Friday, June 11, 2010

My Watermelon SIP

(Note from H2: with this post we welcome Kara--aka Little Green Girl--as co-blogger. Yesterday she attended the Chicago Blackhawks celebration parade with two million of her closest friends. Let's give her a warm hello, GRGers!)


SIP stands for Sub Irrigated Planter. My watermelon SIP fits in a small space 12" X 12". The best thing about it is that it's easy to take care of and it can't be over-watered either because of the holes at the bottom that drain the water.

You can grow almost any plant in it. I have 2 kinds of personal watermelons. One is a Fordhook Hybrid, which can weigh up to 14 pounds. The other is an Ice Box Mickylee and it can weigh up to 8 to 10 pounds. It takes 70 to 80 days to grow a melon. They are both supposed to be very tasty!

My watermelons are doing great now and are about a month and a half old and the vines are 10" long. We'll need to make a trellis soon. I'll share that in my next post.

Thanks Heidi, Bruce and Art for making my SIP!

Kara

6 comments:

H2 said...

What color will the Fordhook hybrid be inside, Kara? And what color will be Icebox Mickylee be?

Unknown said...

If you trellis the watermelon plant, how will you support the fruit once it's more than a few ounces?

Unknown said...

Way to go, Kara!

Debbie said...

Hi, the watermelons are going to be red inside.

To support the watermelons we are going to make a hammock for it. It might be made of an old t-shirt or netting from an onion bag.

There is a picture of one on this site. http://www.mybalconyjungle.com/watermelons.html

Thanks for commenting!

markgart said...

Way to go, Kara! I have a garden this year too, but no watermelons. Maybe we can trade a green pepper or tomato for a melon? This is an exciting web page, have a great Summer!

Debbie said...

markgart thanks for the offer but how about I teach my teacher how to grow a watermelon in a SIP?

Kara