The melons (#2) are not really happy with the whole going from freezing to 100 deg days. they are still pretty small. they are however putting on buds so we’ll see if we can pull this off. 
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Looks like mine may be on their way out. I only have one left. #4 really seems to hate the heat. The leaves burn and then the whole plant dies. The last one has been protected from getting full sun because of the 4 O’clocks I’ve been fighting with for years. It seems like they like full sun but don’t like the heat because this one is pretty small by comparison to the others before they died.
The down side is that it refuses to set fruit and it’s stopped blooming entirely. I won’t count it out until it’s gone but I’m really hoping that I can at least get something to send back from this one. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled with a melon like this.
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Same here about the struggling. The melons I planted in the other garden are at least twice this size. I have really been babying these too. C’mon lil guys you can do it.
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After taking the endophyte course and listening to Dr James Whites talks, and also observing the struggles of these GRIN projects (including my own attempt) I have a strong suspicion these seeds have lost a lot in storage. I think in one of his talks he says explicitly that seeds that have been stored for a long time can be brought back from the brink by restoring the endophytes to the seed.
Someone should explore the effects of seed treatments on germination and survivability of GRIN seeds. John Kempf sells Biocoat gold or the alternative is doing your own endophyte treatment.
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Yes, gotta be the microbes not coming to life. I did inoculate my seed with mycorrhizae at planting. But my daytime temps spiked 15 degrees hotter by the third week…other melons have grown great and produced fruits. This summer is one of the hotter ones for the past five years. Im thinking the stored seed is also more sensitive to soil pH. Im also curious to know if the seed was grown in a greenhouse containers or laboratory instead of the ground…there has to be guidance procedures somewhere that we can adopt for better ascession growing success. Any ideas?
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I agree with others that these are not super vigorous growers. However, most are alive and some have set fruit.
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Nice!
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My last plant is gone. It flowered one more time and then just gave up. Despite the nearly daily watering (I’m almost in drought conditions) it just couldn’t seem to handle the stress from the heat. I’m disappointed but not really surprised because nearly everything I planted this year failed. It’s been years since I’ve had that happen.
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Darn, was hoping you would get a fruit or two…the same happened to me, this weather totally brutilized my garden this summer. Previous years produced beautiful fruits.
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I didn’t join this grow out because of space and my perennial struggles growing melons and cucumbers (and I can’t blame the dirt or the weather). But you’ve got me thinking: by far my best winter squash and melons are “compost pile specials” - seeds from all of the good tasting squash go into the compost pile (rare bad tasting squashes have their seeds sent to the municipal composter), then they get spread on the garden months later, and some of them sprout. Is this innoculating seeds (whether from home or store fruits) to my garden microbiology?
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I would say yes, since every seed coat carries microbial life wether its fresh, diverse and concentrated…or older seed with faded microbial life. Foraging for forest compost, broken down leaf litter and branches or river bank compost…could innoculate your garden soil too, as long
as there isnt pollution. Seeds of different plants, herbs, and transplants also contribute to your soil. Yes, diseases can also be transmitted but good microbes can be passed along too. But I think the seed and variety of plant does the actual selection for its growth and ability to thrive. Its truly fascinating how healthy good soils work to support growth. Earthworms and insects too…contribute. I had to start looking at my soils, they were commercially farmed before households were built 15 years ago and had been left barren.
Dr. White has a good class on the GTS webpage and is well worth the reading and viewing.
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I finally got a female blossom to set Now to see if there are enough warm days to grow it. Will take A pic and do an update as soon as I can.
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This has been a tough weather year! I appreciate the updates and extra efforts to nuture these little melons, even when they fail… It’ll be interesting to see if we get some seeds, how their offspring do. The seed banks do grow them out regularly to ensure viability, but vigor doesn’t necessarily follow high germination rates.
Hoping we can get a few of these over the line. Please continue to update here or in the tracker (Melon Seed Increase – Going to Seed). I’ll be consolidating this info to send back to USDA.
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Nice melon vines and little melon 
!
I’ve used flat bed sheets to cover plants when its going to frost.
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good idea, we normally get a couple of frosts early Sept then several more weeks of growing season. Just keeping them alive during the frost spell is the hardest.
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Hi Anna,
Excited that my melons are getting ready, with first harvest today!
When you receive the seeds, are you going to maintain separate envelopes for each individual melon? I’m trying to figure out if I should take the time to keep all of my seeds separated by melon, or just put all of my melon seeds together in one bag?
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good question. I’d say just mix them together, unless there is something exceptional. Most of you have a single landrace, so I’d expect some diversity. If you harvest several melons and one has outstanding characteristics of some sort, separate it and label with what was exceptional (flavor, disease or stress resistance).
It would be great if you could photograph and document each melon as you cut it open, showing oursite color/texture and flesh.
As much as you feel inspired to document is great. The saved seeds are what’s most important!
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Little melon #2 is slowly maturing. The nights are in the low 40’s but haven’t had to cover plant’s yet. There are several small melons but I know they won’t ripen in time for the killing frost. Luckily even though the summer started rough at least it is staying later this year. normally we would have a killing frost the first week of Sept. I am keeping a stocking on it to keep rodents from nibbling on it.
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