Some of your questions are a bit controversial, yipla. By that I mean not everyone agrees ;-) Wayne, on the veggie gardening forum is a melon growing guru. I don't think he does any in containers, but he has a wealth of knowledge on all things melon. My guesstimate on number of fruit per plant is 'as many as grow to size in a reasonable time.' Kind of generic answer, huh? Generally pruning off fruit is done with the varieties one wants to grow to the largest size possible or to get fruit ripe in advance of a frost , but this isn't the case with sugar baby. Also, it should be a fairly vigorous vine so should be able to mature all fruit it produces, but I would pop over to the veggie forum and seek out Wayne for more experienced guidance on this. Should you cut off side branches on vine crops after you have selected the fruit you wish to keep? Again, a controversial question, but my answer is 'no'. The leaves are feeding energy to the plant so leave them alone. The contrasting answer is that the more leaves, the faster the plant loses water so kind of balance those priorities as you see fit.

If you have a soil thermometer, you can check the temp of the soil in the "pot". But when I lived in Las Vegas, NV, I did an experiment. I had a lot of stuff growing in 2-gal black plastic pots. They were getting heat stressed. I put my compost thermometer in the soil, and the temp was up to 130F. So I wrapped some plain old kitchen aluminum foil around the same black pots, and took their temp at the same time the next day, and the soil temp had dropped to 90F. Since your container is fairly shiny, you may not have a problem with heat. But if you are using straight potting soil, you'll want to check to see if it dries out too fast. If it dries out fast early on, you might want to add some of those water-retaining crystals to the soil. Sue

I planted my first watermelon this year with three Sugar Baby transplants. Since it's my first year growing, I've been taking lots of notes and pictures. I documented the first melon on 6/15, about a month after planting and was the size of an almond. It grew surprisingly fast and stopped at 8 inches turning from a striped juvenile to a typical solid deep dark green. Then I started watching the nearest tendril which turned completely brown at about 30 days, but the bottom stayed dark. It was sitting on a piece of wood since it was found and no sign of white or yellow bottom. I've read this thread and others that mention Sugar Babies are tricky. Lots of videos on YouTube of people cutting into their first Sugar Baby, some darn right funny. Especially when they aren't even red, or they look good and they taste them and you can tell they are trying very hard to like it. I was dying to try one, and decided to sacrifice my first born at 41 days on 7/26 despite his dark bottom. Needless to say he was a tasty, crispy little boy with surprisingly very few seeds.

lol fortunately we live in a micro climate corridor and only peak at about 110 a few days and avoid the 116.5 averages :) I grow year around. Most Tomatoes, peppers, gourds, egg plants, melons, sunflowers, most varieties of beans, corn, all do well in full sun so the temps really do not bother my plants as long as the there is sufficient moisture. The heat WILL ruin growth in most cruciferous vegetables so it is important that you start them indoors about 5-6 weeks indoors so they can finish outdoors right before the heat wave. I do not have room for a greenhouse but I would love to have one! Perhaps in a a few years, we may locate to a larger property where one could be built. To combat the heat, I grow herbs and greens on the north end of my property about 4 feet away from the house. This allows morning sun, but shades out the afternoon heat. Growth was great but the arugula was intolerably spicy during the summer (although a chef friend tried it and was in heaven, so each to their own...). Another thing I have done this year is move my tomato bed under the shade of some trees. (See photo. Sorry for how awful the photo looks. We had a storm last night and are expecting another for the next 2 days). With 8 plants in a 10.5'x3.5'x6", I've set up 7' cages and with the combined tree shade (NOT VERY SHADY!) and tomato foliage, I anticipate natural heat management will increase yield. Keep in mind that I did not have problems growing in full in 110F, but I believe this may also have been due to the variety of the tom. I've read you have to be careful about temps in the mid 90's, this is the reason for the move. Yes, I tend to grow sun loving veggies in full sun and then not so sun loving like greens in the back as previously mentioned or start them inside and transplant to finish in the first few months after the anticipated last frost. I try to grow year around but you have to be selective as to what you will grow during what season. This past year, my winter growing was limited to collards, kohlrabi, onion, and garlic. Not exactly the good eats ;) but never the less, I grew something! Gardening is an adventure and each year its important to learn and make adjustments. Installing a drip system has ultimately made growing here possible. Watering at 5am/pm 11am/pm for 7 minutes worked well. The auto timer is a life saver. Also don't discount the enriching power of soil microbes and fungi. I'm a strong believer in compost teas to inoculate the soil and foliar feed with micro nutrients for vigor.