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formerly RGG

I lost my third best melon to self decapitation last night. I found it this morning when I went down to survey the patch before leaving for work. It was about 65 pounds and on a good healthy vine and had lots of growing to do. My patch sits on a hill and it seemed the best way to grow this particular melon was perpendicular with the hill. To begin with, I set a large stiff piece of foam against it with a brick on the other side of the foam. I figured the melon would grow flat enough on the bottom to make it stable.And I thought it had grown enough to be sufficiently flat on the bottom and there was another melon I wanted to use the foam on so I removed it. I even rocked the melon a bit as a test and thought it was OK. But this morning I found it had rolled. At first, I thought I would just have to pick it up and put it back in it's place. And then I saw it had completely separated from the vine. If only I had put some bricks under the lower end of the 2 x 4's to make this spot more level. I have learned a valuable lesson here. It was on my remaining 179 Masterson (255 Mitchell x open).

7/9/2012 7:48:48 AM

Rochester, Minnesota

I understand. Yesterday I built an elaborate structures under one of my melons to keep it from being tippy. I just moved in some shovelfuls of dirt to stabilize the boards I put under the melon.

7/9/2012 10:14:46 AM