Cantaloupe

Raised Bed Melons...

I took a look in the raised bed filled with just melons, cantaloupes and bush sugar babies. I wanted to see if there were any new watermelons, without holes, growing. I found one and I am happy to report it was hole and bite free. I guess reinforcing that fence, place in the fence, was the thing we needed. As I was looking in the bed for watermelons I found a few hidden cantaloupes, up high, supporting themselves on the tomato vines. The super sweet 100's spread out all over the place so it is only natural that the spreading cantaloupe vines would seek support on the higher parts without trellis support. We have 6 sizable and viable cantaloupes growing at least one foot off the ground, if not more, each. 

Largest to smallest going counter clockwise. Lowest to highest placement going clockwise. With the growth they drag down a bit, gravity and all! 

Cantaloupe in first stage growing on the now transferred, into the Patch raised bed, container cantaloupe plant.

Raincheck

Check it out...

I went outside to check on everything after the hail and major storm. It wasn't a total rain break but I did get a few minutes outside without water coming down on me. So I picked a few strawberries that I knew would mold and I checked on everything else. Nothing had been poorly affected by the first storm, the hardest. I was happy about that. Then I went over to check on my cantaloupe container again. Since I saw the baby watermelons I've been meaning to check for baby cantaloupes. I didn't check for them in the raised bed because they were planted a few weeks after the the container melons. So I started at the bottom and worked my way up. I didn't see anything at all but noticed that the plant had finally attached itself to the trellis properly using its vines. As I was searching to take a picture of the connection between trellis and plant I saw it hanging there, perfectly, a baby cantaloupe. Much bigger than the baby watermelons and hanging just like it was meant to from its connection. I really didn't think I'd get even a baby melon out of that container because it was so small. I'd planted it there because it was an extra and I knew it would be pretty just leaves and flowers. I was excited to see that my green thumb prevailed again I ran inside to tell Mikes dad and get my cellphone to snap a shot. He put his shoes on and came outside to see as I took the pictures. I immediately sent the picture to my mom and Mike. Mike was so psyched for me, we'd just spoken about my lack of confidence in fruiting the night before. I don't know how I missed it. Considering its size its been there at least a few days. Good raincheck, no, GREAT! 

Baby container cantaloupe hanging from its vine connected to the trellis. About 2 inches in length.

Strawberries I picked so they wouldn't mold. These are the biggest I've gotten in awhile. The rain has affected size, most have been the size of the smallest pictured, for the last week or so.