mister_gin

The plant looks great, and maybe this year will give you the magic melon.

As for no baby cantaloupes yet, are you aware that when the blossoms first appear, they're all males, so no matter how hard you try, you won't get any babies yet? When the females show up, they'll have a tiny cantaloupe at the base of the flower. If you wish, then you can hand pollinate the females with the male flowers.

I wouldn't worry too much about the bees not being attracted. There are many many pollinators, and you might not see any of them, or see them and not believe they have anything to do with pollination.

Give those plants some time. They look great, and I'll bet you get a melon or two this year.

What variety are you growing?

somewhat shocking, since melon evolved as a desert plant. Here in MI it gives me and others lots of grief, but it is all due to summers that are not hot enough.

You do not explain how you fail to get a cantaloupe, but if it is just pollination (the plants look decent), use a small, clean paintbrush, enter alternatively male and female flowers, and do the pollination yourself. I do the same to make sure I preserve pure tomato seeds.

Anney,

I've had tons of both male and female flowers. In fact I've had more early females this year than any other year. I've tried the paint brush trick, but the tiny fruit just turns yellow and falls off. I just tried that yesterday on a few females. I hope it takes this time around. I have two Armenian cucumber plants just to the right that are putting on a lot of male flowers. I believe I could use those if it was a lack of male cantaloupe flowers. But that's not the case.

The variety is Hearts of Gold.

glib,

According to some planting calendars cantaloupes can be planted later in the year here than watermelon. I've had better luck with later plantings of watermelons, but my watermelons have always been on the ground and the cantaloupes trellised. My cantaloupe plants have always looked pathetic when the heat cranks up, but I always hear they do good in the heat. My ground space is taken up by watermelons so that is why I used the SWC. The SCW, which was originally supposed to be for tomatoes, worked good for cukes last fall. I thought by getting it closer to the ground the plant might do better. We'll see...

mister_gin

Apologies. Since you knew what you were doing, I assumed differently and risked offending you!

So I still think you could just let them be and see what happens this year. They shouldn't be so much work and worry!

I found that growing them in SW containers worked really well as far as production went, though they still required many trips to keep the water chamber filled during the heat of summer.

Hey, good luck!

Anney,

No apologies needed. You weren't offending me. You offered excellent advice.

I'm beginning to believe I have sterile male flowers or something. I tried the brush trick exactly like what was described in your link.

I could be wrong but I think timing is important for hand pollination. The only time I can pick up what appears to be pollen on my bush from the male, is right after the flowers open in the morning. This would be about an hour or two after sunrise. At other times there seems to be no pollen.

My success isn't great, maybe 10-20%. But that's plenty. I grow the 25 lb type watermelon so don't need much set. One or two set a week is enough. That makes the harvest last longer.

I only need to pollinate early in the season before the bees take over.

I agree exactly.....I always hand pollinate the first ones before the bees find them.There are usually so many male flowers it doesn't hurt to pick off a few and hand pollinate.

The trick here is to get them ripe before frost in Sept.

Timing is very important it seems with cantelope. I have 2 fruit set on one plant but none on my other 4. You have to try hand pollinating early in the morning when both a male and female have first opened. Cantelope flowers seem to stay open for 2 or 3 days but that doesn't necessarily mean the pollen is viable. It's much more difficult for me to recognize a recently opened flower (as opposed to 1 day old) on a cantelope than on a squash for example.

Sometimes the plant is just not ready to be a mother with the first flurry of blooms, but shortly it will be ready.

It's not quite as hot here as in the Arizona desert, but conditions are somewhat similar. We have commercial melon fields nearby. I'm sure they grow melons in parts of the desert in AZ. I have grown melons both trellised and on the ground. If bees are ignoring melon flowers, you may have better luck if you plant more than one or two plants. Some varieties set melons near the base of the plant and others don't.

The commercial growers around here do a fine job with regular netted, Western-style canteloupe (muskmelon), so I concentrate on specialty melons, like Crenshaws, Ogen, etc. Some of these need to be kept off damp ground and protected from sunburn. Heavy netting on "western-style" common muskmelons like "Hearts of Gold" should be easier to grow.

Good luck finding the secret for your garden.

Remember not to water melons too much when they are ripening, or flavor will be washed out.

The muskmelon family is subject to diseases, both of the roots and foliage. You shouldn't have too much difficulty with fungus diseases on leaves in Arizona (except during monsoon season), but you could have some problems with soil diseases. You might try a disease-resistant hybrid. We also have problems with aphids and whiteflies sometimes, but if the plants are healthy, usually there is not too great a problem (except in heavy white fly years).

Soil salinity can also stunt or kill plants as the season progresses. Soil should be fertile, but avoid salty amendments like manure. If the plant you are growing in a container is the best-looking one you've had, maybe soil salinity is a problem. There is one part of my garden where I can't grow melons because of soil salinity.

But if you successfully grow Armenian cucumbers (which are melons) there should be hope for you to get some "melon" melons too. Your muskmelon plants may not need as much water at your watermelon plants. Hope your container is large enough to support a mature plant through periods of restricted water (when ripeining).

I have only grown smooth-skinned melons on a trellis. Can't vouch for netted melons, though I don't know why there would be a problem growing them off the ground, as long as there is a sling to hold them so they don't fall off when ripe.

I can't give advice cuz I planted my first garden/cantaloupes last yr. But the few cantaloupes I planted were the best ones I ever tasted. Our garden doubled this yr. mostly cuz I wanted to grow more. My MIL said she only gets mushy melons (zone 6) so I was scared to try them. We have cool nights and long hot days with full sun all day on the garden. I planted mine near the zucchini, just sprawled across the ground. Got about 8 or 10. Seed brand is Ferry Morse, Hales's Best Jumbo.

Well! This looks like a case of me being impatient. I just noticed two cantaloupes forming. I'm not sure if they're ones that I hand pollinated or not. This plant is pumping out the flowers and doing good despite our mid to upper 90 degree temps. I did move the container a little to give it some late afternoon shade.

I'm not sure these will taste all that good since they're being grown in a SWC. I wont be able to hold back water like I could if they were in the ground.

Funny, I don't worry a lot about starving them for water and have gotten some sweet melons. Usually there are more coming on and they just might like a drink [in moderation[ too.

I just planted mine. Maybe next year you can just set yours out a little later? I had some last year that I actually planted in July that set fruit with no problem. The only problem that I had (and believe it or not is a continual problem in my yard) is overwatering, causing a flavorless muskmelon. I think the fact that mine were grown from seeds leftover from store-eaten melon didn't help the flavor either.
I've decided that I'm the only desert gardener in AZ that has to deal with bog-like conditions. I'm growing in a water bog, dealing with drainage issues and all the overwatering issues that people in climates with lots of water have to contend with. Perhaps I should try growing rice or something?
I planted mine this year in giant rubbermaid containers, hoping to avoid the flood irrigation. I hope this works!
Good luck with your melons!

Well, I thought things were good until I noticed the first melon had split open. This pic was taken before I noticed the split. When you zoom in you can just make out the split on the left hand side.

{{gwi:40193}}

I thought the consistent watering from a SWC would have prevented this, but I guess I was wrong. Just goes to show that I cannot grow cantaloupe.

Oh well! Hopefully these two will turn out okay.

{{gwi:40195}}

Here is a link that might be useful: More garden pictures here.

Have a real nice cantaloupe, however, others formed look like acorn squash. Planted Hales Best Jumbo from same packet. Cukes produced good. Is there a chance of cross pollination? Appreciate your help....SE Texas