cantaloupe

[texasgalgardener]

I have my first garden this year. We planted some fruits and vegetables from bonnie plants, and some from seeds. I find that I take the most pride in the ones we planted from seeds. Cantaloupe is one of the fruits we planted from seeds. Several little plants developed, and now they are growing and vining. I even noticed a few yellow flowers the other day. I don't really have any specific questions other than: What I am supposed to be watching for? Do the blooms turn into the fruit? Anything I should know or should be doing with my cantaloupe? I can use all the advice y'all have to offer! Thanks in advance!!!

[WinglessAngel]

keep an eye out when the fruits develop and become larger...they have a tendency to rot and go bad if they sit on dirt, a lot of people use boards, some use netting to tie them up if they are on trellises, but I would look up on google images what they look like in diff stages of development so that you know what they look like. Make sure they stay warm and well watered and you should be fine, they need pollinators so if you have bees or butterflies and such around great! I have 4 plants I started from seed I dried at home and saved from one I bought at the store and 3 of them died on me for some reason but my one remaining plant is doing great and its first set of leaves are out and growing and its first vine is growing well on it also. as far as my fruits on mine rotting, my genius plan was to container it, which it's in it's permanent home already, set it up in a corner where it will get full sun and warmth and let the vines grow out onto my driveway, thus taking the dirt out from under them and no fruit rotting....I have a huge driveway anyway lol Good luck!

[rainbowgardener]

Sounds like you are doing great, texas gal. Yes SOME of the blooms turn into fruit. Melons, like squash and cucumbers, have separate male and female flowers. You can tell which is which because the female ones come with little embryo fruits behind the flowers. It is common for cucurbits (the name of the melon/ squash/ cucumber/ pumpkin family) to produce all male flowers early in the season. Probably that helps to attract the pollinators so that when the female flowers show up there are males and the pollinators (bees, etc) waiting for them.

If a female flower does not get pollinated, the baby fruit grows for a little while anyway and then shrivels up and drops off.

So there's some birds and bees of cucurbits!

[Runningtrails]

How difficult is it to hand pollinate cantaloupe and watermelon for a better yield? I hand pollinate my squash always. I know the flowers are smaller on the melons. Do the parts look the same?

[WinglessAngel]

Watermelon plants can grow up to 20' in diameter and only produce (regular large varieties anyway) 3-4 melons per plant per season, so theyre hard on the home grower to grow, and thats with Great care of the plants....just use a Q-Tip and go to a male flower (no fruit behind it) then to the female flower and then keep doing the with the male flowers and back to the female ones, it only takes a grain of pollen to pollinate so one dab/swipte per flower will do you just fine Also you can google image search what the flowers look like as well, much easier to look at than us trying to explain what the flowers look lik I would imagine and much faster! Hope that helped!