Recent searches
Search options
Oregon Coast Trail Hi #gardening community, I'm grateful in advance for any advice you can offer. I have about 6 "baby" cantaloupes that have looked like this for days with no visible growth. Like they're just kind of stuck in this phase. The plants seem healthy, green, spreading like crazy.
Any idea what's going on?
@killyourfm how much water are you giving it? especially in extreme heat where the soil drys fast melons need a TON of water, like...absolutely soak the soil (better to water a lot a few times than a little constantly). If it's really hot the soil could be drying too fast before it can really soak it up, or the water might not be penetrating deep enough onto it's roots.
they also do grow VERY slowly, but you should be seeing "something" each week.
@raptor85 Thanks Raptor! Up until a week ago, I was using my drip emitters to water, but once this heat wave struck I started deep watering the melons, beans, and tomatoes instead. And everything is mulched, so it's not drying TOO fast -- but perhaps I haven't been watering deeply long enough to notice a positive result.
Appreciate your response!
@killyourfm np, if i'm home during a heatwave i generally toss this thing out in my garden and just leave it on until the heatwave ends, might not be as great of an idea if you have longer heatwaves but it's what normally works for me.
@raptor85 Yea, good call.
I think I've been WAY too timid with my watering up until now -- especially as a first-time gardener -- because everyone's been beating the "DON'T OVERWATER!" mantra into my head.
@raptor85@mastodon.gamedev.place@killyourfm it really is a balance, especially with tomatoes they'll split if you water them too much too quickly, but when it's that hot out sometimes you really do just have to drench everything to keep them alive. Depending on how long the heat wave lasts and how much rain you get you could soak them in bursts a few times a day to make sure it's soaked enough to pull in the water, but don't keep the ground permanently saturated or you can also cause damage.
@raptor85 That's great advice. And damn it's a difficult balance! Fortunately I have raised beds so the soil drains fairly well. But it's all manual watering over here. I don't think it has rained for about 3 months.