Pumpkins and Watermelons
Dylan
I'm thinking about growing pumpkins and watermelons hydroponicly. Do
you guy think that will work well? Have any of you tryed it before?
Thanks,
Dylan
greenf...@msn.com
I have had success growing pumpkins, zucchini & squash using
hydroponics.
I grew them in 1 gallon buckets - I drilled a hole approx 1inch up from
the bottom to act as the reservoir overflow outlet.
After sprouting the seeds in a jiffy pot I then placed this in
perlite/vermiculite mix (4parts/1part) and I just fed them from the
top manually.
It was a really basic dummy run - but hey whose complaining it worked
& that's all I care about. I use this example to show people how easy
hydroponics can be when I'm giving education talks of hydroponic
gardening
Good luck
Shaz
Texas Farmer
Hey Dylan,
I think growing up is the key. A trellis works great to train the
vines on and I’ve herd people using things like ingenious techniques
like stockings to support the melons as they mature. Here’s another
newsgroup message I saved that speaks to some of the issues also.
I am interested in growing old, heirloom watermelons indoors using
.......
________________________________________
Dr. Lynette Morgan replies:
You can fairly easily propagate your watermelons indoors under the
lights you have using hydroponics. However, to grow these indoors you
would need a large area and quite a few more high intensity lights. The
average watermelon fruit grows to between 7 and 15 kilograms and the
vine that produces and supports these fruit can take up several square
meters (many, many square feet) and can trail for over 5-8 meters
(depending on the variety). An area of only 5x5 feet would be fine for
growing the young plants, but would not support a mature watermelon
vine (unless you can find a rather small watermelon variety that could
be trained upward to make the most use of limited space).
Watermelons can be grown outdoors in hydroponics over summer--provided
you have a long, warm growing season or use a small greenhouse or
plastic cloche to extend the growing season. The best sort of system is
to use a large bucket or bed of growing media (with a volume of at
least 25 liters) and a drip irrigation system. This is where the
nutrient is regularly dripped onto the surface of the media and
recollected at the base of the container. Watermelon plants use a huge
amount of water, so the irrigation would need to be almost continual
and recirculating to make sure the plant did not dry out when fruiting.
The best media for these types of large plants that require a lot of
water and nutrient would be a mixture of perlite and vermiculite.
Another option is to place expanded clay into base of the container and
then a layer of coconut fiber or a similar media with a high water- and
air-holding capacity. Any good brand of general "grow" nutrients are
suitable for vine growth. Then, once the fruit have set, change over to
a "bloom" or "fruiting" nutrient as the plant will require huge amounts
of potassium to support good fruit growth As an indication, the
following mineral levels are optimal for the production of melons (in
parts per million):
Nitrogen 215 ppm
Phosphate 86 ppm
Potassium 343 ppm
Magnesium 85 ppm
Calcium 175 ppm
Sulfur 113 ppm
Iron 6.80 ppm
Manganese 1.97 ppm
Zinc 0.25 ppm
Boron 0.70 ppm
Copper 0.07 ppm
Molybdate 0.05 ppm
EC levels of between 1.8 (young plants) and 2.4 (older plants) are
recommended in a recirculating system. The ideal pH for melons is
around 5.8.
Good luck with your melon plants.