THE CHINESE CUCURBITS - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 31

6, June is the recommended month for transplanting outdoors. I must confess, I seed
melons in place in June and have had unusually good luck with them, but you can try
out both methods.
Planting. Sweet melons require fertilizer-enriched soil to produce well. Here's the
method I use: Dig out about 12 inches of soil. Fill the bottom 6 inches with an all-pur-
pose fertilizer, such as 4-6-6 (follow application rates on label), plus a generous amount
of compost or aged manure. Fill the hole with plain soil. Sow seeds 1 inch deep, or set
transplants at the same level as they were growing in their pots.
If you plant in hills, sow four seeds to a hill, about 4 feet apart each way. Thin to
two or three plants per hill when seedlings are about 4 inches high. If you prefer rows,
space plants 18 inches apart and rows 6 feet apart. I don't plant in hills. I plant my mel-
ons in a single row, about 18 inches apart, and train them up a fence.
Growing needs. As the fruits grow heavy, I support them with individual slings. This
keeps fruits off the ground and away from slugs and other pests that are attracted to the
sweet fruit. The melons grow beautifully shaped and clean, and I can keep the soil well
watered without spoiling the melons. It's a tremendous space-saver, too.
Melons need moist soil until the fruits begin to ripen. A thick mulch will reduce the
amount of watering you need to do. In addition, I use the coffee can trick described on
page 23, and my melons come out juicy and sweet. One year I didn't plant any melons
and we bought them in the market; we were amazed at the difference in flavor and tex-
ture and decided to grow our own again the next season.
If you don't train vines up a fence, you'll find that empty coffee cans (or small
plastic containers) come in handy as “fruit stands.” Gently place each ripening fruit
on its own upturned container to keep it dry and away from slugs. Some growers use
plastic mulch with melons, but I don't want to have to get rid of the stuff at the end of
the growing season.