Hey there! I'd love to trade with you - I'm interested in your Zephyr Squash, Sassy Straight 8 Cucumber, Miss Pickler Cucumber and Yellow Baby Melon. I have lots of lettuce varieties available to choose from in return. Please email me if you're interested! Thanks, Sassyb.

Tripod, the only way to find out if you have a nutrient deficiency is to have a soil test done. Even soil that looks good and has plenty of amendments in it can be lacking in some of the basic necessities. Your local cooperative extension office or a GOOD full service garden center should be able to tell you where you can get the test done. The test kits you can buy for home use are pretty useless. Send it to a good lab. It will cost very little in comparison to the pleasure of a good melon! Other causes can be cloudy weather (or shady location) without sufficient sunshine, diseases that keep leaves from providing the sugars and other nutrients for the fruit, and as you already know, over watering during the last 3 weeks or so of ripening time. Also, picking a bit too early produces typical store-bought taste. Are these varieties that you've successfully grown before? If so, check out the possibility of lack of sun and get the soil test results. These two things should go a long way to helping with the diagnosis. Good luck. There's nothing much better than a good melon fresh from the garden. Sandy

Still looking for a few odds and ends, especially these winter squash and melons: Squash: Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin Seminole Pumpkin Galeux d'Eysines Melon: Crane Haogen Prescott Fond Blanc I've got lots of seeds to share. Take a look at my trade list and let me know if there's anything you would like... Here is a link that might be useful: Seed trade list

Not looking for anything specific. If anything interest you. email me. Asian Winter Melon (Wax Gourd)(Round and Oblong) Bitter Melon Baby Bak Choy Spinach Edible Rape (Yu Choy Sum) Golden Glower Kale "Kai lan fa"(Brassica Alboglabra) Amaranth (red stripe) Amaranth Whiteleaf (white round leaf) Chinese celery Nappa Cabbabe Large Chinese Michihli White turnip Red turnip Green turnip (aka: "green carrot") "Seven leaf red" raddish Turnip (Hakurei Hybrid) Squash (Early White Bush) Honeydew Eggplant (black beauty) Broccoli Mustard Tendergreen Herbs: Garlic Chives (flat tender leaves) Thai Basil (anise basil) Basil (Siam Queen) Sweet Basil (Italian) Mint (spearmint) Parlsey (moss Curled)