Melons can grow in Hawaii!

In my past post (click here to read) I talked about my melon growing woes, and how my melon plants were infested with leaf miners. I found a solution to these pests, and managed to plant them successfully in the garden. I have not kept rosemary near these plants in the garden, but they have done fine none the less. Perhaps the leaf miners are more prone to potted plants because I just recently started sunflowers, lettuce, and more kale. They have all been infested with leaf miners.

You will know when your melon plant is doing well, when they grow wild and crazy with vines, and their pretty yellow flowers are abundant! You will also see a few bees flying around, pollinating the flowers. The bees love the melon flowers, just as much as the basil!

Usually I see many bees out in my yard, all fluttering and hovering around my basil plants. More recently though I see them near my melon plants. - Which is a good thing, because I want them to pollinate and help my melons grow! To my surprise this morning, I finally found a melon growing nicely!

Now, like in my previous post about melon growing, the thought still comes back to haunt me...FRUIT FLIES. I am going to be keeping an eye out for those nasty buggers, to ensure that this, my one and only melon does well and survives! This little guy is the size of a softball right now, and I hope it survives the next month to grow into a decent sized cantaloupe. - Without bee stings, and rotting or getting eaten by fruit flies.

Here are some precautionary measures that I will take...

1) Place my melon in a brown paper bag, to prevent bee stings and other bugs from getting to them.
2) Occasionally letting it out of the paper bag to breathe, and also spray with a non-chemical bug deterrent.

What do you think? Anyone have success growing melons and battling the same pests? Please let me know what you have encountered and other possible solutions to my melon growing obstacles.

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.