now, back to the watermelons...and the raccoons. Raccoons are nocturnal, so they are active in the garden when the dogs...our first line of defense against the critters...are least likely to be on patrol. Sigh. What to do? My research shows the top recommendation for protecting your melon patch is to "surround it with an electric fence, turning it on every night."  The Way Back Garden is fenced around the perimeter, but the individual gardens are not...and I doubt we will be electrifying the area any time soon.

Another less-concentration-camp-like suggestion is to cover your crop with netting or row covers, although my experience with raccoons and bird seed (they terrorize some of our feeders) is that they are extremely smart...and can defeat most brilliant ideas to contain what they want to eat.

An outside of the box suggestion was to put a radio in the garden and leave it turned to an all-night talk station. I knew there was a good reason for those programs!

Broken-hearted...but not beaten. As McArthur famously said, "I shall return!"

A distraction indeed.

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[On a happier, more life-affirming note...check out our family blog post on our trip to the Lakeview Daylily Farm here: http://adsit2.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-2013-great-hemerocallis-hunt.html