I seen it done with plastic boxes and water cooler bottles though the second resulting melon was not square.

They've been doing it in Japan for a few years; easier to cut 'n serve and takes less space in the fridge...if I remember correctly they sold for about $30.00 each. Yikes!

Suzi

Go for it. You can grow pears in wine bottles as well...

;)

{{gwi:59722}}

What a hoot! I'd forgotten this fun trick. What about cantaloupes?

Anney, any of the cucurbits is moldable. There even are commercial molds available for this; such as the gnome faces they sell for gourds and squash.

I've often thought it would be fun to make a set of graduated molds for growing your own canisters.

We did a dozen pears and apples in wine bottles a few years ago for our holiday gift baskets. People still ask if we're making them this year. Like one time equals a tradition. :)

I saw the gnome face done with a cuke. That is just freaky. Now a pumpkin with a face...I could get into that. I might try making a cool pumpkin mold for next year.

First time poster, long time lurker :P I am going to try this too, the square watermelon. I am going to make a mold with plexiglass and devise a hinging system to release the fruit. It should be a fun experiment.

Now if I only had a pear tree, I did see I think it was vodka that had a full pear fruit in the bottle and wondered how that was done. Now I know.

I'm going with plexiglass too. We're playing with box designs. The plan is to decide on a final design by next week.

and I thought I was a nut.

Wow, this is my first year with a pear tree, not I need to find some bottles...

I have a botanist friend who kept talking about moulding giant gourds to make into stringed instruments.

I was always curious about this...I'm assuming you have to provide ventilation in the box?

cyumickey,

One end is obviously has an opening for the stem to connect to the melon. As a result, there is ventilation.

of course, just didn't know if you needed more holes b/c of condensation... :)

{{gwi:59723}}

I don't think it's a huge issue. Look here...

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Square Watermelons

ROFLMAO...that's so funny!

thanks OP for asking this question! LOL

I think they're a hoot. They make me think of a future world where all food is generic stuff grown in a warehouse. Ask for lettuce and an iceberg head appears in front of you. Ask for watermelon and this generic block rolls down a belt to you. Ask for coke and a representative from the Ministry of Adjectives appears and ask you to be more specific or be arrested.

How cute!

I bet the Jolly Green Giant has a pair of those hanging from his rearview mirror.

How about sources for the face molds for the pumpkins and cukes folks?

Here's one source.

Here is a link that might be useful: veggie molds

Thank you GardenLad!

:-)

This is neat. I think that the veggie molds may be a bit expensive if one simply wants to fool around and experiment (although they seem very well made). I'll probably make some of my own, I gather that something grown this way would be quite the conversation piece.

I was wondering if the watermelon wanted to be bigger than the box, then what? How do you find the right size box? Guess how big the watermeolon wants to be. Would the watermelon just stay small, or break the box?

I also saw the squash molds too at lee valley

squash molds

Well I'm always up for a good challenge and after looking at the links provided by Violet, I know have something to do this winter while I wait for spring to arrive.

Some guy out there has a book that supposedly tells you how to do it. It seems to focus on calculating the cubic area of a normal watermelon, then using a container that size for your fruit.

My thought? Wouldn't climatic changes influence the size of the finished fruit? For example if in a wet summer, would your fruit grow larger than if it were a dry summer? If the fruit were to grow larger because of extra rain, isn't there a good chance that it would fill the container before it was ripe? It seems to me that you would need very strict growing conditions to ensure a consistent and tasty product. Any thoughts? Or am I just wrong on that assumption and do melons grow to be pretty much the same size (per type) every year?

I might just have to push out the garden a few feet to allow for these experiments next spring!

darndogs,

There will always be variables, which is why there are "averages". Do your research and make the best educated decisions you can, then experiment, have fun, and let us know how it goes!

The movie "Space Truckers' has Dennis Hopper hauling a load of square pigs.

Are clear boxes available to buy or will I have to make my own?

The future is square...

I thought the post was just you hippies taking about an uncool big headed guy or somebody. But you guys are serious " A Square Melon"

Absolutely, did you catch the photo above? I'll post it again:
{{gwi:59723}}

Fliptx, LOL! I should not have read your post when my mouth was full.

One of the links above said someone was having luck using the hole of an eight inch cinder block.

I may give this a try since I am growing the 6 to 8 pound Blacktale Mountain watermelons...

Sue Ellen

here is a picture of the box as grown and the melon.

http://www.vegetables.pe.kr/vegetablesgallery/fruit_vegetables/images/water%20melon%20box1.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:59721}}

Posting it for you koreyk:

{{gwi:59724}}

You can grow melons in different shapes:

{{gwi:59725}}

I'm interested in purchasing a square watermelon in Los Angeles if anyone has grown them and is interested in shipping them to LA! Let me know--my e-mail is sfishman59@yahoo.com

IIRC, the Japanese square watermelons aren't actually edible. They're sold as (ridiculously expensive) decoration.

I mean, you could eat them. They just wouldn't taste good at all, as they aren't ripe. Apparently it's not really feasible to ripen them in the square molds.

I've heard that's the case as well--I'm just fine with it being for decoration for my purposes