Follow-up article from < GARDEN : Planting butternut squash, cantaloupe, & watermelon… >

Note: Originally written on April 28th, updated on May2nd.

I’ve been working on a melon patch for a couple months. Why? Last couple of years we simply grew more watermelon, cantaloupe, and squash plants and fruit than we had room for. A lot of it went to waste just because we couldn’t even see the fruit. Decision last fall was to get the large vine type plants out of the raised beds and into the ground outside of the garden area to let them spread out. But, as you’ve read before…our dirt sucks! Dead, dry, packed concrete, and just plain sucky!

I picked a spot last year and started adding organic matter into 4 rows with the rotor-tiller. Then a bit of soil conditioner, some perlite, some vermiculite, and a spot of organic fertilizer…then more organic matter. Tilled it all in about 10” – 12” deep maybe 4 – 5 times overall. The ground was no longer packed dead dirt…looking decent.

Early this spring…I added compost, more soil conditioner, more organic fertilizer…then more organic matter. Looking really good!

At the end of March, before the big freeze, I planted two butternut squash plants to give them a jump start on the season. They made it through the big freeze…or so I thought. Nope…they didn’t…well, kinda.

Before I noticed an issue I decided to plant more in the “patch” to get an early start…extend the growing season. I planted; 2 more butternut, 2 cantaloupe, and 2 watermelon plants. Why an early start? Butternut squash takes about 90 – 120 days from seed planting to harvest…of the first fruit. And for cantaloupe and watermelon is about 75 – 100 days. Depending on the weather flowering is 40 – 60 days. I figured I could get my plants to the flowering stage in the greenhouse…then only about 60 days to harvest…depending on weather. Our growing season…June 1^st still has a 10% chance of frost. The first frost usually hits between October 1 and the 17^th. So that is a clear window of 120 days +/- of growing fruit…if I start the plants in the greenhouse.

First two…

Then I got brave and six more plants went into the ground about 10 days later…eight plants in total were in the ground…then another cold night hit…then another…then one of the original butternut plants started looking like this…

Yeah, not real healthy, eh? Leaves are not supposed to look brown and black.

A little research and unknown to me…squash, melon, and cantaloupe plants suffer below 50° at night. And they really start to fade below 40° at night. If you are wondering…yes, I covered them at night with quilts. Butternut plants showed real signs of stress. Then I made the decision…dig them back up and put them back in the greenhouse. Not an ideal solution but better than losing them all together.

And then it all looked liked this…

Yup! I dug them back up, potted the, and they now live in the greenhouse again. Forget the yellow lilies…they go on the flower mound.

So 10 days later that beat-up butternut squash with the black and brown leaves…

I cut back on the water for a couple of days, then cut off a couple of the worst leaves. Then as new leaves came on I cut off the next couple of the worst leaves. I kept repeating that until I got this…a once again healthy butternut squash plant.

A week later…
1) kept trimming off the dead and sad looking leaves
2) a few days ago I did a liquid fish fertilizer 5-1-1 to bring back the green and encourage growth.
3) Two days ago I did a blood meal fertilizer 12-0-0 for a bit more nitrogen to continue improving its health, encouraging growth, and getting the nice pretty green back.

I will be planting…actually, replanting…the melon patch…or at least starting to…later this week. This plant will not be one of the first to go back in. I want to give it plenty of time to recover.

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• GARDEN : Planting butternut squash, cantaloupe, & watermelon…

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