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| Growing in EarthBoxes: |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Just curious, eventually, won't the weight of the melons bring down the vine? |
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| Bring down the whole box. |
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| Guess we will have to wait and see how well the rig holds up. This is a trial, so if it fails, the results will be duly noted. The boxes have outriggers of sorts on the bottom that extends the footprint a bit. The trellis poles and wheels fit into the outriggers. I typically grow Ambrosia's in the ground on a trellis. The melons are supported on the trellis with plastic netting "hammocks" of sorts to take the weight off the vine. That approach will be carried over to this trial. Ambrosia's have not gotten that huge for me in the past. There are four vines in there, so it would make good sense to try and balance the weight. EDIT: I wanted to also add that there are 2 gallons of water in the bottom reservoir, so that's a fair amount of weight anchoring down the system. The EarthBox cucumber trials went well with four vines. The trellis was loaded and was much more -productive- than my in ground trials. The EBs seem to work exceptionally well for thirsty type plants Here are some small Ambrosia melons forming: |
This post was edited by mrclint on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 13:16
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| aAmbrosia's a pretty sizable cantaloupe, iirc. I've known people who had good results from growing melons in EBs, but never known anyone who trellised them. As you say, time will tell. |
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| The Burpee site says, "The 6" melons average 5 lb. each". They've been smaller than that in my experience, but with EB all bets are off. :) I didn't think I was too far off the beaten path. Trellising vines is a square foot gardening tenet. As a result, I trellis all vines, and have great luck doing so. Here's a decent sized spaghetti squash, probably 3-5lb, that I have growing right now. Note the plastic mesh bag that was originally sold containing a bunch of limes. It's now being used as a hammock. The bag is wired off to a vinyl string trellis, just like the one on the EB. |
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| The 'Ambrosia' melons are about 2-3 lbs and starting to get their webbing. Most of the melons are low on the trellis, so I don't think the rig is going to tip over: |
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| Coming in sweet, juicy and melting. This was a 3-4 pounder: |
This post was edited by mrclint on Wed, Aug 27, 14 at 22:31
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| Still coming in sweet and juicy: |
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| Nice melons mrclint! Is this the last melon in your box or are they still producing? out of the 4 plants how many loupes have you gotten so far? I love melons and I think they are one of those overlooked annual fruits that people should grow to add variety and to also have back up fruits should perennial fruits fail. This year was a very short and cool year for us here yet we still got over 40 loupes and over 10 canary melons. We got a handful of plums and cherries...It was a good year to have back up melons:) Glenn |
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| The EarthBox grown melons were outstanding. Better and easier to keep watered than in ground. Pretty sure that I got at least two melons per vine. The rig never tipped over. Here's the last melon of the season, and it's still ripening on the vine: |
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