![]() For something delicious and unusual, grow green-fleshed Passport cantaloupe. Cantaloupes, by the way, have smoother skins and smaller seed cavities than muskmelons, but taste pretty much the same. Charentais are orange-fleshed French melons that resemble muskmelons. Grow Atlantic Giant or Big Max for the big-pumpkin contest at the county fair.įinally, a few good melons include Earli-Dew and Burpee Hybrid muskmelon, as well as French Orange, a muskmelon/Charentais cross. For carving, Howden and Connecticut Field are among the standards. For pies and soup, grow New England Pie, Baby Pam, or Small Sugar. Some are used for cooking others are better for carving and ornament. Pumpkins range in dimension from apple-size to something resembling a small Volkswagen Beetle. Winter squash - such as acorn, buttercup, and butternut - develop hard skins and dense flesh, making them good for storing through the fall and early winter. Summer squash - such as zucchini, pattypan, and crookneck - have tender skin and are best eaten soon after harvest. Squash are grouped as summer and winter varieties. Plant leggy tomato transplants horizontally in a trench.Ĭucumbers are classified as slicers (long and thin) and picklers (short and prickly). Many of these species can pollinate one another, too, making it nearly impossible to get seeds that grow fruit resembling the original varieties. Leave one or two fruits on the vine if you want the largest melons or up to 4 for healthy, average-sized watermelon fruit.īecause watermelons are prone to diseases and parasites, don’t cut the vines when they are wet.All these crops have the common trait of growing their fruits on long, trailing vines, although some varieties now grow in more compact bushlike patterns. ![]() ![]() ![]() Using sharp gardening shears, first remove any diseased, dead, yellowing, or otherwise infested leaves and shoots at the joint, where they connect to the main stem.Īt this time, also remove any secondary vines, those that are not blooming or look sickly. Whether you want to rein in the size of the vine or you’re trying for a blue ribbon melon, thinning watermelons is an easy procedure. If that is your end goal, then there’s no longer any reason to prune the vine back. Don’t thin or prune the vine just yet! Many of the young melons will shrivel and die off, leaving only the strongest melons to ripen. Pruning will also reduce the size of the vines, which can grow to over 3 feet (1 m.) in length.Īlso, cutting back the plants may cause the vine to send out additional runners, which will then delay the fruit set, as the plant is now focusing on growing vines instead of developing melons.Īs the vine begins to fruit, at first it may seem that you have a bumper crop awaiting you. With no female blooms to pollinate, there will be no fruit. Pruning promotes healthier vines and increased fruit size but if cutting the vines back too early, you may reduce the number of female blossoms. There are a few considerations before going off willy-nilly pruning a watermelon vine. This is where pruning watermelon plants comes into the picture, but removing melon fruit may have some downsides as well. The vine simply does not have enough nutrients to foster more than one fruit of that size. ![]() Watermelons can weigh as much as 200 pounds (90.5 kg.), but to get one that size, thinning watermelon fruit is a necessity. Both are needed to set fruit and there are fewer female flowers compared to male, about one female for every seven males. The vines produce both male and female flowers. Healthy watermelon vines produce 2-4 fruits per plant. If you want enormous watermelons, for example, then thinning the watermelon fruit is necessary, but the question is how to thin out watermelon plants? How many watermelons per plant should be left? Keep reading to find out all about pruning watermelons. Thinning out fruit is also a common practice and is done to engender larger, healthier fruit by reducing competition for light, water, and nutrients. For me, thinning out any young seedling is painful, but I know it has to be done. ![]()
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