Well, I said in another post that I was going to try to grow some watermelons on a trellis. I was also, about the same time, intrigued by the Moon & Stars watermelons, so I ordered in some M & S yellow meat seed. Circumstances conspired to make me way late in getting them planted, but I eventually did, and figured even if it was too late, I'd be able to learn something about the process for another effort next year. I started the seed in small pots, indoors, until the bed I was going to move them into was cleared. Once the bed was clear, I removed a full tractor scoop of soil from it and replaced it with compost and rabbit manure. I ended up choosing the 8 strongest looking plants to go into the bed, and there is a soaker hose set on a timer to keep them in plenty of water.

The trellis is 2 cattle panels set inside of the bed wall then arched up and over the bed at about 7' high, and supported by 3 8' T-posts. As the vines grew, they were trained over to and up the trellis. Those that insisted on "going the wrong way" are just pruned off, along with blooms deemed too low to be effectively slung on the trellis.

Surprisingly quickly, I started finding new melons, and once they start, these things grow incredibly quickly! The melons, it seems like, put on about a pound a day, and some of the vines as much as 6-8" a day!

So today I began adding slings to help support the weight...I used old nylons, for now, but I suspect in the not too distant future I'm going to have to come up with something different.

Looks good, good luck with them.

Cool, the coyotes wiped mine out gona try that next time

I agree you may need more support, and I'm not sure what would be best. Let us know what you decide.

if you could get Dolly Partons bras you could have a double sling :0

Those nylons should hold them, I've seen them hold a LOT more than that before.......

*LOL* Supporting the weight isn't the problem, the melons keep trying to roll out of the nylon! I have some larger net, now, that I'll be able to change out with the the nylons.

If u like the yellow meat melons try the desert kings. I love em.been a poor year for them this year, it didn't rain a drop here all June but I picked one Saturday that was 34 pounds. Cool idea u have there.

I'm starting to think that somewhere around 5' is the vine's limit on being able to lift the amount water, etc., that the developing melons need. The vines keep setting melons overhead, around 7' or so up, but they get about 2" long, then whither and die on the vine. Meanwhile, the ones at 5' are still growing like crazy! I've acquired an old badminton/volleyball net, and will probably be replacing the nylons sometime today.

I trained some sugar babies up a 4' tall section of fence and they worked out pretty good. Thinking of maybe trying a support system toward the end because I lost one in a storm.

Have to see if I can talk 'Huntress into taking/posting a couple of new pics. I think I figured out the height problem, when we lost one of the larger melons @ 5'...black-bottom (aka blossom-end rot). The higher melons were dying so young you really couldn't tell what was killing them, at first. 'Huntress went the next day and got some calcium watered in around the roots, and everything seems to be doing fine since then. Putting on a lot of new melons now, too. We'll probably let those go for the next couple weeks, then maybe thin them some when I get back home. Meanwhile, the biggest of the melons I had slung when I left was about 15 lbs then (last Wednesday), and 'Huntress says it's still growing at close to the same astronomical rate it was!

Check out Bonnie website it has some useful information on growing watermelons and other crops.

She hasn't posted them here, yet, but she sent me some new pics this afternoon...the calcium seems to be what the problem was. The affected melon has been cut and discarded, and in the pics, I see at least 8 new fruits coming along, including several that are hanging from the top, about 7' off the ground! The first/largest melon that the vine set (shown below in a pic taken on Aug 2) is now about 15-16" long, and weighs at least 10X what it did in this pic.

There is a fire starter lighter in a couple of these for size reference.

The one with the lighter laying lengthwise with it is the same one I'm holding in the pic above her post. That's 18 days' difference.

Calamity struck the watermelon project today! The trellis collapsed under the weight of the developing melons. In the pics 'Huntress sent me, it looks like we only actually lost one or two in the collapse, though, so maybe the rest will still come to harvest. I know from looking at the pics how to keep it from happening again, obviously some support in the middle would keep this from happening, but I'd have never thought it would collapse as completely as it did. Each of the vertical components of the trellis is 1/4" steel, and counting across in the pics, it looks like there were 18 verticals, or some 4.5" of steel bar, and it all broke down in the "back" of the arch, where it seems like it would have been the most resistant to breaking. At any rate, lesson learned, and all is not lost, as there are still a bunch of melons coming along. The concept didn't fail, my execution did!

Dang! Well - at least they're still growing.