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Muddy Waters

I have a 291 Kent grafted at about 175 lbs.I also have the 255 Mitchell grafted at about 150 lbs.I grew on weed barrier for the first time,so only a few vines are rooted.The stumps look great!There bigger then my traditional.Lawanna is about 130.Bad year no sun.What is your experince this year Graft verses traditional????

9/13/2013 9:34:38 AM

Garner, NC

I had 4 grafts and 4 traditional. Grafts were beautiful, and had the best melon growth I have ever had, until about day 25-30, then the stumps all went to mush. Now we had record rainfall in June and July, so maybe not all the grafts fault. 2 traditional plants also lost stumps during that time, leaving me with 2 plants with stumps. Also seems all the grafted melons where pretty air tight, and the 2 traditional melons had huge air bubbles. So maybe graft melons are more air tight, or they don't get the air until after day 30 or so, not sure.

9/13/2013 3:17:07 PM

Bowdon, GA

1 graft five traditional. Graft grew faster, stump rotted about day 25. No stump issues with all 5 traditional. However all five got disease, the graft plant still looks great. Melon still growing since day 25 with no stump. I think the graft will out perform if the stump doesn't rot.

9/13/2013 4:14:50 PM

Bethlehem CT

I grew three plants total for competition purposes. 2 grafted one traditional. I lost one of my grafts in early July as it just collapsed. My other graft did very well and was very vigorous. It quickly filled in it space. I grew two fruit on the plant and I weighed the first one at 120 and the other has yet to be weighed. My traditional plant was a black diamond type. It had two fruits also, the first one weighed 85 the second has yet to be weighed. I have done the grafting thing for two years and I still can't tell you if I like it better than traditional. I feel grafting does give an early boost in vigor. But this advantage may be offset by other problems later on.

9/13/2013 11:00:47 PM

Piqua, Ohio

if you grow your grafts on plastic it may eliminate some of the stump issues, I've been doing it for three years and have no stump issues. My grafted melons gain more weight than traditional on cool nights, and they seem to weigh heavy to the chart. I have one grafted plant but it wasn't set until the third week of July, so no world record here! Jake I'm growing your 238 traditional and may have a personal best this year on it, I'll find out next saturday.

9/14/2013 9:52:35 AM

Muddy Waters

Good luck Josh!

9/14/2013 12:15:31 PM

Bowdon, GA

Good Luck Josh, you may be right the combo of graft and node roots maybe too much water.

9/14/2013 8:38:46 PM

Muddy Waters

4 response's Were such a social bunch!LOL

Shh!! Dont tell nobody its a secret!!LOL

9/18/2013 6:51:21 AM

formerly RGG

Mark, I either pulled my plants to make room for pumpkins that failed or I ruined them with too much growth hormones. The only plant I kept was a grafted 274 Mudd.And all I got off it was a few seed melons of little size. I am already looking forward to next year.

9/18/2013 8:54:01 AM

The North Coast

I have two melon plants growing in a field as control plants. both of the plants were known to have GSB and the plants were given nothing more than some starter fertilizer and some landscape fabric to suppress weeds.I was then able to witness all the ways that GSB expresses itself throughout the season.

these two plants went on to produce melons that were both over 100 pounds. the rootstocks (lagenaria) both survived the season without failure of any type. I was hoping to see any of the types of failures that I have heard about but no luck.

9/19/2013 11:35:58 AM