Did you say 'a melon on your balcony'?

Did you ever think how a bit of land 
shows the character of the owner? 

~Laura Ingalls Wilder

The other day, I got to thinking… "Now really, how are we going grow 134 lbs of food? We’re over 8lbs, and still sprouts are the clear winner in terms of weight! So we did a thought experiment. What might our total harvest look like:

-20lbs of peaches
-20lbs of tomatoes (if we are lucky, and no blight this year…)
-20lbs of potatoes (if our potatoes perk up again after all this rain)
-20lbs of zucchini, radishes, peas, beans, peppers, lettuce, greens, and carrots
-20lbs of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cucumbers… that’s a bit of a stretch!
-14 pounds of sprouts… that’s a LOT of sprouts!

That’s 114 total, and these are NOT conservative estimates of what we could produce. 20lbs of peaches is a LOT of peaches! And we need another 20 lbs from somewhere else to make my weight in food: 134lbs. Somehow, I don't think more sprouts is the answer… So, what’s heavy and can take up vertical space (which we have) rather than horizontal space (which we don’t have)…

Wait for it… wait for it… MELONS!

Now, I know I previously dismissed melons as too difficult to grow on a balcony, but that was before summer arrived, and that was before our thought experiment left us 20lbs short of our goal (at least).

So what are the challenges of melons? Well, they take a LONG time to come to maturity. They are susceptible to a fair number of bugs and diseases. They need a lot of space. If they are too stressed, they won’t produce. And they have 5-10 foot vines!

BUT if you have a big container, and good, rich soil. And you get an early-maturing variety (matures in 70 days versus 95 days). And you have a trellis you can train the vines up. And get small melons that you are willing to have swinging around in the breeze above you. And you are willing to put them in “slings” as they grow older (so they don’t fall off the vine too early due to their own ever-growing weight)… you might have a chance with melons! Not just a chance, but an incredible, fragrant, juicy, cool success! Why not try it?

I mean, I’ve got a peach tree on my balcony! Why not try a small melon variety! No problem, right?

So the one we’ve got is a type called Earlichamp. It’s a muskmelon (cantaloupe), prolific producer, and produces 4-5 lb melons. This plant is a native of East Africa. And in fact, did you know that most melons we call cantaloupes in the US are actually muskmelons? A true cantaloupe is a hard-shelled melon variety in Europe, at least according to the back of my muskmelon seed packet.

Check out this container James made for the melons and some tomato plants. We call the container Big Bertha. I bet you can guess why. The melon gets a full half of the container. It’s just that special.



The garden saga continues…