Growing Melons Squash and Cucumbers From Seed.

hymus · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 4

I planted watermelon, cantaloupe, squash and cucumbers about a month ago from seed in my garden with great early success. Just about every seed I planted grew in to a seedling within 5 days of planting. All were doing great for a few weeks growing to about 2 inches tall. But now they all seem to have stopped growing and are turning yellow instead of staying green with some of the leafs browning. The garden is a new raised bed I just put in using a mix of sand mulch and topsoil that I hauled in from Pioneer Rock and landscape. I used their soil last year for a different garden bed and the plants loved it. I am struggling with what is going on with them. I am wondering if they are getting too much or too little water. Or are they struggling with the heat? The garden gets afternoon sun only. I am thinking of getting some mulch and putting a layer on the garden bed to see if that helps. Any suggestions?

phoenixtropicals · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:05 pm Post subject:

Yellow leaves sounds like too much water. Don't water more than every other day. Browning sounds like too much fertilizer. Don't fertilize more than once every two weeks. You might want to stop fertlilizing for a month or so if you have overdone it. Of course, the quantity of fertilizer matters too, not just how often.

hymus · Joined: 25 Jun 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks for the info. I will cut back on the water and fertillizer.

obietrice88 · Joined: 21 Feb 2012 Posts: 6

What kind of fertilizer to you use? I'm trying to find out what the best organic fertilizer is. My wife is really wanting to be "Organic" and not use petro chemicals.

Angie 6160 · Joined: 25 Apr 2012 Posts: 1

I use fresh compost as fertilizer along with "Dave, The Garden Guy" organic fertilizer products. Smile

phoenixtropicals · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:33 pm Post subject:

I like to use mulch, a mixture of older brown stuff and fresh green mulch, like grass clippings and leaves. I found its best to use it from my yard rather than try to buy compost. I don't like the store bought stuff because they add gypsum to it, and often manure. It becomes too salty that way.

I like to use green mulch because it has more nitrogen in it than the fully composted stuff, but you have to just sprinkle it down. If you pile it up too high it will start to get hot due to the microbes breaking it down and will hurt your plants.

I also really like fish emulsion, but its not 100% organic because they add some things to it to keep it from fermenting in the bottle.