Today, I started planting my rockmelon seedlings into the area where I decided to grow them this year. I usually start planting melons outdoors around the 2nd or 3rd week of November. By this time of the year, night time temperatures are usually above 10 degrees, at least in Auckland. Any cooler and the plants probably won’t survive. These are the steps I took, which include some things I did beforehand:
I’ll check on the plants over the weekend to see whether they survive. If they’re still alive, I’ll fill the remaining two rows with plants. I still have some spares in my nursery to replace any that I lose along the way. It always pays to have some back ups. I don’t like planting everything out at once incase I lose them all! If you would like to grow rockmelons this year but your own seedlings failed to germinate or grow successfully, it’s still not too late to head on down to your local garden centre and purchase some plants. I usually purchase some potted melons every year as a contingency incase my own ones don’t grow, but for the first time I haven’t had to do that. Having the greenhouse to keep my plants nice and snug while the weather was still temperamental definitely helped (thanks Uncle Tony for helping to construct it for us!). Today’s photo is of our prolific strawberry harvest. It’s like that every day, thanks to those plants from the commercial grower in Katikati. I think liquid feeding them every week with Yates Thrive Berry Liquid Fertiliser also helps. I’ll definitely be ordering more next year! I’ll post a picture of the rockmelons once they’ve had a chance to settle in a bit.
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