I'm growing crimson sweet watermelons on a fence this year along with cantaloupe and both pickling and slicing cukes. Planning on using either old tshirts or pantyhose to make 'hammocks' for the fruit to rest in.

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I don't have a huge garden area either and love tomatoes and melons.

This year in one bed I am trying to trellis melons and have some melons that are hanging but I am prepared to make some sort of support for them as they get bigger.

In my other raised bed I trained the melons to spill out of garden bed and I have about 6-7 large melons that are on cardboard so they won't get dirty on grass/dirt.

I think it may be hard to grow watermelons on trellis butwhy not give it a shot.

Next year I am gonna make some mounds just for watermelons and wintersquash so I don't have to use my precious raised garden space.

Here is a link that might be useful: garden blog with raised bed and melon setup

dlmka, your corn looks so fantastic!! perfectly spaced etc, I am so embarrased about the way my garden looks I might even have to post a pic, I dont think anyone would believe there was anything in there!! I only post pics of the harvest, which isnt huge by any means, but Im always proud that I get anything out of that jungle at all!! I have volunteer crimson sweets from last year randomly in the garden, but they are all mixed up in the weeds, and I dont water unless it rains, or fertilize, so I dont know what they will do, but they look better than the ones last year that I tried to take care of. I had big plans to trellis them, but my garden got overgrown supersonicly fast with weeds, johnson grass etc, its hopeless now. Next year I hope to trellis some as well, and I hope my garden looks half as nice as all the pics of everyones garden on here:)

Thanks a lot, I'm an engineer, everything in the garden is done with a measuring tape or a gauge of some sort. I cut a piece of PVC to 10" when planting corn and used that as a guide to space the seeds. To think, my corn looked like this on June 18.

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My watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, and cucumbers are all on a trellis. I use knee-hi's to support if need be. Most of the melons don't turn loose until they are ripe. I noticed today that one of the Golden Midget Melons has begun to crack...think I watered too much...we have been in triple digits with 20mph+ winds. I have one that I think is Yellow Doll...it has 4 melons and one is getting nice sized. Had 4 on Golden Midget until Saturday morning. I had checked to see if they needed watering and all was well, about 2 hours later I was putting something in the compost pile and realized one of the melons was on the ground...someone pinched the thing off the vine that is growing on my 6' fence...think the culprit is one of my neighbors who is not having any luck with his melons...he's mean enough to have done it. He doesn't like the new neighbors who just moved in next door to us...he was seen by his neighbor throwing sticker grass into my neighbor's yard. Some people!

I planted some small pumpkins last week...hoping to grow these on a fence, too.

Peggy

Peggy your neighbor sounds horrible. I would be so pissed if someone pinched one of my melons.

dlmka,

I thought Crimson Sweet would be a little too big to be grown vertically. How do you plan on supporting a melon of that size? I was thinking sugar baby would be the biggest you could get by with growing vertically.

Wade

If grown on treliss, the weight of melon will act on the vine.For small fruit like cucumbers it is ok but for melons weghing 10lbs(or more) it is too much. The weight actually will tend to stretch the stem and the capilary tubes, just like if you stretch a thin plastic tube.This is the best senario. Worse senario will be breaking the stem or branch. This is my take on the subject, of course.

I am trying it for the first time this year and we will see how it goes...I have a pic of mine on my blog link below...
I have the heaviest one tied up with knee highs for now, don't know if that will have to change.
I know that one of the guys on the sq ft forum trellises his and aims for very big watermelons. I think his GW name is Engineeredgarden...I know he has some pics too, you might do a search there to take a look. His look really nice.
Hope it works out well for everyone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden blog

I plan on using old t-shirts to make a sort of hammock to support the growing melons and keep the stress off the plant. If it doesn't work I'm not out anything but a few square feet of garden space. I'm already bursting at the seams with produce the way it is.

Hello all,

No matter how heavy the ripe melon might be if you have a trellis strong enough to hold that melon you can grow that vine on a trellis. The need is a strong trellis and a sling that is sturdy enough to hold the melon on the trellis. If you have a weak trellis your heavy melon/watermelon/pumpkin will break the trellis and in so doing will snap your vine. Just make sure your trellis is strong. Think about using a cattle panel or a section of chain link fencing supported by strong posts. Cattle panels hold in 500++ pound cows and hogs.

Works for me.

DL

I've picked up 2 futon frames from the side of the road. Gives me 2 panels ea.