Sowed melons and watermelons on the 1.6. About the same area as last year, but slightly more melons compared to years past as it seems to be little easier and also after 2 poor watermelon harvest summers didn’t have that many seeds. Still would have had plenty and sowed plenty of extra, but I wanted to concentrate on those that did the best last 2 years with the intention of making some genetic mixing and seed increase. Also more likely to cover them with cloth just to make sure (if need be) and that area is same as some cloths that I have. Also melons I mostly sowed of those that did the best in last 2 years and one row in the middle is diversity/some old seeds.
Weather this year is again completely different to last. Spring was record warm, which in itself didn’t help with melons as it’s not warm enough for melons and may ended with a cold spell. Ground is still probably little warmer than last year and forecast is more favourable than last year. Still not perfect for melons and watermelons so I expect there to be some good selection pressure. Since sowing there has been one hot day (26C/78F), but otherwise mostly some degrees C over 20C and nights at ground level going down to 5C. It looks like it is going to stay about the same for next week, with the exception of nights probably being a little warmer. Warm enough that I went without cloth and will use that only as a last resort. So basically with melons when I have killed enough and it doesn’t seem like it will improve. With watermelons a little earlier.
I also sowed melons to about 1 meter of bed without black mulch just to see how they would do. Chances aren’t great that they will make anything, but better with this weather. I just want to see what it would take for them to produce without any help. Also I don’t know if bare ground would be better when it’s rainy as it dries better. If results are encouraging enough, I might try bigger area with the help of cloth. Since it seems rain is big reason why they fail, cloth might be helpful against that. Also it’s possible that it’s better overall than black mulch without cloth. It also allows me to push the limits more as cloth I can take of/put on any time, but black mulch is there and can be little too helpful on warmer summers. That’s the plan anyway and I try to get there little by little.
First melon came up 6 days from sowing and watermelon 1 day later as tends to be when conditions are fairly good. Also those sown on bare ground emerged about 1 day later. That was maybe little surprising, but conditions must be good enough that the black cover doesn’t help that much. Although 1 day per week over 3 months is still much in my climate, but maybe there is a way to get them to ripen with cloth as a back up. Some years might be warm enough that with black cover as default there is very little selection so going without makes sense. Have to see first how it goes this year though.
Average temperature for the first week has been around 17C. So on the warmer side by our standards, but maybe there was some selection. On melons the first fully up were from last years best plant, with the exception of one from mix of other fruits from last year. So even that might have had some genetic exchange with the best plant (I used it quite a lot to randomly pollinate others). Others weren’t that much behind, but like with those sown directly to bare ground, one day every week adds up. So maybe there is something there? Watermelon didn’t have the same story. First up was some from older seeds added for diversity. Not that there weren’t more up the next day in almost all. So there must be some randomness also. Possibly watermelon has gone more selection for rootrot than pure speed, which is not bad also.
Forecast for the next week or so isn’t as good as it looked before, but doesn’t look as bad as last year (yet). Still fairly warm, but rainy and cloudy. Highs 20C or little under and lows around 10C, maybe colder if it’s a clear night (it was just 3C couple of days ago and 1.5C just on the morning I sowed). Might be just perfect weather for selection. Warm enough not to kill a lot suddenly, but cool enough to slow down growth to bring out differences between plants. I’m now thinning all late comers in melons and will start to do the same to watermelons tomorrow. Have now something like 5-10 seedlings per hole and there is enough space for 1 plant per 2-4 holes. So still plenty of selection to be done. The next selection, if weather doesn’t decide for me, is when they start to make first true leaves.
I think your northern climate is cool enough to select plants based on early maturity.
Here, with our climate bringing more heat and early drought (a first this year with 10 days at 33°C in May), this has narrowed the differences in ripening times that we used to see among the different varieties. For example, all strawberry varieties produced fruit in May, whereas before, the same varieties planted in the same spot would bear fruit over a period of 2.5 months.
Yes, it’s definetely more consistent cold weather selection, but last few years have taught me to expect some years with no significant cold weather selection. At least if I’m using black mulch. Like 2021 went from average may that had cold end and I measured ground temperatures of 6C at the end of the month to record warm june with daily average of 20C followed by warm july with average of 21C. So even without black mulch there wouldn’t have been much selection to cold weather. Only for the first week or so before ground temperatures warmed up. That’s why it’s hard to decide between making sure you have selection and making sure that you get harvest also. Would be little similar to you sowing them well in the april. Most years it might be fine, but some years may might be quite horrible. It’s a delicate balance. I’m thinking that best might be just to sow melons on bare ground and use cloth to save them until weather warms up, if necessary. If weather is really bad I can use transparent candy boxes as mini greenhouse to protect the last survivors. I’m more concerned that I don’t get the maximum cold weather selection pressure than that I can’t save them somehow if necessary. Watermelons are a little harder. Probably carry on like I’m doing and see how it goes with melons next year. Or if there seems to be some increased tolerance in watermelons as well.
This year, your watermelon and melon seeds were distributed throughout my local community. All of them were direct sow in early April, as recommended. Since our area is large (with distances of up to 30 km between fields) and features varying soil types and microclimates, there are huge differences in results from one garden to another.
Some people only managed to grow melons, others only watermelons, others a little of both, and others have huge plants mixed in with stunted ones…
So I told everyone to let natural selection take its course, and this fall we’ll pool the seeds again…
The gardeners are panicking because they didn’t start the seedlings in pots at temperatures above 20°C, then transplant them in late June with nighttime temperatures of 15°C, then water them, then weed them…
And every time I tell them: “If Jesse had done that in his Nordic country, he would never have had any fruitand therefore no seeds to give us!”
Early april seems a little early there if looking at the average temperatures. Do you have some site with local temperature/rain records from past years so I could compare what kinda tempertatures you’ve had there. And when they were sown and emerged. Maybe there is something to be learned. Might be that with your warmer climate there is more heat in the ground deep down so that the cold spells don’t affect as much. Although I would still imagine that if you have rainy cool weather for several weeks that not many if any will make it. But at least you can start all over. In that way you are better positioned to test cold tolerance. I would always have play it a little save or then there isn’t much I can grow there that year if all fail. Plus you have a lot more space to play with. You can steal my idea of saving the last with transparent candy boxes (or whatever you might have available) if year happens to be really bad. What we might need is to sow hundreds of thousands or millions of seeds for those few stand-out individuals.
It looks like selection time here. Not as bad as last year when the whole june was close to what next week is going to be. More like 2024 when we had week of similar weather after warm period and cold period ended to warmer weather after a week like it looks this year also. Then some melons, like Thomas’ and some others had 100% casualty rate or close to that. But some didn’t seem to mind so I’m quite confident. Also night look to little warmer than 2024. At least with melons that still have probably close to 1000 seedslings and only space for 50 mature plants so I still have room to play with. Watermelons have had little worse/uneven germination and I’m pondering weather I should cover them just for few days. It already looks fairly good around middle of next week. Don’t really like to play with the cloths if it’s not really necessary.
I’m curious to hear your ideas on this if you had to garden in our climate.
In any case, as you can see, we had a very warm spring in 2026 (it was already 23°C on some days in late February), so I concluded that we could start much earlier. Right now, a month ahead of schedule, it’s the start of the wheat harvest!
The melons and watermelons should have sprouted earlier or been sown earlier… but that’s not the case at all, because the seeds that have been in the ground for a year are now sprouting.
I get the impression that these plants are sensitive to day length if the temperatures aren’t prompting germination.
Did you also have daily observations, so similar to that forecast, but just observations? I’m curious about the variation you have. Based on those and statistics I have seen before for the area, it’s quite exactly same as averages here, but month earlier. Same with the precipitation. Maybe little drying trend here as well, at least there hasn’t been extremes really in 20 years.
Here is june 2024. That period between 7.6-14.6 was what really killed a lot of seedlings. I have pictures of “melting seedlings” from 14.6 so it didn’t really take that long and it’s not like it was a lot of rain either. Must have been those lows coupled with the rain. Lines are 2m high, average, minimum and ground level minimum.
We just had some 10mm rain last night and looks about same for sat-sun night. Maybe will get some selection, but might not be as hard if the nights aren’t any colder.
I would probably do same that you have been doing; trying to get everything earlier. Midsummer then have second crop from those that are more heat tolerant like. Maybe try to get some interlapping to protect the soil and give seedlings easier start. Like melons sown between grain corn that is drying. Try to find new crops that do well in the heat. I’m sure nothing you haven’t thought of.
But I’ve had access to this daily chart since the beginning of the year. Without wanting to make a precise assessment of my local climate, this data comes from the nearest weather station, 20 km away, but doesn’t reflect my microclimate perched on a hill… It’s much less cold there (a high of -4°C at my place, whereas here it shows -10°C) and it rains less (smaller amounts per shower, though with the same distribution).
This temperature chart is interesting… I’m noticing that we’re seeing more and more significant day-to-day fluctuations compared to the averages (gray lines).
Once again, we’re going to break seasonial records this weekend with a forecast of 39°C… Selecting on the young plants is going to be tough!
I did understand that. What I was interested in was to see how this year day to day observations were. Like in the graph that you added just now, but monthly with dates so it’s easier to see when exactly temperatures were recorded. I did find from the website where I could get weekly observations, but didn’t find option where I could change it to monthly. But maybe if it’s so far away and the temperatures are so diffrent to your place, then it might not be that useful.
That does seem like the ground must have been already so warm that it warmed up quite easily with little warm april days. Might not work all years though. If winter is colder and there is a warm period in april, the ground might cool back down when colder weather returns. Even little different temperature can make huge difference if it’s right on the limit. It seems it’s a delicate balance between getting selection pressure and killing all plants. Personally I think there must be clear link between early emergence in colder temperatures/early growth and cold tolerance. But with very small seedlings you just have to look for small differences and cull those that are just tiny bit slower before conditions get good enough that there might not come any more differences. Might not need that long cold exposure to make those determinations. Like mine are just starting to make their first true leaves and soon I’ll cull those that don’t have/have smaller even if the biggest true leaves might be 5mm right now. But it’s easy time to see which are futher along. If one is 1 day ahead after 2 weeks, on colder summer that could be a week, but on a warmer summer it might remain the same if summer is warm. This kind little things I’m pondering
The ground warmed up earlier than usual… but I can’t figure out why some self-sown plants (beans, chinese cabbage, cyclanthere…) sprouted very early, while others (corn, watermelon, melons, squash) are only just starting to come up now.
Episodes of temperature fluctuations (first above average and then below) or the correlation between soil moisture and soil temperature might be a lead.
Probably due to how deep they were buried naturally and how it affects their ability to sprout. Beans are generally fast sprouters after they are rehydrated and don’t have thick seedcoat that would slow down absorbion. Brassicas are fast germinaters and prefer top of the soil. Those others I would guess are adversely affected by being close to the surface. I have seen in the survivor plot previously how squash or corn seeds that got washed up to the survace would take time to get established. They are surprisingly tough and slowly develop, but might take a lot of time before they are really visible. If you hava had little rain they might take ages. The initial germination might also be delayed close to the surface compared to the ones sown due to temperatures.
Seems like I forgot to update what they looked like then, so here is picture of them in the middle of the worst weather. Not nearly as bad as last year and not even as bad as the short cold period in 2024. This year the lows weren’t as low and sustained. Only few isolated nights when it went under 5C at ground level. At the same time not as warm on both sides of the cold period. Still no heavy losses. Some “melted” during and after the rains. Some were cut underground by some bug, but can’t be certain that they didn’t have rootrot and bugs just attacked weaker ones. No major losses overall and did some culling manually.
And situation now. Some started to grow quite well once it warmed up and continued to grow even when temperatures went back down a little. Not that cold anymore and nights are staying just warm enough. Not all have grown as well and it was quite easy to do culling based on how well some did compared to those next to them. I suspect some had root rot, but didn’t die nor were able to shake it off. Most of the area has at least some that are doing fairly well compared to the best. They aren’t early by any means, but at least earlier than the best last year. That’s probably just that it’s been that much warmer than last year.
Slightly surprisingly the ones from last years best that sprouted first are now little behind the biggest, but that might be that middle row (where many of the biggest now are) has slightly better micro climate being surrounded by the other 2 rows. All the more reason to try and go without black mulch. Although if I then need to use cloth it might be the same thing, but I might not need to use it and it might be only for short period. There is some hope from the small trial that I sowed on bare ground so I have to see how that goes.
Now it looks like we’ll have week of little warmer weather, but nothing compared to other parts of Europe. Some days over 25C, some days little under with 15-20C nights. Should give nice boost before going back down to around 20C. I don’t really mind even if it’s not as hot. Little less should be enough. Only danger is cool rainy period right at the time of flowering. Fingers crossed it’s sunny mid july onwards.
One ok that might remain to fill a cap and one struggler that was culled. Both were pushing first true leaves around the same time so the weaker clearly has something that makes it weak in these conditions.
First 10 days had average of 16C and some 60mm of rain, but that didn’t seem to slow down that much the growth. Could have grown more, but it was actually just good timing to slow down the growth just a little so that it’s easier to make selection later. Now it’s been few days even hot (by our standards) and forecast looks fairly ideal for melons and watermelons at least this coming week. Not expecting it to get that bad that it would slow down the growth much, but cool rainy period at the flowering might hinder the pollination/fruit growth. So hopefully it’s good enough for some to make fruits.
Best plant of the ones sown on bare ground. It gives hope that it might make sense to to do same in larger scale. Certainly wouldn’t be smart, but seems the best way of making hard selection.
There are 2 plants that seem to have extra early female flowering trait with first female flower in the first leaf node of the vine. Have had it before ofcourse, but not sure if this trait is that helpful. Might be few days earlier, but might also lower the yield. I try to isolate them to have a closer look next year what kind of yield potential is and what the actual difference in flowering might be. No there are only 2 plants and it looks like they aren’t maybe as developed as the biggest plants so maybe there is still some improvement to be had by just sowing more seeds.
One of the biggest watermelons 29.6 and 10.7. Maybe not as much growth as with melons, but they are still in fairly good space and should flower right at the last moment to be early enough.
Some of the watermalons have had little problems with the cool and wet weather. Some have brown spots typical to wet weather and some also have twisted leaves (and some both). There are still enough spares that this is more like making the selection easier than causing trouble. There might be spot or 2 where there aren’t any plants in 1,5 meters of bed, but nothing worse than that.
First plant with early female flower is flowering. Unfortunately it or some +10 with the same trait don’t have more than 1 early female flower coming. At the same time “normal” plants aren’t progressing as fast as I hoped after it warmed up. Still no sign of female flowers. Maybe they aren’t that far away, but it seems like early female flower trait might be imperative to breeding short season melons. Which is why I started to think about using cucumber melons and opened thread about it here Creating short season melon with cross with bushy cucumber melon
Another observation is that it seems like the treshold for maximum growth is higher than I thought. At some point the growth most hit the maximum speed, but it seems highs around 25C for about week is not it. The growth has still been fast, but it could be faster based on what I have observed before. Right now it looks like there are 3 days of highs around 25c and after that little cooler rainier period so it looks like anything with “normal” female flowering trait will have hard time making ripe fruits. If they do make, at least they have gone through hard selection, but this doesn’t seem like the best approach. This summer still hasn’t been cool, but rather slightly above 30 year average. Maybe it’s cool compared to next 30 years average, but certainly there will be years like this and even cooler. So having early female flowering trait seems like way to go. With that they would already have enough cold tolerance for most years and be able to produce ripe fruits.
This could be good approach for those that struggle with heatwaves futher south. This kinda plant would have fruits ripe maybe week (futher trials needed) earlier and could also work as late summer sown crop. If it’s warm autumn you get melons and if not you can get at least some that you can use as cucumbers.
Same melon as on previous update 5 days later. Still quite good growth, from 10cm vines to over 30cm vines. Could be faster. There was one overcast cooler day which must have taken some of the growth.
