Growing Melons

• Grow melons faster by starting with young plants from Bonnie Plants®.
• Plant melons when ground temperatures are above 70 degrees F.
• Before planting, add nutrients to native soil by mixing in a 3-inch layer of Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose In-Ground Soil.
• One month after planting, begin feeding regularly with Miracle-Gro® Performance Organic® Edibles Plant Nutrition Granules. Pollinate melons by hand to ensure successful fruit production.
• Test for ripeness before harvesting.

Cool, delicious, and nutrient-packed melon slices accent salads, serve as side dishes and lighten picnics. Growing melons is also a fun and simple way to learn how to self-pollinate plants. Read on to learn how to pollinate, care for, and harvest your melon patch.

Become a Honeybee: Pollinate Melons

First, to get a jumpstart on growth, skip the seeds and plant young melon plants from Bonnie Plants®. After all, when you start with plants, you'll get to harvest time that much faster. By mid-summer, melons should be spreading their vines through the garden and flowering. The first bloom will be dominated by male flowers. You can identify female flowers by the tiny bulge of fruit growing at its base. Female flowers only open for a short period - in some melons, only a day. Check your melons every morning. When you see a female flower open, pluck a male flower, strip its petals and swab the pollen-coated anther onto the stigma structure inside the female flowers. Because melon flowers are most receptive to pollination early in the day, be sure to pollinate in the morning.