mingwei: You can grow up to three cantaloupe or watermelon plants from the same hill. These plants are insect pollinated, and can grow male and female blossoms on the same plant. But these vine crops are heat and sunlovers, and the problem in northern locations like MA is lack of same. You can overcome this to some extent by growing melons on black plastic, which draws heat from the sun during the day and conserves it at night. Plastic also holds down weed competition, and prevents evaporation of moisture. I grow all my melons on large sheets of heavy solid black plastic, and never have to water them because there is so little moisture loss to sun evaporation. You should be able to grow a shorter-season watermelon like the 75-day Sugar Baby (about 10 pounds), and there are quite a number of shorter-season cantaloupe varieties. Sugar Baby is an excellent watermelon in every respect, but I would not try growing the big 20-40 pounders in MA. Nor would I try growing melons in any location that is shaded by trees or buildings. The other thing melons require is a highly enriched soil to grow vigorously and produce fruits of any size. You can tell how well a melon plant is going to produce just by looking at the leaves. Big, healthy, dark-green leaves mean good melons. Scraggly, weak plants mean little or nothing. You should be able to direct-seed melons in MA by about mid-May, but no earlier since they will not germinate in cold soil. Or, you can start plants indoors in pots and gain a little time advantage, but not much. So enrich your soil with something like bagged manure, buy a little black plastic, and give it a try. If you get melons, watch the vine tendril closest to the melons for signs of ripeness. When the tendril turns brown, the bottom of the melon should also be yellow, and the melon should have a very low tone (something like a D) when thunked. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

They are self fertile but do require bees to move pollen from the male to female flowers. I find the bees don't work my plants until they are covered with blossoms. So right now I'm doing the pollen transfer with a small brush. The best time is when the blossoms first open in morning. This is about 30-60 minutes after sun hits the plants. It works best on a still, warm, humid morning. You need to cover the brush with pollen and dab it on the females. Expect 20-50% takes at best.

Melons like loose sandy soil and lots of room, and full sun. I till my patch every year and add whatever a soil analysis says that it needs. I direct seed around the 1st of May, and when the plants start to run, I give them a high nitrogen fertilizer, and feed them nothing else. Since i have limited space, I plant mine fairly close(4ft. centers), and keep the plants well watered, if there is no rain. I don't remove any flowers at all, nor do I prune the plants or remove any fruit. I leave them alone. Don't worry about the wasps, because they help with pollination. I don't hand pollinate. You should have ample, bumble bees, honey bees, and wasps to do the job for you. The ones that you've lost because they turned brown and mushy, were lost because they were poorly pollinated, and are naturally aborted by the plant. Once the melons have started to develop, and nature does not provide any rain, I water the plants at the base in the morning only. Watering melons in the afternoon will tend to cause them to split in the field. I also limit my selection of melons to ones that I personally like to eat and I know will grow well for me. I find that variety selection is one of the most important factors as to how successful you will be.

Thanks everyone. My plants, no doubt, have some diseases. Still have lots of green tomatoes growing in the upper half of each plant but have some dead withered leaves near the base. Squash are still producing although some leaves have what looks like a fine white powder on them. Cukes are a mixed bag. The ones I planted in mid-May are really starting to slow down ... lots of leaves withering. But the pickling cukes planted in mid-June are a disaster ... more blossoms than I could have imagined but few produced. A good third of the leaves seemed to have simply withered away... still a good green color but totally limp. We've had an abnormally large amount of rain this summer, if that might be a factor. Don't use (and don't plan to) pesticides and I use organic fertilizer. Given your responses, it sounds as if I'd be better off to not take the chance of distributing diseased plant matter. I'm assuming that it would be equally unwise to use this material in areas where I grow shrubs and perennial flowers, right. Common sense says "right" but I still must ask. Thanks again.