Melons in a Tire

Message from Pam:
I heard your lecture on summer vegetables. I am ready to plant melons in a tire. I bought muskmelons which I guess are the same as canteloupe. How many do I plant in each tire and what is the yield?

ANSWER FROM PAT:
Dear Pam:

Please refer to the detailed, step-by-step instructions for growing cantaloupes in a tire on page 197 of my book. The most important points in these instructions are putting manure and fertilizer in the bottom of the hole, covering of the ground around the tire with black plastic to increase heat, planting in May in order to give the melons a long enough growing season (June—almost July, is a little late, but it may be okay), watering by soaking the ground in the tire with water from the hose instead of drip, letting the plants go dry for the last week or two when melons are almost mature, and picking them at “full slip”. And, of course, it’s hugely important to begin with a great variety that will give a good harvest even in a coastal zone. The one I recommended in my talk and in my book is ‘Ambrosia’, that has a shorter number of days to harvest than most varieties and is super sweet with great flavor when properly grown in a home garden.

As for thinning, as explained in the step-by-step instructions on page 197, plant 5 or 6 seeds in each hill or tire, and thin them to the two strongest by clipping the others off. Seeds germinate easily.

As far as what yield you will get from your plants, that depends on what variety you chose, how well you grow them, and whether the plants were properly pollinated either by bees or by hand. Please see the sections on pollination on this website for instructions how to hand-pollinate if you do not have bumble bees in residence. With optimum conditions and care along with plenty of bumblebees and honeybees in my garden, I usually harvested between 10 to 20 ‘Ambrosia’ melons from each tire.