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My watermelon and cantaloupe plants are flowering and putting out vines, but as of now, I have no fruit on them. What can I expect from them in the next few weeks? I planted about the first of June from seeds, and the plants seem to be doing well. They weathered the hot days of July and August well, continued to grow, but no bounty. Can I expect some before winter frost?
Do you see anything fertilizing the blossoms?
JazzDad hit on a good prospect. If you don't have pollination you don't get pregnant flowers and without pregnant flowers you don't get fruit.
You can always "HELP" ma nature a bit: Take a cotton tipped ear cleaner thingy (Q-Tip) and gently wipe the pollen bearing anther at the end of the stamen (male sex organ) and then the pistol (female sex organ) of the blossoms. Don't try to keep the pollen separated from blossom to blossom just randomly go from blossom to blossom and don't forget to humm a few bars of flight of a bumblebee while you are at it.
Maybe if you are a good surrogate bee you'll get your plants to set fruit. You may have time left to get mature fruit if you get started soon.
I have been more familiar with geting South Texas mellons early in the season way before Oklahoma has had time to get ripe fruit. A good nursery might have an aersol spray for using on the blossoms to encourage them to set fruit. I have used that to get an early start on tomatos.
If this happens again you can always make boiled greens out of some of the tender young leaves and not be totally skunked.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Thanks, guys,
I think you're right, that it's a pollination issue. I have bees around, but I haven't really seen any activity. I've seen a few moths on the flowers. I'm not sure if they're doing enough to pollinate though.
My 86 year old mother who grew up on a dirt farm told me kind of the same thing, only her version tended to ramble off into some incomprehensible story. She's a great source of wisdom and relevant information, but there are times when the info gets a little skewed by her senile dementia. I hope she lives to be a hundred, in spite of her short-comings she is a pillar of perspective for me.
Thanks again for the advice, especially about the q-tips. I'll shake a few blossoms and swab what I can and see if it helps.