In a 2 foot wide bed they are going to vine out into the yard around the bed no matter which place you plant them so put them in the bed next to where they can roam the most without creating problems for you. Same holds for a 4' long bed - it makes no difference where you plant them - a bed that small won't contain them either way. Even a 4'x4' bed or a 4'x6' bed couldn't contain them. So plant them anyplace in the bed but prepared for all the roaming vines outside it. Dave

The suggestions all of you posted pretty much covers what we do here. Check to see if the tendril nearest the stem is dead, AND the two tendrils directly left and right of the stem. Check the bottom of the melon for yellowness. Push on the melon a bit to hear it crack inside. This is hard to do but when you actually do hear it crack it is a sure sign. Thumping on the melon I found it to be mainly a sign of how crisp the melon is - how fresh. Not much of an indicator of when ripe, but if it is overripe. Another good thing to check ripeness AFTER the melon is picked is to check for syrup coming out of the stem. If you see this dark sticky substance oozing out, you have a real yummy one there! We have also found that certain varieties do not work well with the tendril technique. If you are having problems I'd just wait a week or so after the tendril dies and then pick the finicky watermelon. However, we have never gotten those hard to tell melons again just because of that. We stick to the best all around: Crimson Sweet! Wow, what a winner! As for musk melons we always look for the overall tan/ yellow color of the outer rind, the more corky it looks the better, and how easy it is for the stem to be pulled off.

Like most tropical gourds, bitter melon seeds (Momordica charantia) take 7-14 days to germinate, and germination can be very erratic; so plant perhaps twice as many seeds as you need. Nicking the seed coat helps. I start seeds in peat pots (to minimize planting shock) indoors, 2 weeks prior to the recommended planting date for soybeans (or melons). Transplant them outdoors (or move to a coldframe) _promptly_ after germination, they become leggy quickly. I have been growing a bitter melon variety once carried by Evergreen Y.H. as just "Thailand" (no longer carried). It is a smaller variety, semi-wild, best suited to pickling immature. First harvest for me in Zone 5 has been ~70 days, and leaving one per plant to mature for seed has no effect on yield. At 2 foot spacing, the vines will completely cover a 6 foot trellis by the end of summer. Bitter melon has a vigorous root system, so planting in pots may stunt it somewhat... but as long as you keep the plants moist & fertilized (a mulch on top will help), you should get several per plant. I recommend one plant per 5 gal. container, with a minimum of 2 plants (for better pollination). I may experiment with this myself ;-)

Kristie, my carrots took about 2 weeks to come up, and we had a lot of wind after I sowed them, so I was worried about the soil drying out to much too, but they came up just fine. My peas took about a month to germinate, and I haven't even sown the cucumbers yet. Last year, my cucumbers were up within a week, but they like warm soil, so maybe you planted them too early. If you've had the warm weather that we have the past few days, and they still haven't come up, you might want to resow. Some of my tomatoes, the ones that germinated in early April, are almost big enough to set out, but I have some that have only been up about 10 days, and are way too tiny to fend for themselves. The peppers are growing soooo slow. Most have been up since the end of March, but they are only 2" - 3" tall still. I'm going to give them a couple more weeks before I plant them out. The basils are just now getting their first set of true leaves. I sowed them later this time, since last year I put them out too early and they were stunted from the cool nighttime temps. I have to say, I'm getting tired of hauling containers of sprouts in and out everyday, so it will be a relief once everything is planted out. Bonnie