stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

Wow, I pick when they are barely starting to show color. If I leave longer it's over ripe. Can you post a pic of one that is ready to pick?

I'm so happy they did well for you. I am interested in that new Baker Creek one though. Especially since they rave about it being the best melon they've ever had. Of course that could just be marketing and it's working on me, haha.

Steve, once sent me I believe it was Diplomat or maybe Galia seeds. I planted them in a pot and they produced tons of baby one but then the plant just froze in time! I've always wondered how they would have done in planted in the ground.

Steve if you remember what you sent me and still have a couple seeds I'd like to try them in the ground this time around.

Mary

here is some information about the melon according to them how to pick and tell when they are ready:

Petit Gris de Rennes Melons

Petit Gris de Rennes melons are a small varietal, averaging .9 to 1.3 kilograms in weight, and have an ovate, round, to oval appearance with nine faint, lightly...

specialtyproduce.com

note, i'm pretty much ignoring everything they say this year. i've certainly only picked a few as early as they describe them and i've never let them sit around for long before eating them.

 

[ninnymary]

Thanks for that link Flowerbug. It has a lot of interesting info.

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

i had the perfect picture yesterday and i didn't have my camera with me so i wasn't able to capture it as i'd have liked. i was going to go back and get my camera yet i couldn't do that either. so now i have a few minutes perhaps i can draw the picture in words.

a few weeks ago i planted two rows of old onion seeds expecting not to get much of anything from them. i didn't plant them as thin as i should have. a few days ago i noticed that some were sprouting in one row. yesterday when i checked them out the mass of onion seeds sprouting were enough to crack and lift up sections of the soil over them. what i wanted the picture of were the chunks of dirt floating in the air propped up on those sprouts.

now that we've had several hard rains it's not going to look the same as that. but the good news is that i'm going to have tiny onion bulbs i'll have to lift from that garden before winter. i'm pretty sure i'm not going to be able to get all of them unless i dig up a lot of dirt along with them. i don't have an easy way to screen them, but i suppose i could use a strainer i have and see how well that goes. we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. or perhaps i leave them all alone for the winter where they are at and then see what survives into the spring. hmm...

the 2nd row doesn't have any seeds sprouting yet at all.

now i have to wait and see which actually grew i had a mix of red seeds and some cross breeds in one container and the other seeds are supposed to be from the Kelsea Giant sweet onions - may be some cross breeds in there too. patience...

 

[digitS']

Would you feel comfortable washing the soil off the bulbs?

I imagine curing with careful drying would be an important part of keeping onion sets. I quit trying to sow seed in late summer for the next year's onion bulbs. They just had too much trouble going through our winters without immediately bolting to seed in the spring.

Steve, once sent me I believe it was Diplomat or maybe Galia seeds.

Mary, Diplomat is a galia melon. I think both Diplomat and Passport are from the U of New Hampshire.

I looked at Baker Creek's Gris de Rennes; it's an 85 day melon. I'm growing an 85 day melon!?! Well, at least that one is coming along fine.

Diplomat is a 71 day melon, Johnny's says. I have plenty of 2020 seed to send you 6 or 8, Mary.

Steve
Edit: i'm gonna try my first Diplomat of the year right now! mmmm ... it's ripe!

 

[flowerbug]

Would you feel comfortable washing the soil off the bulbs?

I imagine curing with careful drying would be an important part of keeping onion sets. I quit trying to sow seed in late summer for the next year's onion bulbs. They just had too much trouble going through our winters without immediately bolting to seed in the spring.


Mary, Diplomat is a galia melon. I think both Diplomat and Passport are from the U of New Hampshire.

I looked at Baker Creek's Gris de Rennes; it's an 85 day melon. I'm growing an 85 day melon!?! Well, at least that one is coming along fine.

Diplomat is a 71 day melon, Johnny's says. I have plenty of 2020 seed to send you 6 or 8, Mary.

Steve
Edit: i'm gonna try my first Diplomat of the year right now! mmmm ... it's ripe!

it will be more of a challenge to remember to do it, we'll see how it goes.

have you had any Gris de Rennes yet? even after eating a dozen or more of them between the two of us we're still happy with them.

 

[digitS']

No Gris.

The 4 aren't ripe but 1 looks close. I'll give it the smell test the next time I'm out.

It's not really the length of our season; it's the cool nights (and often, the difficult springs). Some things really don't like the temperature changes.

We are on our 3rd Goddess cantaloupe and that first galia. Our melon season only began about a week ago. (Having some eggplant for lunch ... Ya know, I'm gonna put a little yellow mustard on the side. No reason that I shouldn't pamper myself with a little experimenting .)

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Would you feel comfortable washing the soil off the bulbs?

I imagine curing with careful drying would be an important part of keeping onion sets. I quit trying to sow seed in late summer for the next year's onion bulbs. They just had too much trouble going through our winters without immediately bolting to seed in the spring.


Mary, Diplomat is a galia melon. I think both Diplomat and Passport are from the U of New Hampshire.

I looked at Baker Creek's Gris de Rennes; it's an 85 day melon. I'm growing an 85 day melon!?! Well, at least that one is coming along fine.

Diplomat is a 71 day melon, Johnny's says. I have plenty of 2020 seed to send you 6 or 8, Mary.

Steve
Edit: i'm gonna try my first Diplomat of the year right now! mmmm ... it's ripe!

I would love that many seeds Steve. It would be nice to know if they would do as well in the ground as they did in the pot where they froze in time and stopped growing. Maybe it was the weather though. Who knows.

Mary

 

[ninnymary]

No Gris.

The 4 aren't ripe but 1 looks close. I'll give it the smell test the next time I'm out.

It's not really the length of our season; it's the cool nights (and often, the difficult springs). Some things really don't like the temperature changes.

We are on our 3rd Goddess cantaloupe and that first galia. Our melon season only began about a week ago. (Having some eggplant for lunch ... Ya know, I'm gonna put a little yellow mustard on the side. No reason that I shouldn't pamper myself with a little experimenting .)

Steve

Did you plant both of them at the same time, Rennes and Goddess?

Mary

 

[digitS']

Yes, @ninnymary .

Those 2 and the Diplomats and cucamelons.

I had a bite of a cucamelon that was about as big as my little finger. Mistake. Bitter! I don't really expect melon flavor. They will taste like a cucumber at some point. As if, I need more cukes !

Steve
goddess is a 70 day melon, also

 

[flowerbug]

picked two more melons this morning @ninnymary. as i was looking for ready melons i counted about another ten melons out there, some of them are small and still forming but i'm not sure how far they will get before the vines give up. give these plants something to climb up and they'll go. i had one vine going up the fence and it was going to crowd out the lima beans so i had to bring it back down. there's no way that fence could hold a melon up anyways if it decided to try to put one on.

after picking melons we worked on burying tomato scraps, melon peels and bean pods and that is also a part of weeding and clearing that garden back out (only about six more feet to go before this section is done ). it is so much easier when it rains and i can skim the surface with the flat blade shovel and then bury that along with everything else. since i'm already digging to bury the scraps it all works out nicely. two tasks with one dig.

from there i spent a few mintues moving the pile of pea gravel which will get the pathway project back together again. once i had that done then Mom can move stones (it's a team effort now ). i think she got it mostly done except i have a few drain tubes i have to cut to size. i was just getting ready to cut one tube and a bee attacked me. this time i got stung right in the eyebrow. don't know why or where the nest was that i must have disturbed but it wasn't a honey bee or a big bumble bee, but another of the ground nesting solitary bees. that was my sign to be finished for the day out in that area of the garden and to come in and have brunch. first sting of the season. it hurt at the time but i don't feel it at all now.

for brunch i cut up those melons. it was a challenge not to eat a whole melon myself for breakfast. right out of the garden it was so good. this is my break time for a few more minutes and then i'm going to scrub down anything that might smell of bee and then see if i can get back outside to pick more dry beans while the sun is out and there is a nice breeze. a little warm out. the cooler weather starts tomorrow. i was going to feed those melon rinds to the worms here inside but after looking at the forecast it may rain this afternoon so i'm changing my plans and the melon rinds can wait a few hours while i pick some beans instead.