chickensense

My cantaloupes are still doing so well. The vines are so thick and heavy, and the leaves so large I’m having trouble training them up on the string.

I am just so amazed at the difference from the weak, spindly plants that are all I’ve gotten in the past. As I said in past posts, I have to attribute the difference to the organic humus and manure mix that I used. There is one other difference, these are heirloom varieties, but I can’t imagine that is the reason for the huge improvement over past years. Whatever–I’m just happy about it.

I’ve spotted 3 baby cantaloupes so far.

My squash plants are definitely not doing so well though. It is usually the squash that grows gangbusters, but not this year. This year they are barely growing at all. I didn’t add fertilizer at planting time, but then I never have in the past. I added organic humus & manure a couple of weeks ago but that may take a while to show any difference. Another difference this year is that they are farther from the house so I haven’t watered them nearly as often as in the past. In past years I’m afraid I had a tendency to over-water everything I could reach. I guess the squash preferred it that way.

The tomatoes have really improved after I added the humus/manure mix. All except one that for some reason is just fading away. It is odd since they were all in the same six-pack, planted and watered the same.

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Amazing Health Research

From www.wholefoods.com

Cantaloupe is an excellent source of vitamin A on account of its concentrated beta-carotene content. Once inside the body, beta-carotene can be converted into vitamin A, so when you eat cantaloupe it’s like getting both these beneficial nutrients at once. One cup of cantaloupe is just 56 calories, but provides 103.2% of the daily value for vitamin A. Both vitamin A and beta-carotene are important vision nutrients. In a study of over 50,000 women nurses aged 45 to 67, women who consumed the highest dietary amount of vitamin A had a 39% reduced risk of developing cataracts. In another study that looked at the incidence of cataract surgery and diet, researchers found that those people who ate diets that included cantaloupe had half the risk of cataract surgery, while those who ate the highest amounts of butter, salt and total fat had higher risks for cataract surgery. Beta-carotene has also been the subject of extensive research in relationship to cancer prevention and prevention of oxygen-based damage to cells.

More from www.wholefoods.com

While studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.

Baybutt’s earlier research had shown that animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet developed emphysema. His latest animal studies indicate that not only does the benzo(a)pyrene in cigarette smoke cause vitamin A deficiency, but that a diet rich in vitamin A can help counter this effect, thus greatly reducing emphysema.

Growing Tips

The names “cantaloupe” and “muskmelon” are used somewhat interchangeably. What is generally called cantaloupe in the west is really a muskmelon, indicated by its webbed surface. Cantaloupes have a smooth and lumpy skin with deep ridges.

Cantaloupe transplants are delicate and roots are sensitive to disturbance. If you need to thin, use scissors. Keep soil intact around plant when transplanting. The plants need lots of water until pollination, however, too much water as the melons are ripening will dilute the sweet flavor. So, reduce watering by about 1/2 during the last month of growth, and stop altogether after you start picking. Most of the sugars in the muskmelon are produced in the last week or so, and too much water will inhibit the production.

To avoid over-ripening, harvest cantaloupes before they naturally separate from the vine. The best way to check maturity of cantaloupes is to place your thumb beside the stem and gently apply pressure to the side. If the stem separates easily, the cantaloupe is ripe.

Buying Ripe Cantaloupes

Choose a cantaloupe that seems heavy for its size, and one that does not have bruises or overly soft spots. Cantaloupes have a sweet fragrance when they are ripe and the blossom end (the end opposite the stem) of the fruit should be slightly soft. Avoid melons with a stem, which indicates the cantaloupe was harvested too early. The rind, underneath the netting, should have turned to yellow or cream from the green undertones that the unripe fruit has. Though available almost year-round, cantaloupe’s peak growing and harvesting season is June thru August.

Great Web Sites

• Cantaloupe Health Info from WholeFoods.com
• Plant Answers from Texas Cooperative Extension Service
• How to Grow Cantaloupe
• Chart showing vitamin/mineral content of many foods
• Free Online Book: Cantaloupe Culture (copyright 1910)

Chilled Cantaloupe Soup with Mint

Recipe from http://www.cantaloupe.org/

Serves:4
Prep Time:10 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 ripe cantaloupe
• 1 cup of water
• 4 tablespoons sugar (or 8 packets Splenda)
• 4 sprigs fresh mint
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• 1 tsp fresh lime zest
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream (for garnish)

How to Prepare:

Add water, sugar, mint leaves (save a few for garnish), lime juice and lime zest in a small saucepan. Boil for 10-minutes until mixture is reduced and syrupy.

While it is reducing, cut and seed the cantaloupe and scoop the flesh into a blender. (Since bacteria can grow on the surface of most melons, it is important to wash the outside of the cantaloupe before cutting into it.)

Pour the syrup over the cantaloupe through a sieve to remove the mint leaves and lime zest.

Pulse a few times to blend and then puree for a few seconds.

Skim the foam off the top and then place in the refrigerator until well chilled for 2-hours.

Serve in chilled bowls with mint leave garnish and a swirl of heavy cream for garnish.

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These 2 tomato plants came from the same six-pack purchased at Wal-mart. They were planted at the same time (the end of May), right next to each other. Because I was too lazy to haul out and open another bag of organic humus with composted manure, half the plants did not get any in their soil. All the plants had soil with lots of organic material and all were mulched.

The plants that didn’t get the manure are definitely smaller, yellower, and much less lush than those with the manure. While we didn’t do this intentionally, it has definitely proven to us the benefits of adding fertilizer when transplanting.

It has been so dry the last 2 weeks that our plants are suffering, especially those in our big garden, apparently because they didn’t get any composted manure fertilizer. After seeing the difference in the tomato plants, and seeing how well the cantaloupes are doing, we purchased several bags of organic humus with composted manure and spent this afternoon spreading it all around the tomatoes, green beans, onions, lima beans, squash and zucchini. We also spread some around the zinnias seedlings in the round garden and gave everyone a good drink of water. We are looking forward to seeing if the veggies improve now.

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Every year we try growing cantaloupe but 2007 was the only time we successfully got a melon. The plants are always weak and spindly, and borers get them and they wither before the fruit ripens. We didn’t even bother to plant any last year at all. But the tiny melon we got that one year was so good that we had to try again.

We thought it might help to grow the plants up on a trellis rather than trailing all over the ground, so when we moved a pile of lumber that had been stacked near some fence posts, we thought it might be a good place to try cantaloupe again.

The weeds and grass underneath the lumber were mostly dead so we just sprayed some Round-Up on what was left. After a few days we chopped up the hard ground a bit, and mixed in some leftover organic humus with composted manure (part of my birthday gift) that we had used on the tomato seedlings in the small square garden.

We made a little hill between the 2 fence posts and planted a seed mix of heirloom cantaloupe varieties we had purchased last year from Bountiful Gardens. We planted the first week of June, right before it was supposed to rain for a few days. That worked beautifully and the seeds sprouted within 4 days, with no work on our part.

We mostly ignored the plants for a while, but when we went to check them 2 weeks later, we found them doing better than we had ever imagined!  They were so sturdy and thick and green. We didn’t water them at all yet they are thriving, whereas the veggies in the big garden, that didn’t get any manure, are dying off. The difference must be the organic humus with composted manure. We’ve never used manure for fertilizer before. I grow mostly flowers, and have always just used compost and the cheapest powder fertilizer that comes in a cardboard box at Wal-Mart for around $3. Even the tomato seedlings we planted with the manure are doing sooooo much better than those without it.

I’m going to purchase a few more bags of the organic humus with composted manure to use in the big garden. The squash and zucchini plants there are doing absolutely horrible though they were planted before the cantaloupe. We’ll see if some manure fertilizer will help them out. 

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