The roots can be sensitive when you seperate them. That's why many recommend cutting the "extras" . I've had success and not. I usually don't start melons / squash in containers but this year's cold spring has forced me to do some. I usually just do one seed per container/cell and account for some duds.

Hmm...I got one definite vote for and one iffy. Not sure whether I totally trust myself to separate them successfully...

Dave, what about growing the cantaloupes in a 15-gallon container, as I was planning to do? Would three seedlings in a cluster do ok, in your opinion?

Too many of the loupes. If you don't want to try to separate then you will have to cut them down to 3. Same for the squash - 3. But be sure to remove those fiber pots. And if you are growing them in containers be sure to keep them regularly fed and the soil moisture consistent.

Dave

Another vote for separation. Do it asap, though.

I start melons in pots with about 4 seeds. I save the best 1 in a pot. I may dig out one with a spoon if it is far enough away from the other plant. The removed seedling has to go in the recovery room [shade] for a day. The unremoved plant is always ok. I remove extras fairly early...before the saved plant is skinny. I cannot see grouping watermelons and cantaloupes....maybe cucumbers or squash.

I would thin to two per pot and plant together.

" I cannot see grouping watermelons and cantaloupes.."

The big gain you get is better pollination Wayne, more production. More blooms of both sexes open at the same time. Of course you have to allow sufficient space and do good soil prep nutrient wise.

Dave

Yeah they do ok in groups, keep in mind there should be so much space between them and anything else they have plenty of room to spread their legs.

Peter, How how they going to spread their legs at 1 inch apart at best?

Also, I don't have trouble with pollination. So I still like melons to have room.

Wayne, all I can tell you is that I have successfully grown cucurbits at 2-3" spacing. If you aren't comfortable with it, then don't do it. If they are less than an inch apart, then yeah that may be too close.

Vines grow just fine in all directions as long as they have room to roam. It isn't as if you are planting 3 plants in the same running space you'd give to just one.

I have been planting them in groups of 3 for many decades with excellent results. But like Peter said if you don't like it then don't do it. But don't knock it if you haven't tried it. You might be very surprised. ;-)

Dave

Thanks so much for your help, guys/possibly gals!

I ended up chickening out and snipping off all but 2 or 3 (so far) in each pot.

*However,* just as an experiment, I decided to buy another of those crazy cantaloupe peat pots, this one with I think nine stems. The roots were already insanely tangled but I tried to separate them including dipping them in a bucket of water to tease them apart.

I planted four of them a few inches apart on a hill in a raised bed where I gave them two square-foot-gardening squares, and I highly doubt any of them will survive the difficult extraction process. But I'll update you if so!

Dave, just re-read your earlier comment and remembered you'd said that I definitely need to remove the peat pots. It's interesting because on the pots, the instructions just say that you have to soak them and strip off the top and bottom of the pots. Guess they are being overly optimistic?

The peat pots may be new to you but they have been around for decades and many a gardener has had to learn the hard way just how "overly optimistic" they are bring with those instructions. ;-) Manufacturer hype is just that - hype - and the unknowing gardener pays the price for it with stunted plants and pots that still haven't degraded 2 years on.

If you type 'peat pots' into the search engine here you'll find hundreds of discussions about them.

Dave

You can absolutely plant them all together, BUT, the productivity will be that of a single plant. If that's a "decent yield" to you, then go for it. It's not decent for four plants, but it'll be decent for one plant. Of course, you could cut all of them off except one, and get the same thing.

I always plant twosies to ensure that space is filled if one croaks.

I assume you expected this result when you planted all those seeds together.

I like to see larger fruits which oftentimes comes from larger and healthier plants. Larger fruits tend to pack more goodies in their fruits.

Actually, I never have problem with fruit size when planting twosies. Never did watermelon this way, but lots of other things do fine. The multiple plants are very healthy. The effect is like multiple stems on one plant. I guess if you need to prune a plant to achieve good fruit size, you shouldn't plant multiples. I never prune.

I always plant "threesies" ;-) and have always found it increases production over single plant planting if for not other reason than you have many more blooms open at the same time for pollination.

We commonly get posts here about "why do I only have male (or female) blooms on my squash/melons, etc. and you don't have that issue with multiple plantings. Nor do you have the risk of getting nothing if pests or disease kill your single plant. Same applies to watermelons. Can't think of any thing that I only plant 1 plant of. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it. ;-)

Of course as we often discuss here, you have to allow for more space and more nutrient/water than you would for a single plant so fruit size and/or quality doesn't become and issue.

Dave

IMHO: twosies and threesies also help with cross fertilization, keeping open some genetic diversity rather than relying on a single vine to be both mom and dad.

With plantings of several plants in an area, even in onesies, they get some cross fertilization also.

Thanks, guys! @daninthedirt, I actually didn't plant those seeds...I bought them as seedlings, and they came all clustered together like that!