Planted WAY too much in 32 sq. ft. space

[1WildHairL8r]

I'm such a newbie.
I found your site from the BYC site and was inspired to plant a garden this year.
My DH made me a 4X8 box and filled it with beautiful, rich soil. Then, I planted too much in it and now my cucumber vines, cantalope vines and watermelon vines have totally choked out my pepper plants and are encroaching upon my squash and tomatoes!! YIKES!!
Anyway, I've read that transplanting some of these plants is not such a great idea. So I don't want to move the cucumber or squash or tomato -- they're doing great.
But I've also been told that the watermelon and cantalope plants are pretty hardy.
Is that true?
We have a lake behind us that is receeded by about 15 feet this summer -- the bank is so sandy and rich -- I thought the cantalope and watermelon would go crazy out there.
What do you guys think? The vines already have fruit growing on them.
Thanks!
Cathi

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Hi Cathi and Welcome to the forum!

I would first think that can you just train and move the vines out of the box and have them grow out? The actual vines really don't need to be in the garden and can grow just about anywhere. This is probably the easiest solution. At least moving the melon vines out would help since the cucumbers aren't too big of a vine they shouldn't shade out too much.

If that's not possible then you might be able to move them but I would think that at this stage the would definitely go into transplant shock and perhaps drop their fruit. Even though they are pretty hardy I think they may be a little too big to transplant, IMO.

Good luck!

 

[1WildHairL8r]

Thank you! I've already learned so much from this site.
I have my cucumber vines growing up on stakes. I can do the same with the watermelon and cantalope, huh?
Okay! That does sound like a better solution. I"m sure I have something around here to use as a stake -- I think I even have some old lattice at the barn.
Thank you very much for your reply.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Thank you! I've already learned so much from this site.
I have my cucumber vines growing up on stakes. I can do the same with the watermelon and cantalope, huh?
Okay! That does sound like a better solution. I"m sure I have something around here to use as a stake -- I think I even have some old lattice at the barn.
Thank you very much for your reply.

You can grow cantaloupe and watermelon on a trellis or something, just make sure you support the fruits as they grow. Like with a sling made of old sheets or nylon pantyhose works well. If not the fruits will get too heavy and break off. I was think just letting them grow outside the box, can you not do this?

 

[1WildHairL8r]

Well, there's about 1 to 1.5 foot of space on each side of the garden. Then there's fencing which it can very definitely grow up or through. Then there are CHICKENS! What a treat for them.
Given what you've written, I think the best be will be to move the temporary fencing on one side of the garden and allow more room for the vines -- there will be plenty of space and no threat from my chickies.
Does that sound better?
Thank you,
Cathi

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Well, there's about 1 to 1.5 foot of space on each side of the garden. Then there's fencing which it can very definitely grow up or through. Then there are CHICKENS! What a treat for them.
Given what you've written, I think the best be will be to move the temporary fencing on one side of the garden and allow more room for the vines -- there will be plenty of space and no threat from my chickies.
Does that sound better?
Thank you,
Cathi

I think that's probably the best solution.

Good luck!

 

[Tutter]

Welcome, Cathi! :happy_flower

I practice something like what OaklandCityFarmer mentioned.

I have a large container to grow in just because I don't want to be limited to the garden, and want to use as much space as possible, and this year I decided to push it to it's limits in a particular growing area, just to see what the yield would actually be.

I have the pumpkins and such trailing out of it.

The tomatoes, which could have shaded the beets and such, are growing up dog wire fence pieces which angle out from the planting area. The fence is not in the planter, it's at the base, then is at an angle outward.

So far everything is doing very well.

Good luck!

 

[luckyducky]

I too, got carried away by my brand new ( my son and I built it), raised bed garden and planted WAY too much. I lost my carrots, ( they got too much shade from the tomatoes on one side and the onions and potaoes on the other. I put up a cattle panel in a hoop around the vining veges, and thought once they fruit out, I could sling the fruits with chicken wire. Unfortunately, the vines haven't grown as far as my cattle panel trellis is!! could I hang twine down and try to train the pumpkins and cukes to climb it? The top of the arch is about 4' from the dirt of the raised bed.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Unfortunately, the vines haven't grown as far as my cattle panel trellis is!! could I hang twine down and try to train the pumpkins and cukes to climb it? The top of the arch is about 4' from the dirt of the raised bed.

I'm thinking you could do this without a problem. You might want to use a stake instead just to make sure it's sturdy enough.

 

[ams3651]

i transplanted my watermelon last year and got so many seeds i couldnt eat them. they were 75%seeds and 25%flesh. Someone told me that could happen if they were tramatized which I contribute to the transplanting.