help garding in the desert

[dan luna]

hi, i would like any info on raised bed gardening my problem is ,im planting say 12 watermellon plants and getting 2 watermellons ,i use a compost soil mix from home depot and mix with my own compost, i have three beds 4ft by 8ft 4ft high , i have a lot of space but verry little veggies, any help on books ect i would be most greatful, if i can get this going i could be of great help in growing veggies in a hot dry place thanks again.

[GreenZone]

Dan,
Are u maintaining adequate soil moisture? Are other growers in your area doing better with the crops in question? If the answer to both is "yes" then I would suspect the soil....pH, presence of proper nutrients etc.
--Randel

[lovetogarden]

dan luna,
If the plants looks healthy and you have plenty of flowers on the plant it may be a pollenation problem. Do you see plenty of bees?
You can do everything right, but if no pollenation- no veggies.


I have the same problem this year. My neighbor bought a insecticide system where it is attached to her gate and sprays insecticide on a timer. All my bees
disappeared. My watermelons and cantaloupe look good but I have only a few as nothing is being pollenated.

An excellent book that I have used is How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method. It is old-about 40 years, but Rodale republished it. What
is written in it stands true today. It covers in detail just about any vegetable or fruit you would want to grow. It also covers different organic practices such as composting, organic fertilizers, etc.

Seed saving books---Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth or Saving Seeds by
Marc Brown. Both are excellent. Save your seeds and you can invest in other things---like more gardening books!!


Another important thing to look at is planting your seeds at the right time. I would contact your University Extension Office. For about a dollar they can sell you a vegetable planting guide. It gives the correct dates when to plant.

Hope some of this helps.

[dan luna]

thanks , for all your help ,dan

[KarenChrisRS]

If you are gardening where soil moisture is a problem, use "sunken" rather than raised beds, it will help you keep water where you need it most. But if you are getting good vine growth and abundant flowers, then the idea of checking for polinators is good. My melons are happy here (very dry san diego), but if I don't water enough when they are setting fruit then they drop the fruit when the fruit are very tiny.

[Pickled_Melon]

hi, i would like any info on raised bed gardening my problem is ,im planting say 12 watermellon plants and getting 2 watermellons ,i use a compost soil mix from home depot and mix with my own compost, i have three beds 4ft by 8ft 4ft high , i have a lot of space but verry little veggies, any help on books ect i would be most greatful, if i can get this going i could be of great help in growing veggies in a hot dry place thanks again.

when i lived with the Hopi they grew their squash in bags of potting soil. the most successful gardener laid the bag on the ground and punched holes in the bag with her finger about ten inches from the corners and towards the center of the bag. each bag recieved four seeds only for a regular 40lb bag. a hole was then punched in the center of the four for water to be added: a quart per every other day until flowers set; a quart and a half per day until fruit started to form; then back to 1 1/4 qt per every other day per bag maximum when fruit has set. if your bag stays wet the plants will rot. the dirt needs to dry between waterings after fruit sets.

if using potters you should add a four fingered pinch of 15-30-15. this will produce more flowers: more flowers=more fruit.

if using the Hopi method disolve 10-10-10 in the water. 15-30-15 will not dissolve well.

some varieties are not well suited for the desert. the more squash like a melon is the better it will be for the desert. try dessert king. also giza or egyptian. the iraqi ali baba is grown at altitude so it gets some heat relief. mountain hoosier does well in florida's zone 9 at mid-state, which is a dry climate in terms of humidity.

you may need to invest in some orchard bees for pollenation. if self pollinating you will need to develop a technique i learned from florida migrant farm workers: take a coffee stirer straw and gently blow through the flower and around it's base. if you blow too hard or insert the straw too deep into your mouth you will blow saliva onto the flower and kill it.

this year i 'tickled' my melons at thier base on the stem with my finger and got more pollenation than when i was using bees.

[40lb farmer]

when using compost mixes keep in mind that they are not well suited for a second or even third season. water melons require that the ground be trained by several seasons of planting. generally by the third season you should have enough to give your neighbor's kid's some. this year i added two cups 15-30-15 to the dirt in a 40 gallon tote bin and recieve more fruit than i thought i could eat. this fall i added blended wildflower bee pollen as it has things that i never considered should be in dirt: amino acids and a ready supply of carbs for the plants. :cool:

[40lb farmer]

there's a citron like melon from jamaica that does really well in zones 10-15. if your piece of the dust bowl is that warm i can send you some (20) seeds leftover from a few years ago. i couldn't get them to groe here (i think it's too humid). the melon is shaped like a large lobed basketball with salmon-pink flesh. it reaches 15lbs. and has a tough thik rind.

i have found that it takes about 3 seasons of plants to groe melons from unseasoned dirt. the melons train the soil with a chemical identifier in the same way as tomatoes: the longer friendly varieties are gown in the same dirt the better they will produce. whatever you do don't chaco canyon your melons with tomatos: their indentifiers are toxic to one another.

also try using some rolled mesh bedding stuff suspended over your plants to keep them shaded. too much direct light is like over feeding your dog.

[KarenChrisRS]

This is very interesting. I can even guess what they are doing: they are establishing colonies of Micorhizae (spelling?)-That would make tremendous sense, especially in working with more difficult soils. Intersting, in "rich" soil area you would avoid this for disease prevention. But that was back east, where bugs and fungus were problematic. I would be interested in how many other plants find this "beneficial soil climate" important.
Neet biology.

[donsgal]

this year i 'tickled' my melons at thier base on the stem with my finger and got more pollenation than when i was using bees.

Sounds kinky.

donsgal