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| Melon transplants a week before planting include Uzbek Sweetness, Lambkin and Valencia. The seeds were sown April 6. |
I had 18 starts I grew from seed. I planted two in my backyard and gave two away. My garden plot lineup is:
- Valencia (4)
- Lambkin (3)
- Charentais (2)
- Vert Grimpant (2)
- Uzbek Sweetness (2)
- Ananas D'Amerique a Chair Verte (1)
I also have three Golden Midget watermelon and one D'Amerique I direct-seeded at the garden plot.
I started my seed earlier this year, the first week of April, so my starts are bigger and have more root mass than in previous years. I thought I might get them in the ground earlier, but the weather said otherwise. Despite seeding a month or more earlier, I transplanted them only about 10 days earlier than past years.
This is the first year I've tried Valencia. It is a winter melon that should have a similar growth habit as Lambkin. Its skin supposedly stays green even when ripe, so it could be challenging to determine when to harvest because this variety doesn't slip.
I grew Uzbek and D'Amerique last year with limited success, so I'm looking forward to collecting more data on the growth habits of these varieties. I had only two seeds left from a packet of Uzbek seeds and both produced healthy starts.
All of my melon seedlings damped off about two weeks after germination. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing your entire crop of melons limp and lying on their sides. I transplanted 18 of 21 seedlings to individual pots in one harrowing night. This was two weeks earlier than I planned, but it was either that or reseed. All 18 seedlings survived.
