Long story short I'm going to make my own cages using poultry netting; they'll be sturdier and will last longer, and I think it will be more economical than buying the premade ones. Just to clarify I'm not asking how to trellis the plant up the cage, I'm asking for advice on how to build it, how tall it needs to be, and how much of the material I need for making my cages. a few requests about this: I took a considerable amount of time into making this post. Read it. Please answer the questions that I've asked. I'm not trying to be rude, but half the time when I ask for answers to the questions I ask, I get answers and advice about everything there is to know about it, but don't get answers to the questions I ask. To avoid starting an argument all of these will be grown in containers; the squash plants will be grown in large 50 gallon rectangular storage containers. I have what is going to seem like a really stupid question, but I honestly don't know, if I did I wouldn't be asking. When a gardening catalog/website refers to how large the spread of a plant is, is this referring to the width of the plant? My other question is that since the melons and squash will have the cage to climb up, is it really necessary to put them in slings as the fruit is maturing, so it doesn't break off the plant, or is this not necessary due the cage? Somebody also suggested to me with melons that I can grow one melon plant in a 5 gallon container (be it a bucket, a rectangular container etc.). However with the spread of some of the melons listed below, the width of the plant is bigger than the diameter of my containers. Does it matter that the plant will be poking out of the cage (with the width, not the height.....that is it will be sticking out horizontally, not vertically) The main thing I need help with is figuring out what the dimensions for them need to be (length, height, width). I realize this depends on the length of the vines as well the dimensions for the plants themselves. NOTES: Some of the squash listed below I don't plan to grow this season. The main ones I'm going to grow are goldetti, butterbush, and table king; the melons I'll be growing are sugarbush ( a bush type sugar baby watermelon), tasty bites (a cantaloupe plant that bares many small cantaloupes) and honey pearl (a honey dew that bares many small honeydew melons). The other ones I've provided because I'd like to grow them in the future and I need to know what the dimensions for their cages need to be. I realize for some squash and melon plants listed, I haven't put the height, spreasd, and vine length of the plants; it's because I wasn't able to find this info. Below is a list of what I'll be growing: Goldetti (spaghetti squash) Spread: 24"-36" Height: 18"-24" Vine Length: About 4' Butterbush: (butternut squash) Spread:24"-36" Height: 18"-24" Vine Length: 3' to 4' Bush Table King-I don't know what the dimensions of the plant are (spread, and height of it, I couldn't find this info). All I know is the vines are about 4' long Discus Buttercup-A bush type buttercup squash; the spread is about 3 feet long; I don't know what the vine length and height of the plant is, the website that sells the seed packets doesn't say. Sugar Bush (Sugar Baby Watermelon): Spread:4-5 feet Height: 15"-24" Vine Length about 3-1/2' feet, the maximum length the vines will reach is 5' The other types of melons I'm growing aren't bush types and their vines are very long, about 6'-8'. I don't know what the dimensions are for their spread and height. I'll list them below: Tasty Bites (bares many small cantaloupes, each one is 1-3/4 to 2-1/2 lbs in weight) Honey Pearl a honeydew melon plant that bares many small honeydews (don't know how much each one weighs) I also need to know how much poultry wire I'll need for making my cages. I realize this depends on how many cages I'll be making. For the squash, I'm going to make 15 cages total (5 spaghetti squash, 5 butternut squash and 5 acorn squash) For the melons, I'll most likely end up growing 2 plants of each variety, 3 plants of each variety maximum. Listed below is the different sizes the rolls of poultry netting come in: 2' x 50' 3' x 50' 4' x 50' 2' x 5' 4' x 10' 4' x 25' 3' x 10' 3 ' x 25'

I'm assuming your jujube is a Thai Giant, since that's the only variety I've seen for sale in my part of Florida. I don't know anything about other varieties. Those little buds you see will turn into tiny yellow flowers, which may, or may not, become fruit. My largest jujube has been flowering like crazy all summer, but isn't producing any fruit. Last January, this tree produced lots of fruit. What's happening now has me confused. I've never seen a fruit tree absolutely covered with blossoms fail to produce fruit! If your tree is anything like mine, you'll be surprised at how quickly it will grow. I hope yours has plenty of room!

Those melons really look nice. Never figured out how the commercial growers tell when to pick--I pick when the stem gets loose, and the melon is ripe and must be eaten soon and refridgerated before it gets over ripe. Maybe that's why commercial melons are usually hard and have no flavor? Acorn squash are a great winter squash. To tell when they are ripe, use the same method as with all winter squash. The shell hardens, so push your fingernail into the shell. If it cuts through or leaves a groove, it isn't ripe. If it is kind of like pushing your nail against a window, it is fully ripe. Though they ripen sooner, I always leave my squash until after first frost (mid to late Sept). Then the vines have "melted" and dried a bit and I can easily find the squash. They won't freeze if ripe unless it gets way down into the mid to low 20's. My squash usually keep quite well until sometime in January. My favorite squash is a buttercup-hubbard cross. Fairly dry, deep yellow-orange flesh, larger than a standard buttercup, flesh tastes like it already has been buttered and sugared. Each time you re-heat the squash, the sugar tends to carmelize a little and it gets sweeter and sweeter. , therefore having a larger squash insures there will be several meals, each better than the last. If your melons are dying off while quite small, it could be lack of pollination. Usually there are lots of bees around to pollinate the melons, but if you spray around the garden for insects, don't spray around the melons or anything in bloom if you can avoid it. If you must spray, do it at sunset or dawn so the bees aren't active and the insecticide can dry before the bees start working. Also with melons, you need to keep trying different varieties until you find one that does well in your area. I had melons racing the frost for years. Then planted some seeds from a friend who got a really big and good melon from Muscatine Iowa. This melon does well for me, often get a few melons 10 or more inches in diameter and a wonderful flavor. They start ripening in late Aug. and continue for the next month. Make sure the melons don't get too dry when setting on fruit, either. Wet feet encourages disastrous diseases, but don't let them dry out too much either. Just water thoroughly and let them use that water, then water again when the ground gets on the dry side, maybe a week later. Good luck!

Ok. That definitely helps to understand for the first set of plants. Thank you very much. I can get larger containers, at least to try some squash again, maybe not the climbers. I also do have a drip irrigation system in place (previous tenant), though I didn't use it because I was trying the sub-irrigated system. Will the drip irrigation improve my water management in this case, using containers with standard drainage? However, the second set of plants never reached more than about six inches high, including squash, and including those in new soil with lots of compost. Even at 3 inches high they were already yellow (after an initial week of green following germination). They only made small leaves, and they failed to grow further than 3-6 inches. In that case I don't believe it was space (yet). Most outer leaves beginning to die within days.