Melon Growing in Hawaii - Lots of Problems...

I have read on the gardening forum for Hawaii gardeners, that melons do not do well here. Big tomatoes like beef steak, squash, and melons do not do well because of bugs. Fruit flies eat the fruit and damage it. I have encountered leaf problems with my melons this summer. They are tiny bugs that go into the plant from the soil and eat through the leaves from the inside out. When I looked up this problem, I found that the bugs are called leaf miners.

As you can see on the left leaf, there are tiny white lines going all over it. That is where the leaf miner bugs attacked. This happened to all four of my melons that I have been growing in these cups. To solve the problem, I pinched off the leaves that were eaten through, then I placed my melon plants next to my rosemary plant. I also took some sprigs from the rosemary and placed them in the cup, on top of the soil. The rosemary keeps bugs away! To further test my experiment, I grew about six new melon plants. I placed the rosemary in the cup from the time they were very little sprouts. It has been about three weeks, and so far there are no bugs or more specifically, no leaf miners, attacking my newly planted melon seeds. When I plant these babies into the garden, I will need to remember to place rosemary around them as well. A garden is a giant playground for all sorts of pests and bugs, and I don't want them ruining my newly grown melon plants. Now the next thing I have to worry about is the  pesky fruit flies. I don't want those things to start eating the melons once they start developing. I'm going to have to go do some research on keeping them away.

Zucchini FAIL

I started growing zucchini this summer. I was so excited, because I LOVE ZUCCHINI! I have been terribly disappointed with my growing results. I planted about ten zucchini seeds, not knowing how well they would germinate and grow. Well almost all of them grew! I had seven zucchini plants in my garden this summer.

My zucchini plants suffered greatly from powdery mildew. I blame myself mostly, because number one: I had 7 zucchini plants planted very close together, in my small garden. There was not enough room for them all to grow substantially. And number two: I didn't maintain a good mildew prevention spray schedule. When the air got humid, the mildew grew and spread quickly. I kept having to cut leaves off. I feel like this was the beginning of the end for my zucchini plants.

So I cut all the leaves and stems off that were affected by the mildew, and I kept a close eye on it. The mildew however, spread like wild fire, and attacked my zucchini plants horrendously. The leaves were all blotchy and white, I felt like I would never see flowers, let alone a zucchini. Three of my plants grew but did not look good at all from the chopping off of mildew covered leaves. So I dug them up and tossed them away. The fourth one died. I guess it was just too hot and I wasn't giving it enough water.

My last three zucchini plants were transplanted into the ground, and finally baby zucchinis were beginning to emerge. I was so happy, but the happiness did not last. All three zucchini plants had blossom end rot, AND powdery mildew.

I am afraid to try growing them again, because I don't want the same thing to happen to my new batch. I have read that blossom end rot is brought on by calcium deficiency in the soil. So I am looking for all kinds of solutions for this. I have a hunch that maybe this is what is really wrong here. - My bell pepper plants suffered the same fate. The peppers would grow to a small size, and then rot. The pepper bush did not grow very big and strong either, which leads me to further believe that I have a case of low calcium soil. I have heard from others to use egg shells, or ground up sea shells to add calcium to my soil. I have also heard that I could mix in a chemical - lime. But I am skeptical about adding chemicals to my garden. I do not want to do that at all really. If I absolutely have to, it would be my very last resolution to this problem I am facing.

Anyone else have suggestions for me on this zucchini growing problem?

Powdery Mildew

Today was the first day, in 3 days that I could actually do something in my garden. But it wasn't all that fun.

I had to cut and get rid of a lot of my newly grown zinnia flowers. The leaves were covered in mildew patches due to the rain and humidity. I've read that you could use a homemade spray to prevent mildew from spreading, but if the leaves or plant already has spots, you need to cut them off and get rid of it, or the mildew will just keep spreading.

So my zinnias went from huge to sparse. I was not happy. Once I got rid of the mildew stricken parts I sprayed the remaining ones down with my homemade spray of baking soda, water, dish washing soap, and vegetable oil. Let's hope this works. I'll re-apply in a couple days.

Zinnia's went from this...

To this. :(