Cantaloupe and Onions

Sounds like an odd combination, doesn't it?  However, those are the crops that capture my interest today.

Cantaloupe vines climbing the walls of the compost bin

I seeded Tirreno Cantaloupe this past spring, gave away 1 and planted out 2 in the compost bin.  They got off to a slow start because resident wood bugs in the bin were feasting on the stems.  I protected the plants with water bottle collars and they eventually thrived.

They spill out the front as well!

Now they are busy escaping the compost bin - spilling out the front and climbing up the walls.  And there are nice little cantaloupes forming.

Tirreno Cantaloupe

Little football-shaped fruits are hiding under the leaves.  I've counted at least 4 so far and there are probably more.  They are quite toasty in the compost bin as they're protected from breezes there, but get very hot and droopy in the afternoon.  I hose them down to help out a bit, but so far this doesn't seem to be affecting the fruit production.  I'll have to do some research now to find out when they're actually ripe as I've never grown cantaloupe before.

Copra Onions curing in the sun

It's been an excellent year for onions.  Only one plant went to seed as opposed to last year when over half of the plants did it.  Last week, most of the plants had drooped to the ground, signalling that it was just about time to harvest.  I pushed the rest of them down and today I pulled them up.  They look to be in excellent shape and have good size.  They'll cure in the sun for a couple of days (unlike garlic which needs shade while it cures) and then I'll move them into the potting shed until all the roots and leaves are dry.  We store our onions in a vented bin cabinet that my husband made just for the purpose.  Copra is a great onion for storing and lasts well into the spring maintaining excellent quality.  This year I think I only had to buy a couple of onions!