So I tried growing a sugar baby and Crimson Sweet in a storage tote with aprox 40 gallons of potting soil this summer from Bonnie Transplants, but I started way late (early June, I live in 5a). I only get 4-4.5 hours of direct sunlight per day (I know, way to little)
My questions
One, do you think I have enough time left in the season for this new Crimson to grow? Pollinated today... My soil drains well, and I use liquid fert fairly often at low strength.
Two, can I cut my sugar baby vine off at the top of the soil, and have the roots in the soil not "rot" and harm my other melons root system? I figure its just using up nutrients/water for no melon production, so might sa well clear its vines out.
I'm hoping that removing the sugar baby plant will help growth, and if my Crimson is almost done, then hopefully once I pull that melon, the second one will thrive to become ripe.
Note, I do not plan on doing melons next year, not until I can get full sun in a yard in the future.
My Pepper plants are doing GREAT though! A Jalapeno in a 5 gallon bucket, and 2 baby bells in a 5 gallon bucket. They are exploding with growth! Last time I measured my Jalapeno it was 3 foot tall with over 90 Jalapenos growing! But I have 5 CFL's on them 10-11 hours a day plus the 4 hours of direct sunlight. Next year I will add more lighting, and grow mostly tomatoes/peppers and some low light plants on my balcony 
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applestar
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I think you can remove the sugar baby vines as you described just fine. I do this all the time. Typically, what I see is that at first nothing noticeable happens (except maybe that you won't need to water as much as before) then as the roots of the removed plant(s) start breaking down, the remaining plants will surge up and grow more.... This happens in the ground as well as in containers.