Not too late to start seeds but you'll want to start indoors since germination temperatures are best in the 80s. If you can plant into black plastic mulch the plants will grow better in warmer soil. So would cucumbers.

You can do lots of pampering but without hot, dry weather when melons are ripening the flavor may not be as good. You can still enjoy their flavor but the best flavor is out of your control. I wouldn't do any pruning; never heard of that as a method to improve fruit in any way. Usually the least that you handle the vines the better they are.

There are old methods for pruning different varieties of melons that help increase yield and may effect flavor but it is very time consuming and requires a lot of attention. Unless you want to invest all that time into it I wouldn't bother pruning.

Yes I am starting indoors but when would be the best time to plant it outside? Very soon right? I don't want to start seed indoors if its too late. And wait for it to germinate for a couple weeks and then its already June. June will be too late to plant. Ok so pruning is out of the story. I guess I will try to let it crawl on the ground than using a trellis since thats less work. Do you guys let it grow on the ground or train on a trellis? Also do you guys fertilize at all?

As to crawling on the ground, be aware that many varieties of melon need protection from the ground. Cantaloupes (which are muskmelons) must not stay in contact with at least moist soil, but should be propped up over it. In addition, I sprinkle DE around them. As to making sweeter, many people hold back on irrigation as the fruit matures. Keep the plants alive, but don't overwater.

With melons on trellises, you'll probably need slings to suspend them. The stems won't necessarily be able to hold up the melons.

Do you have to fertilize? Depends a lot on what's in your soil. Have you gotten it analyzed yet? At least for cantaloupe, potassium is important.

You'll want to transplant after 4 weeks because melons will begin to vine at that time and vines can intertwine. You should fertilize either based on soil test or broadcast 3 lb of 10:10:10 per 10ft x 10 ft area and work into soil prior to transplant. For watermelons especially try to germinate in area where temperature is in mid 80s F.

Daninthedirt, would black plastic sheets be good for them to lay on? I'm going to have them down anyway for soil heat so then might as well cover a wider area for the vines to rest on. But ok gotcha on the holding back the water during fruiting.

Barrie, 4 weeks from next week(when I will be sowing seeds indoors) will be June and isn't that too late?

I guess I might not need any fertilizing then since my cucumbers do very well in our soil even without fertilizing

Also when making a bed for melons, and say I want to plant 4 melons in that one bed, how big(dimensions) should the bed be? I would like it as small as possible

Plastic sheets will accumulate water, and the melons will end up sitting in puddles. Some people use blocks of wood or ceramic to prop them up over the soil. Many people like tuna fish cans, with drain holes. One melon sitting on each.

How big a bed? My melon bed is 8x8 feet, and a few plants fill that quite handily. But your production will be proportional to the area. More soil area means more nutrients and more sunlight.

Ok, I also saw that some people put hay straws as mulch around the melons so they could lay on that. Would hay straw also work?

Hmm ok 8x8. Doesn't sound too space consuming. I currently have an open bed(cucumbers were there last year) that is about 10x8ft so I think I'll try growing 4 melons and 4 watermelons(square mini variety) in that bed and see how they'll do.

Also one other question.. my seeds will probably come in at the end of this week. Can I pot the seeds up this weekend indoors and wait 4 weeks to plant outside? Or would that be too late in the season and would it be better off planting the seed right in the ground? Which option do you think would be better?

I am in zone 6b and grew Japanese melons from seeds I got from Kitazawa on an elevated horizontal trellis if you can picture that. I trained them up strings and let them sprawl on the wire mesh. The first year the melons grew into the wire before I realized I couldn't extract them! The next year I put folded New York Times underneath. They tasted pretty dreadful, however. No flavor at all.

Hay straw might work, as long as the melons can dry off. As to when they get planted outside, the earlier the better, with the caveat that it comes down to chances of a freeze. Unprotected, they won't survive a freeze. So it depends on where you are. Some people say that squash and melons turn out better when direct-seeded. I transplant all the time as seedlings, and it seems to work fine.

Yea I bought them from kitazawa seeds as well! The ichiba koji melon and hime kansen watermelon. Oh thats dissapointing to hear about the bland taste.. do you think it had to do with you growing it up on a trellis as a climber when they actually prefer more to sprawl on the ground?

daninthedirt, ok I will try different things for that and see which one works best. And since you transplant them as seedlings..allow me to ask you another question based on that..

What type of soil do you use to sow your seeds in?

What type of pot? Maybe peat based pots would work?

Do you have it under fluorescent lights 24/7? Or just during the daytime?

Are these the first plants you've grown as seedlings? You need to do some reading up.

Soil-less mix is probably best for potted seedlings, though I use equal parts soil, compost, and peat moss and do OK. Maybe throw in some perlite. As to peat pots, BEWARE. If you plant peat pots, like they tell you to, they often don't degrade, and trap the roots. If you do use peat pots, strip them off when you plant. I'd just plant in 4" pots, or full sized dixie cups. If you can grow your seedlings in full daylight, do that. If you can't, then lights are must, but the fluorescent lights should be just an inch or two away from the plant. Otherwise it won't be bright enough. We aren't talking about bright enough to read. We're talking bright enough to mimic sunlight. 18 hours of such light is about right.

Thanks. I've done some annual plant seeds indoors at a botanical garden I interned at last year but they had readily made seed starting mix bags already so we just used that. So I guess the seed starting mix is the most ideal but I can't find them anywhere! So thats why I asked you about this to see if there are any alternatives. Alright I will find 4 inch plastic pots and I will leave them outside in the sun. If its a cloudy day then maybe I will put it indoors under the flourecent lights?

Plants can handle cloudy days. If they couldn't, there wouldn't be any plants. In fact, a cloudy day puts about as much light on the plant that, at best, you can put on a plant with lights. But if you leave them outside, make sure they aren't shaded. As in, the plant should be exposed to most of the sky, whether cloudy or clear.

I am reminded of the novice gardener who was so proud his plants were outside. "But when can I take them out of the tent?"

Alright then during the day whether it's cloudy or not ill have it outside. Maybe if it's raining I'll put it indoors since I don't want the soil soggy. And overnight I will bring indoors under the light. So that way it's getting light 24/7

Actually, I think plants like light in cycles. So 24/7 light is not recommended. As I said, if just artificial light, I do for 18 hours. I think most plants can at least tolerate 24 hour lighting, but there are some plants that can't. Photosynthesis involves two separate chemical reactions. One needs light. The other doesn't. I don't think that second reaction actually requires darkness, though. I believe that tomatoes and peppers, for example, actually experience decreased growth and yield in continuous lighting.

Oh I see. So just 12 hours of daylight from the sky would be enough for my melons and watermelons? And what do I do on a rainy day? Bring them indoors to avoid soggy soil?

Hey so an update. So last thursday I sowed 4 ichiba kouji melons and 4 hime kansen watermelons(icebox variety) in a 5 inch deep pot. All 4 of the melons are germinating but none of my watermelons are :( Do watermelons have a longer germination speed or something?

Kitazawa say the germination temp for the Kansen is 80-85F but for the Kouji is 70-85F. Perhaps at one such temperature the Kouji is faster? How warm are you keeping them?

I've been keeping them outside this past week and its been in the mid 60s during the day and 40s-50s during the night. I put them indoors last night since it dropped to 39 degrees and also bought it in for tonight as well because we have a massive rainstorm coming on. But I see, I guess the soil temperature isn't warm enough for the watermelons. So you grow these Japanese melons too?