Wayne, Disease is always a problem and wilt is a problem I deal with each year. I lost 6 plants under the netting due to wilt, it seem to went straight across in a line down the middle. I also lost one of my Stone mountains. I am completly Organic and I choose not to spray anything even organic sprays. Mainly I choose this approach because I don't have the time to spend worrying about each problem that arises and spending time and money trying to battle it. Instead I choose cultural practices to minimize the effects of insects , birds, deer ,rabbits, coons, squirrels and ever bacterial, fungal and viral microbes out they that want the vegetables and flowers of my garden. I have found the more I learn to let nature take its course and creat a garden inviting to beneficial insects and keeping the ground covered at all timeswith the use of mulches, cover crops, and employing tactics to ward off critters, including vigilant trapping of some pest such as squirrels the garden takes care of it self and I have more time to enjoy my garden and I feel a lot better about the produce I eat and raise. But wilt is probably my worst problem with melons and roatation is the key. I too have grown melons for years but not as long as you have especially in this garden spot. Hopefully I can continue to get a sweet summer melon for my troubles. Frank if referring to the Missouri yellow meated it is a big melon the one pictured is probable 35lbs I picked one the other day and that 's what it weighed. It was devine juicy and sweet. This was the first year growing it. Rodger

idaho mountain, thanks, now I KNOW I need to get them into the warmest possible spot and give them more water, maybe more food, next year. It looks like my watermelons are going to finish at about 3-5" in diameter. I don't suppose they'll ripen. This is my first year growing veggies and fruits, although I'm an experienced gardener otherwise (I've decorative-gardened in two different climates for about 15 years, and grew and sold cutting flowers for eight years but quit last fall), so my learning curve is pretty steep. Floriculture is quite different from veggie-culture, as I'm finding out! Veggie-culture is actually quite a bit easier in many ways, but there's NO source that tells you how all the different plants grow in this climate. With flowers, I learned it by experience. Now I'm trying to learn from all you folks' experience! Jeanne

Neato! I wanna move there, such neat critters.

My live snake totals were: 6 Mojave Rattlesnakes (lifer) 3 Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes 2 Northern Blacktail Rattlesnakes 1 Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake 1 Sonoran Whipsnake (lifer) 1 Sonoran Gopher Snake (lifer)