Each month Redawna Kalynchuk draws on her extensive gardening experience to guide you through Growing Your Own Food in Canada. This month, Redawna tells you everything you need to know to grow melons in Canada.
As a young gardener I was open to trying to grow most everything at least once and thought it would be neat to grow watermelon. What started as a cool experiment in my loft finished with the most vibrant, juicy red watermelon we'd ever seen. With a plan and a few helpful tips you can be growing melons in your Canadian garden, too.
How Do You Choose the Right Melons To Grow?
When shopping in store or online for melon seeds, it's important to select those with shorter growing times. Those who garden on the south west coast have a longer growing season, so your days to maturity can be as long as 120 days. For those in areas with a shorter growing season, look for seeds with a maturity date of 75 to 80 days. There are many varieties to choose from, so be adventurous!
Where Do Melons Grow Best?
Garden placement for all melons is important. They like it hot so south-facing full sun areas are perfect. To give your melons an extra boost, it's highly recommended that you use black plastic or thick layers of garden fabric in the spot you're going to be growing your melons.
There are a few reasons to do this:
- Number one is to assure that the soil is warm for your young seedlings to perform their best. The black material not only attracts heat, it traps it in the ground. This helps our seedlings deal with transplant shock and also facilitates rapid growth.
- It's also a barrier to weeds, which is very important in vine grown crops. You don't want the plants competing for water or nutrients with weeds.
- It also keeps the melons off the soil, which is very important as melons in contact with soil will rot.
Keeping the Melons Warm
Another goal when growing melons is to keep the plants as warm as possible up until the heat of the summer months. This is easy to achieve with row covers and gives your melon vines the best chance at spectacular growth.
There are many things you can use to create the hoop part of this application. Picture a greenhouse without the plastic cover; your goal is to create a frame that you can drape light garden fabric over. You can use sturdy metal wire, flexible PVC pipe, row cover kits from the garden center or just about anything that you can bend into a half circle and push into the ground on each side of the row.
The material used as a row cover is a spun material that allows sun, air and some water to penetrate. You can purchase this material in any garden centre, usually by the roll. Be sure to select one wide enough to cover your row from edge to edge .
How Do You Start Melons from Seed?
Melons do better when they're placed into the garden as seedlings. Melon seeds need to be started in pots in the house approximately two weeks before your last frost date.
To start melon seeds indoors, I like to use containers that are a few inches wide. You can use any kind of container for this, including containers from last season's purchased plants to solo cups with a few holes cut in the bottom for drainage. They're only going to be in these containers for a few weeks, so don't spend a lot of money on this step.
Place the seeds at the depth recommended on the seed packaging, keep them moist and place someplace warm to help with germination.
How Do You Prep the Growing Spot For Melons?
In the two weeks of seed germination and the start of plant life, look outdoors to prep the growing spot of the melons to be sure the soil is warmed and ready to support our seedlings.
Work the soil well and add amendments such as compost and a bit of peat moss. As you'll be covering the ground with material, it's the only opportunity to prepare the growing spots.
Once the ground is ready, lay out the plastic or fabric in the rows. I prefer to use landscape fabric as it's easy to work with and does allow water to penetrate through. If using plastic be sure to cut slits into it at intervals so that water will go through to the roots.
You have a few options to secure the material down once you have everything in place. You can use inexpensive spikes (think large nails), rocks or even dirt along the edges of the material to keep it in place.
When Do You Move Melon Seedlings Outdoors?
Once all risk of frost has passed and your seedlings have their second set of leaves, it's time to move them out to the garden. Space them out at the distance recommended on the seed packaging. Be sure to have a sharp knife on hand to cut openings into the ground cover material to place the seedlings. Once all the seedlings are planted, water well.
Now it's time to get the row covers in place. Space the hoops a few feet apart, depending on how long your rows are. Be sure to push the ends into the ground far enough that they'll be secure. You'll need a second set of hands to place the row covers over the garden. You'll also need something to secure the row cover to the ground. I like to use large rocks or bricks for this. As the material is a bit delicate, pinning it to the ground using spikes isn't recommended as the material will tear in the wind.
It's a good idea to leave the ends of the tunnels open for air flow, though it's okay to completely enclose the ends early in the season to contain heat. Once the daytime temperatures are constantly over 20 degrees Celsius and the plants have begun flowering the row covers can be removed. This step is important for pollination.
It's a good idea to allow the hoops to remain in place as we may need to cover the plants again closer to fall or if there's a chance of frost. If you find the melons are not quite ready to be harvested and the days are growing shorter, feel free to cover the rows with the row cover to extend the season.
Water well through the summer being sure to try and not get too much water on the leaves of the plants to avoid powdery mildew, which develops later in the season. You'll know if it's affecting your plants if a white powder appears on the leaves. If you do discover that the plants have mildew, you can treat with a fungicide following the instructions on the container.
When Is it Time to Harvest Melons?
Never harvest melons early — unlike some fruit, melons won't ripen any further once harvested.
Watermelon
The easiest way to tell if watermelons are ready to be harvested is to look at the tendrils nearest the stem end. When they start to turn brown it's time to start harvesting. Once harvested make sure the melons are dry and store them in a cool place. They'll last for many weeks when stored properly.
Cantaloupe
Once ripe, cantaloupe will start to pull away from the vine. Be sure to pick before they completely release from the plants. Unlike watermelon cantaloupe doesn't have a long storage life and should be enjoyed within a week of harvest. If you have a bumper crop, chop up the fruit and freeze it.
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Grow Your Own Food is written by Redawna Kalynchuk. Redawna is the writer, photographer and content creator at Nutmeg Disrupted. She has over 20 years of gardening experience and has gardened from indoors under high-powered lights to frosty zone 2b gardens in northern Alberta. She enjoys pushing the boundaries of traditional gardening and loves empowering others to grow their own food. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
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Hi, I enjoy reading your advice very much. I have been gardening for years but find there is always more to learn. Due to the COVID situation the garden Centre in my area has been difficult to access as well as products. I was unable to get peat pots and I am worried about how I will transplant my cucumbers from the plastic pots. Any advice?
Hi Judie,
No worries if you don’t have peat pots! You can easily transplant from a plastic pot – you just need to be a little more careful with the plant and its roots. Dig a hole in your garden a little larger than the plastic pot holding your cucumber. When the hole is ready, put one hand on the bottom of the pot and put your other hand gently around the cucumber stem as close to the dirt as possible. Tip the pot over slowly so that your hand holding the cucumber also acts as a resting spot for the dirt surrounding it as you tip it over – then wiggle the plant out, roots, soil and all (it works best if the soil is damp so it clings together and usually the seedling will just pop out like a popsicle, dirt intact!). Drop the pot when the seedling is out and use your free hand (that was holding the pot) to support the rest of the seedling as you turn it right side up and put it in the freshly dug hole. Pat in fresh dirt or garden soil around the roots and stem so it’s well supported. Plants are a lot sturdier than we give them credit for and it should be just fine! Good luck with those cukes!