How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by creativeguy Zone 6 Connecticut (My Page) on

Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 17:29

I'm going to be growing various melons on a row of cattle panels this season, and I'm curious as to how much room to allot per plant on the trellis. I'm growing Sugar Baby, Charleston Gray, Charentais, and Hale's Best. I'll be locally reinforcing where the large watermelons will be located, fyi. It's not so much about plant spacing as how much linear space to allow per variety on the cattle panel. The panels are 4' high.

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RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by madroneb z8OR (My Page) on
Wed, Apr 23, 14 at 13:37

I've never known anyone to grow melons vertically. For the varieties that "slip" when they're ripe, doesn't that mean they'll fall to the ground?

RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by creativeguy Zone 6 Connecticut (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 0:48

I've been told to tie up the varieties that slip with netting or something... making a sort of cradle for those fruits. I'm confident in the trellis method... I just don't know how much room the plants will take up on the cattle panels.

RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by seysonn 7b WA/HZ 1 (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 2:08

Aside from fruit size, Melons have similar growth habit to cucumber. I would space them 8 to 12" in the row.

RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by nc-crn 7b (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 3:20

You need to make sure the melons are fully supported during growth or they'll snap off the vines. This part can get tricky. I've only done it in greenhouse conditions where wind/weathering wasn't as much of a factor as outside in the open. They can easily outgrow 4ft in full sun growing vertically, but if they have room and sun to make a trip over the other side without putting too much stress on the vine (by weight of melons) this issue can be "cheated" on a bit.

I wouldn't even try to trellis a Charleston Gray, btw. I would have reservations about even trying to trellis a Sugar Baby, but you're going to need quite an extraordinary support for a C.Gray.

RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by woohooman San Diego CA 10a (My Page) on
Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 14:18

Creativeguy: I went vertical last year with some hale's best. And you're right, you can use slings to support them. When they were about 3-4" in diameter, I used old pantyhose as slings. Nice and stretchy so it didn't inhibit growth. IIRC, these were spaced about 15". Should have spaced them about 18" or so just to make manipulating the vines through the netting a little easier. You'll want to go a lot higher than 4 feet though. This was 10" and they easily grew to the top.

Kevin

RE: How much room to allot when trellising melons

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Posted by creativeguy Zone 6 Connecticut (My Page) on
Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 9:41

Thanks, all. My hope was to encourage the vines to spread laterally rather than upward on the trellis, which is how I grow my cucumbers. At the end of the day, I guess the plants themselves will let me know what they need and I can always add some height to my cattle panels. Nc-cm, my plan for the large melons is to put them on small adjustable height "stools" I'm welding up. Picture a tall stake with a frame atop and some old cut up rope hammock stretched over the frame. I'll train the vines onto the trellis and wherever a watermelon forms I'll set up a support for it. This is all to help streamline my lawncare... things got unmanageable growing pumpkins and melons on the ground last year, and I have little time as it is for such things. More time spent gardening and playing with my kids, less time mowing and such is the goal. Again, i appreciate the advice!

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