|
| Our crenshaw cantaloupe plants planted about 5-6 weeks ago are growing ridiculously huge! The 2 plants we gave 100 square feet to have already taken over all of that and yesterday slipped through our fence and continuing growing into the flower beds, I had to pull them out of some other beds too. They both have a few vines, the longest over 10 feet at this point with huge leaves that stick a couple feet up in the air. They are still growing 6"+ a day at this point. Will they keep growing at this rate or are they going to stop? I am thinking my only option here is a trellis. I could let them use the garden fence but would that defeat the purpose of the fence? We have serious deer problems (at least come fall) and groundhogs in the area. We have finally gotten some flowers yesterday. Sadly, due to a carpenter bee infestation where they were eating the house, we had to spray the house and sheds, can't let them destroy the structures, and now I don't see any bee activity out there.. hard to believe there aren't any others in the neighborhood. I hand pollinated a few females on my acorn squash this morning. Sadly the sweet small pumpkins I planted with in the same giant hill with them (2 cantaloupe 2 pumpkins) are still tiny maybe a 2 feet long tops and are not using all their space. I hope they will kick into some growth. Do the sweet small pumpkins just stay much smaller? |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by farmerdill (My Page) on Sat, Jul 5, 14 at 11:44
| Some crenshaw varieties have huge vines. They will keep growing until they set melons, then they slow down a bit while the melons develop. Many crenshaws are large melons which need a hammock to hold them on a trellis. There are small varieties like Lily whic grow vines similar to a large variety of cantaloupe. Burpe's Early Crenshaw. (12-15 lbs)  Lily (6-8 lbs)  |
|
| I pulled the vine through the fence and I am pretty sure I just killed the last 2 feet of the longest vine.... can you prune these guys? Do the vines heal from a bend injury? |
|
| I think it is better to let them cross each other than to cut them off. Be thankful the vines are healthy...melons are so disease suseptible after a year or two of raising them in an area. Hand pollinate them...you only have two plants. |
|
| 2 Cantaloupe plants, but also 2 pumpkins, a hill of Acorn, a hill of Butternut, and a hill of Summer Squashes... I saw a carpenter bee out there today but those guys are never out in the morning... We decided to attempt a trellis, and they got beaten up a bit, but they should be ok... We pruned off the tip of one vine i had broken. I would not attempt these in an enclosed garden again without a massive trellis in place beforehand. The ones in the front are the cantaloupes. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Vegetable Gardening Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Please review our Rules of Play before posting.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here
