P Schaaf

Good luck with your experiment!

My son in law planted some melon seeds in walls of water a while ago. So far, the soil has been too cool and nothing has sprouted. I try to avoid cooler temps because it makes the plants sulk, and they seem to have a hard time bouncing back. But it's tempting to plant here in early May... just risky because we never know what Mother Nature will do in May here.

I plan to start my seedlings indoors in a couple of weeks, and then move them out when soil temps are in high 70's (late May or early June?).

My Sweet Dakota Rose seeds came from Masa Seeds down in Boulder. It is listed at 75 days to maturity (starting from when you transplant- not sure how long from seed). Last year I got two melons from my plant in early September and they were delicious. They did not get any bigger after mid-August, but they were not ready to pick for a few weeks.

I did not get any from my Crimson Sweet watermelon plant. I got a few Charentais, but they are slower to ripen (excellent taste, so worth trying).

Early Dew and Ha' Ogen are the most productive year to year. I buy Early Dew starts from Loveland Garden Center.

I’ve also replanted in same spot without any problem. I’d encourage you to check out Contender variety- also cold hardy and later blooming. In my experience, it’s a better tasting peach than Reliance.

I live west of Loveland CO at 5000 ft. (zone 5) and have been growing melons for ~10 years. At first, I had trouble getting melons ripe here in time. I was about to give up. Then a neighbor had a “melons for sale sign” in early September. They were delicious and let me know it was possible.
Since then I’ve had lots of yummy melons. Varieties I’ve had luck with: Sweet Dakota Rose (watermelon), Lily (Crenshaw), Ha Ogen, Charentais, EarliDew (honeydew).
Things that help- pick shorter season varieties (80 days if possible), start in biodegradable pots indoors in early May, set out in late May/early June, often in Walls of Water, getting soil warm early in the season (black plastic with slits so I can remove once plants get going), keeping disease pressure low during peak hot weather (July and early August), picking off  cucumber beetles and discouraging voles, drip irrigation to reduce powdery mildew occurrence, trellised on cattle panels, and protecting against Sept frosts with row cover at night.
As with much of gardening, it’s not one thing, but getting everything to work out for a crop. If something goes wrong, it often means no ripe melons since it is always a race with our short season.
I am always worried when melons are golfball sized in mid July, but they grow fast in August. By late August, days shorten, and they stop getting bigger, but still are ripening.
Figuring out ripeness varies by variety- some “slip” like Honeydew, but others are ripe without slipping.
By late September, the plants usually look pretty beat (I cut back on water then to promote ripening and sweetness, and we have often had a frost by then), but the fruit is wonderful. So much better than I can get at grocery of farmers market.
From three 3X6 trellised beds I got approximately 30 melons.
This season, I am going to try some Lofthouse Oliverson landrace seeds that I bought from Buffalo Seed Co.
I hope this thread gets renewed attention from other Colorado melon lovers. I can always learn more from others’ experiences.

If you’d like ideas on tasty apples, I recommend Adam’s Apples blog. He’s tasted many apples, reviewed them humorously, and has fans around the world that add their comments. https://adamapples.blogspot.com/
WARNING: it can be a rabbit hole and has led me to acquire an unrealistic number of scions!

I’d choose site carefully, if you have options. When I moved into our house, there was a vegetable garden near a small pond. I started gardening, added beds, planted a few fruit trees, added a fence. The problem is that it is in a lower area and gets some shade from larger trees near pond (west of garden). Not a problem for berries and veggies, but it has caused problems for fruit trees with late frosts and maybe damper soils. I’ve planted additional trees in an area uphill about 50’ that gets full sun and the difference is noticeable (I’ve got some overlapping varieties and the “upstairs” ones are doing better). I didn’t think hard enough about siting those first trees, and as a result, I’ve eaten less fruit (particularly peaches). Fruit trees teach you observation and patience.

I’d also have talked to more people about sourcing trees, varieties, pruning, rootstocks and grafting. I started out with a few larger (and expensive) trees from nurseries. They were a good start, and are doing fine, but I kinda just let them go and was reluctant to prune heavily. Now I’ve learned to buy bare root trees, and learned much more about pruning (how, when, why). I didn’t believe small trees would catch up with larger trees, but they have. And I’ve learned to take those big cuts on a peach tree to train to an open center. I think fruit trees are kinda like dogs… I prefer to get them young and train them myself.

Another thing is to know who you are growing for… we have nearby family and like to eat fruit and make some cider. I like to bake a few pies. But when I buy apples, for instance, I don’t buy bushels. And yet, in a good year with bigger trees, this may be what you get. So I’ve gone with techniques to keep trees smaller and grafting multiple varieties on them. Ann Ralph’s book Growing Small Fruit trees is a good start, but you will likely need to modify for your zone/climate/soil.

Good luck- it’s a lot of fun to have a small orchard.

I live on Front Range of Colorado (zone 5b). I have been pruning apples and pears in mid-March. Our trees are still dormant and buds small. We’ve had a pretty warm, dry winter here. Lots of days in 50’s and 60’s (until a wet snow today). Our last frost is usually late April and fruit trees usually bloom in mid-May here. Our main concern with pruning too late is fireblight, which is prevalent here. So we try not to prune near budding/blooming because that is when this spreads. I also try not to prune if there’s  wet weather in the forecast. If you’re concerned trees are waking up, it could still be fine to prune out dead wood, broken branches and crossing/rubbing branches (as long as you aren’t worried about fireblight).

As others have mentioned, summer pruning can be better for shaping/reshaping older trees. And many like to prune stone fruit closer to bloom time (due to concerns about other diseases).

I’m a fan of Oren Martin and he has good videos about pruning on the UC Santa Cruz website. And a good book.
Good luck!