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Bowdon, GA

My fruit are growing really fast this year but we have had alot of rain and wind, and clouds. My plants look more aged at this point than I think they should. I sprayed them with fungicid and kept the weeds out, but the wind and rain have beat em up pretty good. Does anyone have any ideas to keep plants healthy. Down here I rarely get any growth after 60 days the plant is shot by then.

7/19/2009 10:16:15 PM

Mississippi

I pulled a 70#er yesterday because the vine was toast. My brother still has one that is growing good and should go over 100. Unfortunatly this will be my biggest this year.

7/20/2009 12:22:11 AM

sevierville, Tn

Other then timly spraying & sunshine, the thing that i found that helps is to make sure the vine that your fruit is on is not buried by vines & weeds. Make sure it gets sun to dry out. **May not be possible if you can't get to it without steping on everything**

7/20/2009 1:41:44 PM

Rochester, Minnesota

Vine placement is important. I try to route vines and pin them down so that it isn't one big jumble of vines. As for the fruit vine, I make sure it has some space so I can approach the fruit. For weeds, the problem you deal with is weed seeds from the previous years. I work hard to get weeds out before they seed for next year's problems. My patch right now (after weeding this weekend) pretty much has no weeds. Of course it's also devoid of any potential competitive melons. Been a bad year so far. I wonder how Dave B is doing?

7/20/2009 4:58:01 PM

formerly RGG

Ealy ageing is usually caused by stress I think. Some people put up fences to deal with the wind. I use black plastic to eliminate weed problems. I don't think too much rain can be a problem as long as you have real good drainage. Clouds will cause slower growth but shouldn't hasten the demise of your plants. All we can do is provide the best conditions we can and the rest is up to Mother Nature (God).Of course if you are a rich man then just build you a large greenhouse for the melon plants and then most everything will be under your control.

7/20/2009 6:15:12 PM

Mt.Pleasant,Iowa

Hmmm large greenhouse. Well giant cold frame anyway. Works pretty well but plants are small because the pumpkins took most of it. I wish I had 2 of them so One could be pumpkins and the other melons. But rich I am not! You can pick one up every now and then cheep but you have to take them down and move them. If not for the hoop there would be no fair plants at all.

7/20/2009 8:51:11 PM

Rochester, MN

James,
You had asked how I was doing :-)...fustrated that we just spent ANOTHER week in July with lows in the upper 40s and highs barely hitting 60. It is hard to get weeks back during this time of fruit growth (pumpkins also!! Arrgh!). I have not done any OTT numbers yet...I have a few in the 20" L range...as I tried to figure out which fruit to go with...all the fruit have been chosen (except 1) and have boards under them.

I will probably wait till August 1st to start measuring or next weekend...but if I were to guess..about 40 lbs right now for my biggest?

So I need to gain 230 lbs in the next 8 weeks ;-).

Wishing people warm, sun and some rain.

I do have lots of weeds as the pumpkins take priority on the food chain ;-).

Dave.

7/20/2009 10:19:39 PM

formerly RGG

I have read of a lot of growers in the south having problems with plant disease this year. This has probably been mostly caused by lots of rain and humidity this year.Personally, I have used no insecticide or fungicide this year and my plants are perfectly healthy. And we had had a tremendous amount of rainfall here this year and the humidity has been high as it almost always is here in the summer. In reading about compost tea someone made the argument that the beneficial microbes in the tea keep unhealthy microbes from getting started on the leaves. Perhaps I have just been lucky but I have been spraying my leaves with compost tea every few days. Perhaps that might have a little something to do with my healthy vines. I hope someone finds this helpful. Others opinions on this subject will be appreciated. Anyone spraying with compost tea and having vine disease problems anyway?

7/31/2009 8:41:29 PM

Rochester, MN

I'm using compost tea and giving them 2-3 gallons a week per plant...I have 3 plants out of 12 that have some sort of wilt problem...the others look really good.

8/1/2009 10:54:04 PM

formerly RGG

Dave, are you useing it as a foliar spray or just watering the roots with it?

Dennis

8/2/2009 9:27:01 PM