(image via theeasygarden)

I bet you’re wondering if a person can actually grow melons in a pot on a balcony.  It’s one thing to grow tomatoes. They’re the size of baseballs. But melons? They’re the size of babies. Surely, melon babies need more space than you can provide, right? Wrong!  Melons, like all their friends in the cucurbit family (which includes cucumbers, zucchini, and pumpkins) grow on vines, and while those vines are happy to spread horizontally over a vast landscape, if a vast horizontal landscape isn’t available, you can provide a vast vertical one.  Slap up a tomato cage. Build a trellis. Push some stakes into your container. Whatever you provide, they’ll climb (tying the plants to the support here and there helps).

But what about those big fat melon babies once the vines have climbed? Wouldn’t that put them in a precarious “hushabye baby in the tree top” position, one gust of wind (or further ounce of growth) away from plummeting to their doom? Yes, it would, except you’re also going to provide something awesome called a “melon sling.” Want to know all about these melon slings and get the rest of the know-how needed to know to grow melons in a container on your balcony? Click on through.

Let’s start with the basics.

• Melons (and all cucurbits) grow big, deep root systems. That means you should give them a big pot. I’ve tried to grow melons in small pots, with ugly results. So, start big. They’ll grow into it, believe me.
• Melons are a warm season crop, so don’t plant them until late spring at the earliest.
• If you apply fertilizer, choose a fertilizer that’s low in nitrogen and high in phosphorous and potassium. Too much nitrogen, and you’ll get lots of vine and no melons.
• Since they’ve got those big, deep roots, melons do better if you water them deeply a few times a week rather than a shallow watering daily.

Any strip of cloth tied to the trellis will do. See that one on the bottom left there? That’s a pair of old nylons. You can get pretty creative. Point is, once the melons get some girth, they need some support, otherwise they’ll fall off the vines before they’re ripe. The particulars of what you use to provide that support are up to you.

One final question I’m sure you’re asking: once they’re slung, how do you know when to unsling them and take them inside for devouring purposes? Answer: Give them a little lift up in their sling once you start to suspect they’re ripe. If your “little lift” breaks the stem from the vine, they’re all grown up. If the stem is still firmly attached to the vine, give them a day or two and test again.

Tags: cantaloupe, melons, muskmelon, watermelon