Most gardeners make a costly mistake when they grow cucumbers and muskmelons. They plant much too soon in the spring when cool soil temperatures inhibit the growing of these fruiting vegetable plants. Almost in desperation, they overfeed the plants with dire consequences. As the weather turns hot, cucumbers are victimized by striped and spotted cucumber beetles, melons fall victim to disease. This “data sheet” focusses on cultural practices governing cucumber and melons in backyard gardens.

When you plant cucumbers and melons is critical. The soil should be hot, if not very warm. Only you know when soil conditions are ripe for planting these crops. If you are intent on growing peppers this year, set out pepper plants when the temperature is soaring and the last place you want to be is planting in the garden.

Plan ahead. Weeks before planting, prepare the garden where cucumbers and melons will soon be growing. What’s needed: two or more 40 or 50-pound bags of composted cow manure, one or more bags of quality humus (in the Washington area, your best choice is Leafgro), and bag of pulverized limestone.

Where you grow cukes and melons is important. Ideally, plant cucumbers and melons along the sunny border of the vegetable garden, not in the garden as people have been doing for years. By growing plants along the border, it lets you train the vines so they grow out of the garden instead of in. If you’ve grown vining crops before, you know what happens when vines swarm around your other tender veggies.

Begin by choosing areas along the border where you will grow these crops. Apply the entire bag (or two) of Leafgro over the soil, followed by a liberal application of composted cow manure down the row. Apply a sugar-coating of pulverized lime, then cultivate everything into the top four inches of soil a week or so before planting. Let everything settle a week or more before you plant.

When should you buy your starter plants? Wait until the last days before you plant to shop. Why shop at the nursery? Because the nursery manager will identify his vining cucumber and melon plants. Don’t buy anything unless the manager shows you the difference between “bush” and “vining” plants.

On the other hand, if you buy plants at the chain store, you won’t be able to tell bush from vining. If you ask a clerk, guaranteed you will get the wrong answer. Take our advice: shop at a nursery.

When you get home, water the plants lightly, and again the next morning before planting.

Cucumbers may be planted in the soil, but melons are best grown in “hills.” Rely on Leafgro for creating miniature hills three inches high by six inches wide to accommodate two starter plants. Work a small amount (maybe a garden trowel) of sharp sand into each hill when you create them. Space hills four feet apart around the border. Set two plants opposite each other in each hill, and water carefully. For the next two weeks, morning sprinkling of these plants will be needed everyday unless it rained in the past 24 hours; if so, skip watering the next day.

After planting, use a trowel to create a special landscape encircling each hill. Move away three inches from the hill on all sides to dig a ditch (best called “a moat”) around the plants. The moat should be three inches wide and four inches deep. Save the soil taken up so you can create a dike around the moat to keep water and fertilizer in the ditch. Backfill the moat with chunky mulch, never shredded mulch.

In the first days after planting, apply a water-soluble plant food of your choice for morning sprinkling on one day to supply a burst of energy for your plants.

The moat surrounding your plants makes the harvest miracle happen. The energy source is composted cow manure, the same manure worked into the hills when you planted. Stir one heaping garden shovel of composted cow manure into a gallon of water in a bucket, then fill each and every moat with this “manure tea.”

How often should you apply manure tea? Once a week will produce spectacular dividends from planting time to early October. Ideally, it should not have rained the day prior to applying manure tea. In the absence of rain, water the moats once a week, but after applying cow manure.

Are other animal manures beneficial? No, only composted cow manure. Poultry manure will kill roots on contact, horse manure contains to many weed seeds as to make it impractical for vegetable garden use.

Within a week of planting, vines will appear and seem to grow several inches every day. When vines are six inches long, pick them up one by one and turn them to grow outside the vegetable garden. Vines have soft tissue at this time, so no injury will come by moving the vines in a new direction. If you delay moving the vines when the tissue hardens, you shouldn’t attempt moving them.

The secret to harvesting dozens and dozens of cucumbers and melons is growing short vines, but multiple shoots on which fruiting vegetables develop. You do it by pruning.

When vines have lengthened to 12-14 inches, prune a quarter-inch beyond a side shoot growing off the vine. On each vine, only a few shoots (maybe two or three) will have developed at this point, but still you must prune a bit beyond the last shoot (actually a node). Prune each and every vine at this point. Growth stops at the point of pruning, but the plant’s energy is now redirected into forming more side shoots along this segment of the vine. Let’s call it “section A.”

New side shoots develop along this section after pruning, almost doubling the number of shoots than before you pruned. However, at the end of the first week, the vine starts growing again. When vines reach another 12-plus inches (section B), prune once more just beyond the outermost shoot (node). Over the next week, the plant’s energy is focussed entirely on growing more side shoots along the 24-plus inches of the vine. Finally, vines start growing again a week later. It’s doubtful vines will exceed the third section without need of pruning unless there are tropical temperatures in late September.