Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 28 Entries. Saturday, June 10 View Page Greetings folks. Here's my operation. This year I am trying to control variables that were hard to control previously. My raised bed is 20" deep, 4 feet wide and 32 feet long. It has foam insulation on the bottom along with mole and vole protection. The sandy soil was sifted through a 1/2" screen and further drainage with a perf pipe.   Saturday, June 10 View Page My soil is covered with plastic and has on demand irrigation. Using sensors that provide me with soil temperature, soil EC, and soil % moisture. The nutrient pump will be activated when the soil reaches a preset dryness threshold.   Saturday, June 10 View Page The vines will be trained out and down onto the ground with transition ramps covered with plastic fencing. I don't have huge goals this year. I'll take one melon. Ideally I hope for one that beats my father's family record of 128 pounds.   Saturday, June 10 View Page Here's my irrigation system. The tank holds low concentration nutrients specifically for cucurbits. My plants are starting to take hold and vine out a bit. Shouldn't be long and they will be really growing...or some catastrophic event will occur. We'll see. Cheers.   Monday, June 12 View Page Spots like this have been showing up over the last two days. I'm at a loss.   Monday, June 12 View Page Here are some spots I have been seeing. I'm at a loss.   Wednesday, June 14 View Page Straw definitely cooled my soil temperatures down. Was up to 99.6° without the straw, mid 80's with. No new oozing and the plants are doing good.   Wednesday, June 14 View Page Well...another day later and more oozing spots. The old oozing spots have stopped but new ones form. Not bad but highly concerning. The plants are growing very fast. Traditional plants are doing on average slightly better. As for the cause of the ooze...two things GSB or vascular damage. I've seen this all too often on the grafted crowns. Always thought it was GSB but it turns out to be vascular damage. I guess I'm good at finding new ways to blow plants up. We'll see what comes of it. Cheers   Saturday, June 17 View Page I added a layer of straw then covered that with plastic netting. The cracks and oozing have stopped and plant growth is pretty good.   Monday, June 19 View Page I took out three plants, down to 10. One down each ramp. Getting tests of tissue and soil. Hopefully things are close because I can't top dress. Fertigation only. No new oozing cracks. The old ones are looking more acceptable. Cheers.   Saturday, June 24 View Page Got the tissue and soil analysis back. Funny thing is that my K is low in tissue but high in soil. Opposite of that, my soil boron is low but is in high levels in the tissue.   Saturday, June 24 View Page 6 feet out on the primary. Obviously it's way too early but I want to grow melons not salad. Every opportunity on the primary gets full attention. Other than that it's been rainy the last two days and growth slowed down. Cooler temperatures in the 70's and sun are in the forecast.   Saturday, June 24 View Page Here's my electrical. The GFI outlet is hot at all times. The normal outlet is hot only when the pump gets signalled. Irrigation controller is set for 3 minute cycles. The Rain Bird sensor controller will allow for irrigation if the soil moisture gets below 20%. Sensor also gives me soil temperature and EC. I have this all in a Rubbermaid tote with a latching lid.   Saturday, June 24 View Page Looking good I guess. Ten plants.   Sunday, June 25 View Page Found a total of 7 would be watermelons on primary vines. One was a lost cause and was removed. They average about 6' out. I'm hoping that I'll get second sets a little further down, but until then...   Sunday, June 25 View Page 9 of 10 have females on primary. Just the runt plant left. 8 flowers remain with one lost to bad positioning. Notes- I do need nitrogen but things are going well. A bit tenitive to gas it too much. Phosphorus levels are high in soil and tissue. I'm growing in the Christmas tree pattern. Most growth on finger vines is now terminated. Trying to promote a primary set. Soil temperatures are now always in the 70's. Does not irrigate often. Half the days not at all. I'm sure that will pick up but I'm race ready. I...like...big...melons and I cannot lie. Cheers!   Wednesday, June 28 View Page What bad luck. This melon was doing good when I first noticed it but now it's upside-down. Per the recommendation of the lab I mixed my tank with the just the nutrients needed. I needed nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, and boron. My tank has these now in what I think are proper proportions. I'm up to about 900 ppm. Automatic fertigation is in effect. Side note. I'm getting old leaves. I'll need to let some growth regenerate on the top. I'm up to 11 females on the ten plants. My test results showed good nitrogen (at the time) but extremely high phosphorus. Maybe really high P is kicking them out for me. Still none of the melons are in the perfect spot with a plant big enough to crank it out. Gives me practice at pollination. Problem there is that waiting for them to open is making me late for work   Wednesday, June 28 View Page By the way. I get my lab work done with Spectrum Analytic. A tissue and soil test is a very reasonable $40. Get it done...   Thursday, June 29 View Page Things are looking up a day later for this one. It's a nice melon on a fat primary vine. C.ficifolia rootstock. Watering has increased recently but that being said, my guess is that I've only used about 125 gallons all year. That is not necessarily a good thing. I would prefer to go through a wet/dry cycles more frequently.   Tuesday, July 11 View Page Well by now you know who you're taking dancing. Out of my ten plants one stump failed and got pulled. Of the 9 left 6 have melons set, all on the primary vines. Plants are small due to my efforts to minimize. Secondary vines grow 3.5' then get trimmed. Nothing goes long except for the primary.   Tuesday, July 11 View Page A healthy grafted crown. They're not all this way.   Tuesday, July 11 View Page A healthy grafted crown. They're not all this way.   Tuesday, July 11 View Page My six melons. Two are pears, two are tall, two are real good. There are three plants without melons. They are on thin ice. Not sure how long I'm going to put up with their nonsense.   Thursday, July 13 View Page Best grafted crown of the year. 1.5" in diameter. That primary runs big down to its melon. Clarification on a previous post. The finger vines and secondaries were trimmed at 3.5'. Now some vines are growing longer. Real tough to keep the plant 7' wide once it gets going. Second tissue test is under way. I dry the leaves for about a day and a half before I send them out. Keeps them from rotting in transit.   Thursday, July 13 View Page Pulled the three plants that had no melon. 6 melons on 6 plants now.   Saturday, July 15 View Page Here's a link to a video watermelon patch tour for those of you that do the Facebook thing. I'll leave the video public for a few days before returning it to private. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10211755941887577&id=1639556498   Tuesday, July 18 View Page My best melon at day 20 is a hair under 115 OTT. Note:. After seeing no difference between grafted and non grafted, the difference is starting to show. Yes, my sample size is limited but I have 6- 67 Zuerner plants going. 4 are traditional, 2 are grafted. All my plants are the same size but my grafted melons are growing faster. Also, the furthest vines on the traditional plants will wilt in the sun while both grafted plants have never had a single wilted leaf. To be continued. Lots of season left.   Saturday, July 22 View Page No way of growing is perfect. Advantages and disadvantages. A good thing about my system is that the soil is enclosed. My moisture and fertility is constant and monitored. This morning I started out with a 19.1% moisture reading. We then got almost 3 inches of rain. After the rain moved out my moisture reading was 19.2%. it's early afternoon now and the sun is coming out. The soil and it's fertility we're unaffected. Cheers everybody.