Canataloupe Kingdom

[frankpeterson]

Well from what I read the bee's are necessary. I could just hope the air inside the room moves it to the female flowers. Unlike chronic, cantaloupes have male and female flowers growing on the same plants. Even with tomoato plants the bee's are needed to carry the pollen. Doing it by hand involves simply using a cotten swab or as it's called in many countries "Q-tip", take pollen from the male flower and touch it to the female ones. The female flowers have little balls behind them, "little cantaloupes" Waiting to be pollinated. Note this is just what I read from people that have grown them outdoors and lacked bees. I can find no record of them being done inside. I will try to have pics of the process when the times comes. Also the vine is spreading rapidly......faster than I can figure out what to do with it. None the less it will remain with the other plants. No point in breaking up the family.

FP

 

[Comatoked]

Hmmm..Interesting, Cant Wait To See The Pics. Thanks For The Info That Really Helped Me Out. So Can You Already Tell The Difference In The Male And Female Flower's? The "Q-tip" Ideal Soud's Valid Enough To Try. Also I Figured The Vines Would Start To Take Off. Any Ideal On How You Will Control There Grow Space?

 

[night501]

being a vine plant i would go out and get like 2'x4' piece of chainlink fence. we have vines all over ours in the summer, cant even tell the fence is there.

 

[frankpeterson]

night501's idea is with the chainlink fence is excellent. It's starting to get out of control a little and will have to do something soon. As for now, going to let them spread around the bases of the other plants in the room. Since the light is only needed above the base, this should suffice for now until setup night501's fence idea.

FP

 

[night501]

i have been able to find chainlink fence perty cheap at some scrap yards. you have to sanitize it but i found some for under a buck per square foot. try any scrap yard around you, and also recycling centers.

 

[Beer_Guy]

They tell you to put 3 seeds in each "hill" because most people don't have potting soil gardens outside. It normally takes the strength of 3 seedlings to break through the crust of dirt that forms in most gardens. You can trim the vines if you need to it won't hurt them. If you leave all of the flowers to develop into melons they will all be smaller or stunted a bit. You can choose to keep just 1 or 2 and they'll get bigger and sweeter. Just cut off the little "balls" of the ones you don't want.
I've grown them in a greenhouse before, but never indoors. I'm really interested in seeing how they turn out.
I've often wondered if you could grow a giant pumpkin hydroponically indoors. Dills Atlantic Giant would be quite a sight growing in your basement... LOL

 

[frankpeterson]

Thanks beer guy,

Your knowledge is nescessary for this project. Might just keep one or two, if I can keep it alive. Currently the lower part of the vines leaves are turning yellow. I haven't been giving them nutrients as I am not sure if the flowering nutes are designed for cantaloupes???????????????????Anyone????? They seemed to take the vegetative nutrients very well.

FP

 

[Beer_Guy]

I haven't been giving them nutrients as I am not sure if the flowering nutes are designed for cantaloupes?

FP

I can't help you with that one, I grew them in 3 gallon pots with dirt and Miracle grow.
I wonder if you can flower them with the veg nutes? I'm good at growing in dirt, never paid too much attention to chemistry. lol
My current grow is my first attempt at hydro.

 

[frankpeterson]

You know beer guy, was originally going to put one of those gigantic atlantic pumpkin plants in there to grow. Similar to cantaloupes(grows on a vine), but figured space would be an issue. Another reason is pumpkins take longer to grow then cantaloupes and you can't just crack them open and eat them like a caveman.(caveman would do it anyways) By the way they got a dose of FLORA NOVA bloom with the rest of the family. Because cantaloupes will be used for consumption by ingestion, nutes will be cut off many weeks before harvest.

 

[frankpeterson]

Heres something interesting. Flowers haven't opened or anything yet, but I was reading on a site, that when the flowers do open. They open at sunrise and only stay open for a day. Better not sleep in that day lol.

 

[frankpeterson]

Not any good pics. Cantaloupe is wraping itself around the chronic plants. Those little strings that are shooting out of them from before are called trellises and they are used as the plants anchor. They have attached themselves several times to the other plants and get pulled off.

 

[frankpeterson]

night,

it is a little different as I'm learning the pollen is a little bit heavier and stickier with a cantaloupe. Mothernature requires bees to carry this pollen. Inside....none are present.

 

[frankpeterson]

pics pics pics.

 

[Beer_Guy]

Tomatoes can self pollinate just by shaking the plant, not sure about cantalopes. Seems like a cotton swab would do the deed pretty good though. Just lightly swirl it around inside each flower, should be able to pass around a lot of pollen.

 

[frankpeterson]

that's the plan beer guy. Woah fast post, you live,eat,sleep on mar passion don't ya? Ya I read it's to heavy to just shake around you need to take it there. Bee's somehow know how to do it. Smartass bee's.

 

[Beer_Guy]

LOL, I get an email every time there is a reply to a topic I post in.
If I posted a lot it could get annoying, but I don't post that much so it's kinda helpful.
:chuck:

 

[frankpeterson]

LOL, you can turn e-mail notifcation off somewhere, prolly in the control panel. Almost snapped cause of those e-mails. Come on here enough already, nothing is needed to tell me who replied to what.

 

[Beer_Guy]

I'll turn it off when it starts getting annoying, it's kinda helpful at the moment.

 

[Comatoked]

Those Vine's Are Growing Frank, Thank's For The Pics. So Have You Got Them On A Flowering Light Time now? What Is You Dark/Light Hours? Have You Thought About The Chainlink Ideal Night Brought Up? Can You See The Flowers Or Flower Bud's Yet? Hope You Keep Those Sucker's Under Control LoL. I Am Sure You Will Figure Out Something For The Space Issue,But It Seem's You Are More Worried About The Pollen Issue, But Hey If You Cant Get Fruit They Ant Worth Having.

 

[frankpeterson]

Those Vine's Are Growing Frank, Thank's For The Pics. So Have You Got Them On A Flowering Light Time now? What Is You Dark/Light Hours? Have You Thought About The Chainlink Ideal Night Brought Up? Can You See The Flowers Or Flower Bud's Yet? Hope You Keep Those Sucker's Under Control LoL. I Am Sure You Will Figure Out Something For The Space Issue,But It Seem's You Are More Worried About The Pollen Issue, But Hey If You Cant Get Fruit They Ant Worth Having.

Your right, no fruit = gets killed. As for the light, 12 on and 12 off. No flowers yet still waiting for that, but did notice a stretch like the other plants. It seems to grow or change a little bit every day. If only male flowers show up it will be destroyed. There is a definite interest in the chain link idea. As for now they sit at the base and are wraping around the other plants, but not attached so it doesn't seem like the other plants are being "choked out" by the cantaloupe. Hope to see flowers within a few days as we are interested in getting the pollination process over with.