Yea, I wondered about something like that. It’s just too much trouble though I think. Designing and conducting the experiments, identifying and accounting for all the variables, and repeating it all over and over so as not to draw conclusion based on insufficient observation.
For example, on those plants I saw at Walmart. They may have also moved them around, changing the amount of light they got and who knows what else. I guess I assumed it was being pot bound and water starved but I don’t know that for sure and I can’t know that for sure unless I run the experiments, and I’m just too lazy for that.
You know, I was guessing it was probably because their roots were restricted to a very tight space. The corn realized it couldn’t get any bigger, so it just tried to go to seed. I’ve seen that before with potbound plants, and sometimes people do it on purpose (for instance, with bonsai).
Yes, this is extremely common in certain plants such as borage. That flower went away, and I’m not even sure which one was flowering now. I’m going to leave it be regardless. I don’t plan on culling any plants this year since I don’t have any leftover seed. Luckily I had two muskmelons germinate from seeds left on the ground from last year’s rotten melons, so now I’ll have two from self germinated seeds (in wood chip mulch amazingly, 19 from the one melon that ripened last season, and three from last year’s seed.
We’re in the same boat, fellow late planter!! The good news is that melons seem to handle the heat much better than squash. I planted at the same time as you and some are now setting fruit, even in the 100 degree weather.
One vine, 4 banana melons/cantaloupes, they are not fully ripe but had to harvest them before frost. I will have to test the seeds for viability, hope to grow this awesomely productive specimen back next year.
I’m curious, would these have ripened like Zuchinni does off vine (If you waited 1-2 months or does the skin have to be HARD for that to work)? Were you able to obtain viable seeds from them?
I tend to take good care of tray seedlings, and then sporadically neglect the plant after transplant. I’m in central FL, where the heat is intense and the soil/sand dries crispy within hours of watering. Because I infrequently water, my corn consistently grows no larger than knee-high before it starts tasseling. This year, I decided at this point to start watering it daily. The tassels and mini cobs dried up, the stalks and leaves bulked out and turned rich green; I thought that would be the extent of the growth, and I was happy. But then…they started growing new tassels and cobs! I had no idea corn could go for a second round, thought it was one and done. That was pretty cool. Then of course I again lost steam with watering, and now they’re shriveling again. Sigh. But anyway yeah, for me, early flowering seems to be a stress reaction, usually lack of water in the high heat. Many of my other crops do similar things. I suppose that could predominantly be an epigenetic process rather than genetic.
That’s actually a technique Speed Breeders do! This is a super effective way generate multiple generations of Hybridized seeds in 1 year. Super useful for Self-Polinating crops like beans which are really hard to get initial crosses for. That initial cross is important because Reshuffling genetics increases likely-hood of making the right combo for you landrace, that otherwise wouldn’t have existed in unshuffled-Highly Inbred genetics. Also It’s difficult to cross pollinate each flower Outdoors with 1000s of plants.
Indoors, you can
Perform crosses carefully (They’re tiny, and require delicate hands)
Breed even when it’s freezing outside.
Blast Red & Blue (Green no need) LED lights on for 22hours per day (Helps reach maturity faster, and makes shortening daylight of winter irrelevant)
For species that aren’t day neutral, you can just cut the lights off for 1 day to trigger flowering (Once they’re mature enough).
Harvest green/immature wheat spikes & put them in a heater/Dehydrator to dry faster. Germination may be a lil trickier but speedbreeders solved this by putting seeds in a fridge (Apparently they didn’t need embryo rescue techniques?
I’ve also noticed the same phenomenon with Lambsquaters (Chenopodium album), My lambsquater in a pot, sowed during fall started flowering when only 4 inches tall because Lambsquater is Day-light sensitive where shorter days trigger flowering.
Regardless I don’t see why this couldn’t work with melons? Perhaps the nutrients will be the limiting factor? IDK, what do you think?
hmm… interesting . Teosinte has a better time doing this with multiple branches. I’ve had the tops of my corn plants bitten off by HEAVY DEER PRESSURE but they still seem to be growing & one of them is flowering.
Yea, that stress related early flowering phenomenon is what speed breeders use to pump out like 3-10 generations per year depending on species.
I’m curious, would these have ripened like Zuchinni does off vine (If you waited 1-2 months or does the skin have to be HARD for that to work)? Were you able to obtain viable seeds from them?
I didn’t check if they ripened off vine, but I ran a seed test last fall and the seeds were viable (not sure what the actual percentage was, but more than 50%). Some of the seeds sown in my garden are already flowering, so plenty of time to mature before first frost.
AWESOME!, That give me hope if my growing season is short. I seriously wonder if you can have late season melon sowing if you plan on harvesting unripe fruits for seeds? Imagine if sowing melons in late July gets you viable seeds in October? I bet those seeds would also mature sooner and could be useful traits if trying to breed a faster maturing melon.
. Teosinte has a better time doing this with multiple branches. I’ve had the tops of my corn plants bitten off by HEAVY DEER PRESSURE but they still seem to be growing & one of them is flowering.