Used to grow cantaloupe and watermelon in Vermont without a problem.
If you don't try to start from seed, you can probably get a crop.
Just plant em on top of a half bag of cow manure (old cow flops are
better) and don't forget to add some fertilizer. These can be heavy
feeders, and they WILL take over a large area, so planting near corn
worked for me. I found cantaloupe to be slightly easier and faster to
grow. YMMV.
Several DOZEN tomato plants??? First time gardening or do you like to
can?
I make five or six gallons of spaghetti sauce every year and freeze it.
I'm trying to raise enough tomatoes for both me and the raccoons. I'm
putting a fence around the garden but I doubt it will keep them out so I
figure if I raise a few hundred tomatoes the raccoons won't be able to eat
them all.
Johnny/s Selected Seeds (Albion, ME) has all types of seed suited for the
NE.
Cool season melons - 75 days...
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/product.aspx?newatjohnnys=1&scommand=refine&qstateid=bb1ff4f0-9cf9-4040-b39b-d225decaa523&rbc=Cold+Tolerant&rbv=1&source=w0106_new_veggies&item=2691
Shorter...
http://tinyurl.com/lez63
Melons like hot growing conditions, so if you have an area where the
micro-climate is a tad warmer, that/s where you/ll want to sow your melon
seed.
It's to late for seeds, I'll just buy plants. However it doesn't look like
we are going to have any hot weather for a while so maybe this isn't the
year for melons. It's been raining at least 50% of the time this year.
Does anyone have any suggestions for plants that like cold wet weather.
You/re telling me that 75-day melon seed planted this weekend won/t be
ready to pick by the end of Aug? Maybe not in N ME, VT, and NH but NE
MA? What about global warming?
Cabbages. But as you are just coming into summer I think this might
be too early. With cabbages you have to wage a constant war against
grubs.
Lettuce, provided the soil drains well. But in hot weather lettuce will
bolt to seed. They also need spraying to control grubs.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)