I concur with what Dave has stated. In your zone, they would have plenty of time to develop ripe, beautiful fruit. I have had success by mounding my ÂhillsÂ, each planted with 3/4 seeds, and amending it with a lot or organic material (from my compost bin). They are hogs and love the extra nutrients. I also only water them in the evening to prevent powdery mildew (though it hasnÂt effected my fruit), and snip a few vines (in small increments) to promote fewer, but larger fruit. Just my opinion and what has worked for me. I am bummed, I turned my melon and pumpkin garden into ANOTHER dahlia/zinnia cutting bed : ). I will sure miss my fruit vines! Keriann~

Looks like Encore to me. Deanna

First, what area are you in (city,state)? My experience with watermelons is that sometimes they just don't get good cross pollination from bees and such. In our SFG bed, we ended up having to "hand-pollinate", which, you find a female flower (has a small bulb below it), and a male flower (no bulb). Open up both flowers and rub the male flower's pollen center into the femail flower, getting as deep into the flower as you can without hurting it. Yeah, sounds dirty ;o) Also, watermelons require a ton of water, so make sure your soil does not dry out. If you get watermelons, then just before harvest time you want to back off on watering so that the watermelon's sugars concentrate inside (they don't get watered down), and you will have a sweet watermelon. Hope this helps.

Ken, I guess you didn't catch my previous post, with detailed pics of how I assemble my plant I.D. tags. Here are pics: The 1 1/2" single-sided round tag with the loop on it which is exterior to the main circle. You then personalize it by filling out a couple of lines and clicking OK. Example: Hosta Dinky Donna I get them at www.pettags4less.com. There was a recent sale at www.drs.fostersmith.com, with the aluminum pet tags like this selling for 99 cents each, which I posted, but I don't know if that sale is over. The first place sells them for $2.29. The 9" aluminum tent stake. I like this brand, as the coppery color looks nice in the garden and harmonizes with the mulch and soil a whole lot better than the red, purple, blue, etc. ones I've seen. This is the Coghlan 9" ultra lite tent stake of anodized aluminum. It won't rust and there is no paint to flake off, so it stays this color. I remove the pull-string and utilize the hole it was threaded through. The brass 1/8" diameter screw posts. I found that the 5/16" length was perfect to fasten the plant I.D. tag to the tent stake. The one in this picture is a tad longer than 5/16", but it gives you the idea. The threaded part screws into the tubular part, which has an internal threading. Neat, out of the weather, doesn't rust. They also sell screw posts in stainless steel, aluminum, and plastic, but not all come in the 1/8" diameter, which is a new product. The assembled finished product: