Careful all of these, cantaloupes, watermelons, squash cukes etc are insect pollinated. They have separate male and female flowers on the same plant. They need a pollinator to carry pollen from the male to the female flower. You can of course play the role of an insect and hand pollinate. Self pollinated plants have flowers with both female and male parts in the same flower. The confusion probably come from the seedless watermelon which needs a pollenizer, a plant from the same species with viable pollen.

I'll be happy to make a trade with you. I have five items on your want list: Ugly Ripe, Red Calabash, Jelly Bean, Chives, and I can go with 10 Black Krim seeds too. I'm interested in: 1. Green zebra 2. Copia 3. Old Ivory Egg tomato 4. Amur Tiger tomato 7. Cantalope - Hale's Best 8. Arugula - Roquette 9. detroit red beets Check my list to see if there is anything else you'd like. Thanks!

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.

LOL, I was wondering where my Wilson the tennis ball went off to recently, LOL. Nice looking cantaloupes! They're one of my favorite melons too. Yours look really awesome, and thanks for pointing out the lizard, I would have missed it, hah! I've seen trellised cantaloupes, but as you said, the fruit is heaving and had netting around it tied to the trellis to support it. Your system and its results look great! Thanks for posting the pics, you always have such a nice, productive garden! Happy gardening, and happy eating! Grant