391 A Masterclass in Melons

Show Transcript

391 Melons Masterclass TRANSCRIPT

Farmer Fred:

[0:05] Ready to savor the sweetness of summer? Today, it's a masterclass in melons. We're joined by Gail Pothour from the Sacramento County Master Gardener Program. She explores everything you need to know about growing delicious homegrown melons. Gail shares her top variety picks along with growing tips, all the way from seed germination to pest management and harvest. It's episode 391, A Masterclass in Melons. We're podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It's the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred Podcast, brought to you today by Dave Wilson Nursery. Let's go.

A MASTERCLASS IN MELONS, Pt. 1

Farmer Fred:

[0:45] A perfectly ripe homegrown melon is one of the great taste treats of the produce world. They're sweet, they're fragrant, and a texture that practically melts in your mouth. A fresh homegrown melon bears little resemblance to those things you see in the supermarket that are called melons. Most of the melon varieties favored by commercial growers and shippers selling to supermarkets have been bred to withstand the rigors of shipping and handling for good shelf life. And to make matters even worse, they're picked before they're fully ripe.

What about flavor? Well, that's way down the list of requirements behind firmness and shelf life for those supermarket melons. And you can harvest your backyard melons at the peak of ripeness. You can enjoy them when they're at their most flavorful. We'll find out how.  And by the way, when you taste a homegrown melon once, you're not going to be wanting to go back to those supermarket melons. And of course, the healthiest fruits you can eat are the ones you grow yourself. Fresh homegrown melons are a great source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. They contribute to a healthy diet. And according to the Mayo Clinic, because they're high in water content, they can help to keep you hydrated. How's that for surviving a hot summer day? Plus, the varieties available to the home gardener of melons are mind-boggling, including heirloom varieties for their unique flavors and textures. But how the heck do you grow them? Which ones do you choose? Let's find out from Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener. She loves her melons. She grows melons every year. In fact, they're growing melons this year at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center. Gail, it’s melons. How did you get hooked on melons?

Gail Pothour:

[2:23] You know, I don't remember. I've always grown tomatoes and peppers, but I started growing melons a long time ago. And now melons are the number two thing I'll grow. If I had two things to grow in my garden, it would be tomatoes and melons. The homegrown melon is just fabulous compared to what you get at the grocery store. And there's so many varieties. I like the heirlooms. I like the hybrids. They're just wonderful. And as Dr. Amy Goldman, if you're familiar with her, she's written several books. She's been on a lot of TV shows. In her book, “Melons for the Passionate Grower”, she says, “Melons are the dessert course, only better”. And boy, do I agree.

Farmer Fred:

[3:04] All right. But what exactly is a melon? Is a cantaloupe a melon? Is a watermelon a melon? You got muskmelons and other things that are called melons. Are they all related?

Gail Pothour:

[3:16] They are. In fact, there's even some cucumbers that are actually in the melon species. Like an Armenian cucumber is actually a melon. Muskmelons are what we call cantaloupes here in the U.S. The true cantaloupe is really only found in Europe, in France, places like that. That would be the Charentais, the Ha’ogen. But what we call cantaloupes are the ones that have the knitted skin and they have a real good aroma. And those are really muskmelons. And there's a whole lot of different varieties in the muskmelon category. There's categories that have honeydews and cassavas and crenshaws.

And watermelons are their own category. So there's just a lot of different kinds of melons.

Farmer Fred:

[4:00] Are the instructions for growing melons all the same across all those varieties?

Gail Pothour:

[4:05] Pretty much. Watermelons might be a little different, but yeah, most of the melons are pretty much the same. They tend to vine, although there are some hybrid varieties that are more bush now that you could grow in containers. But we like to grow our melons up on a trellis, get them up off the ground. That way the fruit itself isn't sitting on the ground and doesn't rot or doesn't get infested with sow bugs or earwigs, typically. We grow them up trellises, and if you're growing what we call cantaloupes, the muskmelons, they actually slip off the vine when they're ripe, so we sling them with something that's stretchy material. It's a good use for my old pantyhose that I no longer wear, and my husband's old t-shirts I'll cut into strips, and we will sling the small fruit, tie it to the trellis so that when it does slip off, it doesn't fall to the ground and crack.

Farmer Fred:

[4:59] The one thing I do know about melons is if you're going to grow them from seed, and why not? There's so many more varieties that you can find via seed as opposed to what you might find at a nursery or some plant stand somewhere. The seeds need warm soil to germinate. So it's best to kind of wait until the soil gets up to what, about 70 degrees or more?

Gail Pothour:

[5:19] Yeah, 70-75, which in our area tends to be early May, although who knows, everything's kind of going in a little earlier this year. But usually early May, plant them through May even into early June. Many of the varieties don't take more than 45 to 60 days. So we have such a long growing season, you could get a later crop in. I like to start mine as transplants rather than direct seed them in the ground because I have critters in my soil that like to eat my plant as it comes up, the sow bugs and the earwigs. So I will start them in a four-inch pot. I'll fill it with a seed starting mix, put in a couple of seeds, water it, and usually germinates. I'll put it on a heating mat. Usually germinates probably within four or five days. And then in three weeks, I transplant it out into the garden because they don't like, none of the cucurbits like to have their roots disturbed. You know, with tomatoes and peppers, you can really rough up the roots if they're a little on the root-bound side, but not cucurbits. So in three weeks, they're ready to go on the ground. So that's what I do is I start them with seeds and transplant them three weeks later.

Farmer Fred:

[6:35] Well, that brings up a very good warning for anybody shopping at nurseries looking for melon transplants, much like squash transplants, is you want to find some

that aren't overgrowing the little containers they are in. You probably want them at a very early stage of their life.

Gail Pothour:

[6:53] Exactly. And that's kind of the problem I've seen in some garden centers is that the plants are already vining out of 8, 10, 12 inches, and that plant is undoubtedly root bound. And if you take it out of that pot and mess with the roots to try to loosen them up, it's going to kind of set back the plant. So yeah, be sure that the plant is still pretty small, maybe just has a couple of true leaves and it should be good to go.

Farmer Fred:

[7:21] And how many seeds do you plant?

Gail Pothour:

[7:24] I plant two. Well, it kind of depends on how old my seed stash is, but I usually put in two seeds in each pot. It gives me a chance that at least one will come up. If both come up, I'll just snip one off with a pair of scissors. I don't want to pull up the extra one because that can mess with the roots of the plant that is staying. And you could do a germination test If your seeds are a little older, I find that any of the melon seeds or any of them in the cucurbit family tend to stay viable for four or five years. As long as you store them appropriately, don't keep them in your garage or the shed where it gets too hot or too cold. I put them in a box in a closet and that seems to be a good place.

Farmer Fred:

[8:12] When you're starting those seeds indoors, are you setting them on a heat mat?

Gail Pothour:

[8:19] I am. If I'm doing it in my house, I have a heating mat. Or if it's warm enough in my greenhouse, which today it was about 120 degrees in my greenhouse, I could start it in there and I don't need to use a heating mat then.

Farmer Fred:

[8:33] This is a very California problem. The problem isn't trying to keep our greenhouses warm. It's trying to get them to cool off so they aren't in triple digits most of the year.

Gail Pothour:

[8:44] Exactly. I can find that I can dehydrate herbs and things like that in my greenhouse in the middle of summer.

Farmer Fred:

[8:50] I've heard it said that with melons, that once you see that they've developed about two sets of true leaves, not the first set of leaves, the cotyledons, but the next set of leaves, the true leaves, when they have two sets of those, that's the stage to be transplanting them.

Gail Pothour:

[9:04] Right. And that's usually about three weeks. So, yeah, that's the perfect time to get them in the ground or in a container.

Farmer Fred:

[9:11] And do you have to harden them off or just plunk them outside?

Gail Pothour:

[9:15] Well, because I usually will transfer them from the house. If I start them in

the house, I'll take them outside. As soon as they come up, I find that I don't really have to harden them off. If as soon as that little seedling pokes its head up, I take it outside. And I don't really have to harden it off. It gets used to the outdoor weather right then. But if you haven't done that, if, say, the plant is transplanting size and it's been in your house the whole time, I would harden it off for at least a few days, maybe a week.

Farmer Fred:

[9:48] All right. And then you want to put them in the right area. Should it get completely full sun or does it need afternoon shade?

Gail Pothour:

[9:55] Well, it needs full sun and full sun means at least six to eight hours of sun a day. And it is possible for some melons, especially if they're thin-skinned, to get a little sunburn. And what I often do in my garden in the middle of July and August when it's so hot, that hot west afternoon sun, is I could put up an umbrella or something. But there's often enough foliage on the plant that it shades it. And if you've got it in a sling, if you tied it to a trellis, that gives it some protection. You have some material around it.

Farmer Fred:

[10:32] Do you grow your melons on plastic mulch outside to warm up the soil?

Gail Pothour:

[10:37] I do not. I have not ever used black plastic mulch. I garden in raised beds, and so my soil does warm up faster than it would in the regular ground. And I just wait until the appropriate time, which is usually early May or so. So I've not used black plastic.

Farmer Fred:

[10:58] I would think that being that it's in the cucurbit family, that one of the primary pests of these melons as they grow would be the cucumber beetle.

Gail Pothour:

[11:08] Well, it could be. I have never seen cucumber beetle on melons. I've seen it on squash and cucumbers, especially at the Fair Oaks Horticulture center, because the cucumber beetle, as I understand it, is attracted to the cucurbitisans. It's a chemical that's in cucumbers that makes it bitter, and they are attracted to that. So if they're attracted to those bitter compounds, melons tend to not have that, is my understanding. So I've never seen cucumber beetles on melons. At least that's been my experience.

Farmer Fred:

[11:43] In your experience, what have been the pests?

Gail Pothour:

[11:45] Aphids. The melon aphid, it's kind of a big pest. it seems to like the hot weather where some aphids go away when it's hot. In the middle of summer, the aphids tend to get on melons really badly. Sometimes I get white flies, but mostly it's the aphids. Occasionally, I'll get either stink bugs or leaf-footed bugs on my melons. Doesn't happen very often. I often get them on my tomatoes, but I have a few times picked a melon where I've cut it open and you can kind of see that quirkiness around the edge that you'll often see on tomatoes. So occasionally I'll have an issue with that, but usually it's just aphids and rats and squirrels.

Farmer Fred:

[12:28] Yeah, rats and squirrels. Yes. You know, you could use some sort of tunnels, high tunnels to protect them, but melons have to be pollinated somehow. So I would think you'd have to remove the covers or the tunnels or at least roll up the sides during the day.

Gail Pothour:

[12:43] Right, because they're pollinated by bees and you could keep a cover on until they reach the flowering stage. But I find that the aphids get on my plants later in the summer. And so they're growing and blooming like crazy. And so I wouldn't want to have anything to cover them because that would keep the bees out.

Farmer Fred:

[13:03] For a gardener who's never grown melons, it may come as a surprise that this is a vining plant, which means they're going to take up a lot of space on the ground if that's the only place they can go. But I know that you have some tricks for elevating those vines.

Gail Pothour:

[13:20] Right. I like to grow anything up that I can. Take up less real estate because I don't have that big of a garden. And it gets the plants off the ground where they're more susceptible to rot and insect damage. So what I use at my home and what we used at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center is an eight-foot section of cattle panel, which is a galvanized, heavier gauge, what am I trying to say? Type of Concrete reinforcing wire.  So you could use a section of concrete reinforcing wire, but that tends to be a little bit floppy. It's not as stiff. The cattle panel is a stiffer gauge wire.

Gail Pothour:

[14:01] It comes in a 16-foot length, so we have them cut it in half so we can transport it home. So we put an 8-foot length and set it on the ground with the height being about 4 1⁄2 feet. You've got the 8-foot on the ground. Do it at an angle, maybe 45 degrees.

Gail Pothour:

[14:20] Pound in a couple of steel T-posts, not the aluminum ones, those aren't strong enough, but the steel t-posts at each end and usually one in the middle to give it some support. And then you plant the melons, on the, would that be the leeward side, on the backside, I guess, and about 18 inches apart, 12 inches to 18 inches apart, plant them, and then they kind of train them up the trellis. So they're going up, and then the fruit will hang down as it forms. And so it's easy to sling it then, put a sling around it and tie it to the trellis. It gives it a lot more air circulation because sometimes the melons and other cucurbits get powdery mildew so that gives you more air circulation it's easier to see the fruit and then what we often do because we have this angled trellis now we have all this real estate down below it that we could grow something else so sometimes we'll grow herbs or flowers that would attract bees that can do the pollination or we'll grow watermelons or something like that under there so we can get double duty You know, twice as many things in the same space.

Farmer Fred:

[15:32] Well, I see where those strips of T-shirt and the old pantyhose come in handy now for supporting that fruit as it's growing up that trellis. Because if you didn't somehow support that fruit, I would think it would break off.

Gail Pothour:

[15:46] It would, especially those that are the muskmelons, the ones that slip when they're ripe, they would fall to the ground. Now, honeydews and some of the other melons that don't slip, you have to cut them off. but we still sling them as well just because of the weight of some of those melons could pull down the vine. So we find that it's advantageous to sling all of those melons. We have not done watermelons up a trellis like that. We tend to do those along the ground. But if it was a small enough watermelon, you could grow it up a trellis. You wouldn't want a 25-pound watermelon. That would be too heavy. But some of the personal size or icebox type watermelons, you could grow those up a trellis, and I would sling those as well, just to support the weight.

Farmer Fred:

[16:33] But if you have a big enough garden and you don't have a trellis, you can certainly let them sprawl along the ground. How much room would one plant take? I guess it would really depend on the variety.

Gail Pothour:

[16:45] Right, it would. Some of them are a little more bush type. Some of the new hybrids, they have kind of semi-bush. Some of the smaller watermelons only take up about eight feet or so, And so it depends. It's kind of like some of the winter squash can travel for 12, 15 feet. Some of them are smaller. So it depends on the variety. But I would also suggest if you're growing anything on the ground like that, be sure to have a thick mulch, whether it's straw or shredded leaves or something like that, to not only insulate the soil, but to keep the fruit off of the soil itself. Or you could put some kind of a support under, say, a watermelon that you're growing along the ground or a musthmelon. You could put a clay pot under it to get it off the ground. I just find that if it's sitting on the ground, that's when I get some damage from insects.

Farmer Fred:

[17:42] Oh, yeah. Mulch, always a good idea. And that’s another good use for mulch, to keep that fruit away from contact with the ground.

Let's talk about watering melon plants. I would think they would be thirsty plants since they are kind of a water-filled plant.

Gail Pothour:

[17:58] That's true. They do require regular water. They don't want to be too wet or too dry. So we kind of say that for everything. Keep them evenly moist, water deeply, apply a good mulch. And then I have read a couple places, and we tried this once or twice at the Fair Oaks Horticulture center, was as the first muskmelon starts to ripen, you won't have your whole yield of melons all at the same stage. So as the first ones are getting close, they say shut off the water until you harvest it. And then turn the water back on so it doesn't affect the future melons that are on there. It apparently concentrates the flavor, We tried that once at the Hort center, but we found it was too difficult because we're not there every day. Our irrigation is on a timer. And so we have not done that in recent history. But that's what they say. It kind of concentrates the flavor.

Farmer Fred:

[18:57] So knowing when ripeness is going to happen, I imagine there's some telltale clues. Maybe there's a change in the coloration of the rind or maybe some cracking or maybe even softening of the fruit.

Gail Pothour:

[19:08] True. The muskmelons are the easiest because they tell you when they're ripe because they slip off. But you can usually tell a few days ahead of time because the background color, you've got the netting and then there's a background color that's usually kind of a greenish color. That changes to tan or golden. And then you can usually smell the melon. I'll go out to my garden in the morning and I go, ooh, I've got a melon that's ripe. I can smell it. And so I start searching for it. And it could either be one that has already slipped off or it's getting close. And so, yeah, there are some signs. Usually it's a color change and an aroma. Some of them, like the honeydew that doesn't slip off, but you can push on the blossom end and it's a little bit softer and you'll maybe get a little bit of aroma from that. They also, on the honeydew, tend to start out kind of, not hairy, but they have a little bit of fuzz or something on the outside of their skin. And then as they progress, that gets softer, and then they almost have a waxy feel on the skin when it's ready to harvest. So they're not quite as obvious as the muskmelons, what we call cantaloupes. Those are what I usually grow because they're the easiest to harvest. Keep watching it because the skin will often change. There could be an aroma and that blossom then gets soft.

Farmer Fred:

[20:38] So really, probably the best sign is when it really slips easily from that stem.

Gail Pothour:

[20:45] Yeah, if it's a muskmelon type, the honeydew won't. The honeydew you'll have to cut off. And the Charentais, which is a true cantaloupe, and so you don't find too many of them, but I like to grow the Ha’ogen, which is a Charentais, it has the color change. It goes from green to a golden color. It doesn't have as much of an aroma, but I can push the blossom end and get a little bit of softness there. But if the true cantaloupe slips off, it's overripe. And often you'll have cracking on the blossom end, which then gets fruit flies in there and all kinds of things. But the muskmelons are the only ones that really slip off when they're ready. And that includes what we call cantaloupes. And Galia types, they're all in that same cantaloupe. or an Ananas. Those are the three that I can think of that are in the muskmelon category.

Gail Pothour:

[21:39] The watermelon is a little bit different. And I've never really learned how to tell when a watermelon is ripe. I know the skin becomes dull when it's getting close to maturity. And usually there's a ground spot where it's sitting on the ground, and that will turn from white to kind of a yellowish color and then the tendril closest to the fruit darkens there's little tendrils all along the vine and the tendril that's closest to the fruit will turn dark and kind of dry up and then there's always that old thing of wrapping on it and it'll get thump thump or think things well to me they all sound alike especially depending on what time of day you're doing it You know, in the heat of the day, they all sound the same. And one of my favorite watermelons to grow, and we've grown it at the Fair Oaks Horticulture center, is Golden Gold. It already has a yellow skin, so you can't tell where its yellow ground spot is because it's already yellow. So that one, we know it starts getting some green coloration around the stem end. You kind of have to see a picture to know what you're looking for. But that's how we tell when that one's ready. But watermelons are a little more challenging. I know that there are farmers who can look out in their field and they say, oh, that watermelon's ripe. Well, I guess that's years and years of experience. I am not that confident on picking watermelons.

Farmer Fred:

[23:06] The good news is the home gardener will get that experience, too, after a few years. If they're growing the same varieties, they'll soon discover which ones are near ripe or too ripe.

Gail Pothour:

[23:18] Mm-hmm, true. Yeah.

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Farmer Fred:

[24:40] All right, let's talk a little bit about some varieties that you like. What is in at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center this year?

Gail Pothour:

[24:47] Well, this year we're going to be growing a variety. It's called Lambkin. It's an All-America selection. It's a Piel de Sapo melon. It's a Spanish-type melon. I think Piel de Sapo, trying to remember my Spanish from high school, I think is skin of the toad is what that means. And so it's just kind of a rough-knitted, football-shaped melon. It's really exceptional in the flavor. We've grown it a number of times. It's called Lambkin. Also, we're going to be growing an older All-America Selection variety called Honey Rock. It goes back for years and years. It's a musk melon, what we call cantaloupes. We're going to be growing the Kajari melon, which is one of my favorites. It's an heirloom from India. It's a muskmelon that has sweet honeydew-like flavor. So it's got kind of a whitish-green flesh inside. They're small, about the size of a softball, so it's personal size. And the color is amazing. It goes from green and white stripes to orangey, coppery color stripes with green and white. I mean, it's a beautiful melon. And so we're going to be growing that again out there. We're going to be growing a new watermelon for us. It's a relatively new All-America Selection watermelon called Ruby Firm. It's small, a personal size. We've never grown it. This is the first time. So we will be giving it a shot this year.

Farmer Fred:

[26:16] And for those of you who like to spell correctly, Kajari is spelled K-A-J-A-R-I. And it is known for the unique striped appearance and the sweet honeydew-like flavor.

Gail Pothour:

[26:28] Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. I mean, it's unlike any melon you've ever seen before. They're bright colors. Yeah, it's really good.

Farmer Fred:

[26:36] Yeah, it almost looks like a pumpkin.

Gail Pothour:

[26:37] Yeah, it kind of does. That is one of my favorites. I also like to grow Ha’ogen. I've mentioned it before. It's a true cantaloupe. And they say it is from Israel, but I think it originated in Hungary. So who knows? But it's really good. It's a great melon. I like an old heirloom muskmelon called Emerald Gem. And then there's a couple of hybrid muskmelons. And when I say muskmelon, that's what we call cantaloupes. You'll hear me say that over and over.

Gail Pothour:

[27:08] Sarah's Choice and Divergent those are two that i've grown the last four or five years they're really sweet they're typical what we call cantaloupes  that look round and that netted skin very sweet i like Arava which is a Galia type and i think that one could be from israel as well one of my favorites.

I’m having difficulty finding now is called Collective Farmwoman. it's an heirloom from Ukraine, and it's in the same group, I believe, as a honeydew. So it's real round and hard, and it's got whitish, crisp skin, flesh like an apple. Oh, it's so good. I'm having trouble finding some seeds. Retato degli ortolani. It's an heirloom Tuscan melon that I get from Renee's Seeds. It's really good. And then as is Napoli, another Tuscan melon. So mostly what I grow are musk melons. They tend to be the sweetness that I like and the ease of harvest because they tell me when they're ready to be harvested because they slip off. But yeah, I do love melons. I will always grow melons.

Farmer Fred:

[28:18] So I just did a quick search and Collective Farm Woman melon and the cantaloupe is available at several outlets, including high desert seeding gardens.

Gail Pothour:

[28:28] Yeah, I googled it last and I've got Baker Creek used to carry it. And that's where I always got my seeds and I see they no longer carry it. So I did find a couple of places online. So I'm going to have to replenish my stock. I think my seed's getting old.

Farmer Fred:

[28:42] Yeah, one thing about buying seed online, folks, and that's the fact that packet of seeds might only cost you four or five dollars, but then they're going to ding you on shipping, which could be eight or ten dollars, which doesn't quite make a heck of a lot of sense to me. But, you know, whatever it takes to stay in business, I guess. So look for bargains when it comes to shipping.

Gail Pothour:

[29:04] Yeah. And I could, you know, I could save my seed. I save tomato seeds from heirlooms, things like that. But because I grow so many different melons all together, they would all cross. And I guess I could come up with some new variety. But, you know, if I want to keep Collective Farmwoman, I would have to isolate it quite a ways or hand pollinate and bag it, which is, I'm kind of a lazy gardener. That's too much work for me.

Farmer Fred:

[29:31] How do you store melons? Obviously, if you're harvesting more than one melon a day. Unless you've got a melon-crazy family, there's going to be some that are going to be sitting on the counter or in the refrigerator. Or what is the best way to store melons?

Gail Pothour:

[29:44] Well, I think the flavor is best at room temperature, but they won't stay at room temperature very long. So I do refrigerate them. The Collective Farmwoman, because it's in the honeydew group, it will tend to stay a little bit longer. I mean, it doesn't get really soft like some of the muskmelons do. And by the way, when you pick a melon, it will not get any sweeter. It will get softer, but it won't get sweeter. So you need to harvest it when it's ready to harvest. Unlike pears that will continue to ripen it at room temperature, a melon won't. It will just gets softer and then it will really get softer and start rotting. But I usually put them in the refrigerator. If I have an abundance of them, if I've harvested a lot of melons, I'll usually cube them up and freeze them. And then I use them in smoothies and make melon ice cream, things like that.

Farmer Fred:

[30:42] The good news is melon seeds are widely available at garden centers on the seed rack. As far as plants, like I say, you got to take into that warning the fact that if they're they have more than two sets of true leaves, you might have a compromised root system.

Gail Pothour:

[30:59] True, that is correct. Remember, they don't want their roots disturbed or they don't want To be root boundI

Farmer Fred:

[31:03] . All right. But there's plenty of great varieties to choose from.

Farmer Fred:

[31:09] Try as much room as you have, as many varieties as you'd like. Again, you pointed out, though, that if you try to save the seed of the heirloom varieties, that there may be problems since it is insect pollinated. And if you have other varieties growing nearby, the only way to isolate it would be to have it completely covered.

Gail Pothour:

[31:30] Right. And my understanding is all of the melons, regardless of which type it is, well, not the watermelons, but all the other melons can cross with each other. And so they've sort of categorized them into different groups. So we've got the cantaloupe group and the reticulatus group, which is the musk melons, and the Indorus group, which is the honeydews. Those can all cross with each other. So I would have to either grow just one variety each year in order to save seed, but I don't want to do that. I like the variety, so I'd like to grow five or six different melons each year.

Farmer Fred:

[32:09] And besides that, insects can travel a long way. So if your neighbor has a melon patch, but then again, there's the adventure of trying something completely different the following year from that seed.

Gail Pothour:

[32:20] Yeah, and you may be creating a new variety. Who knows?

Farmer Fred:

[32:24] Exactly. But the world of melons, if you love summertime, you got to love melons, the cantaloupes, the watermelons, the muskmelons. There's a whole world of them. So try something different this spring and summer in your garden. It's melon time. Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener. She knows her vegetables. She knows her fruits. Gail, have a melon-y summer.

Gail Pothour:

[32:47] Thank you. You too, Fred.

Farmer Fred:

[32:51] If you're not a paid subscriber to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter on Substack, here's what you missed recently, a special feature available only for paid subscribers. You missed a special podcast with Debbie Flower. We visit a nursery and talk about all the snail and slug control products that are available. Which ones are the most effective? Which ones are the safest to use around pets and children? How about some aromatic plants? What are the best ones to have in your yard?

Farmer Fred:

[33:18] How about the best roses for a nice scent? We talk about that. You know those three-foot-tall metal cones that nurseries sell as tomato cages? Well, forget about those. They aren't big enough for the vast majority of tomatoes. We show you what a real tomato cage looks like. What's the biggest mistake lawn owners make? It's an easy adjustment that will make your lawn healthier and more drought-tolerant. We talk about that in the paid subscribers edition. That edition comes out every Monday. We tell you how to thwart drainage problems from pots with a very easy remedy. And cheap, too. A more natural way to improve the overall health of your garden soil? We have that tip as well. It's an exclusive for paid subscribers to the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. It's more reasonably priced than a lot of other newsletters available to you. And paid subscribers can also check out the entire catalog of past Beyond the Garden Basics newsletters, something that's not available to the free subscribers. But free subscribers, don't panic. You still have access to the complete current Friday newsletter that's released each week.

Find out more about the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. There's a link in today's show notes, as well as at GardenBasics.net or FarmerFred.com. Or just do an internet search for the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. Thanks for reading, listening, and subscribing.

Farmer Fred:

[34:48] Garden Basics with Farmer Fred comes out every Friday and it's brought to you by Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast as well as an accurate transcript of the podcast, visit our website, gardenbasics.net. And thank you so much for listening and your support.