Will the compost pile bear fruit? A garden experiment

I am a stay-at-home mother and housewife. I have been for a very long time. But in my life before kids I was a scientist.

My favorite part of science, like many, is discovering something new. And there are brilliant people, theoretical scientists, who through the knowledge of their field make predictions about the way nature works. On the other hand, experimental scientists create the experiments that either confirm or contradict the theoretical scientists hypothesis.

By nature I am an experimentalist with a desire to see how the world works that has translated into my everyday life. I want to get my hands in there. I want to get dirty. I’m always looking for the new or better way to do something; whether it’s learning to make yogurt (microbiology!), to trying new recipe for dinner, to managing my family’s finances, to growing better plants in the garden.

If you are a gardener you’re an experimentalist, too.

Most gardeners are looking for the best way to grow their plants and we learn from our successes and failures from previous years.

For many years I noticed that certain plants would volunteer to grow out of the compost heap if I didn’t turn it frequently enough. Any time a plant with seeds is thrown into the compost there is the potential for germination. Many times we have seen volunteer tomatoes, squash and cucumbers start themselves in the heap. But these plants may not produce the same quality vegetable as the parent plant if you used any hybrid plants in your garden.

A hybrid plant is produced when two different plant varieties are crossed to give a new variety with better characteristics such as flavor or disease resistance. To get the same plant each time you must use the seeds from crossing those same parent plants. Seeds from the hybrid will revert back to the parents characteristics which may be less desirable.
So, after watching what nature could do it wasn’t a huge leap to see if I could intentionally grow a plant out of the compost pile. Something big and viney that I don’t have a lot of space for elsewhere and would cover the ugly compost pile through summer outdoor season.

Watermelons! On our small property there really isn’t space for a sprawling watermelon so this would be a great opportunity to try to grow them.

My concerns about trying this involved adequate water supply and balanced nutrition for the plant. Well that’s what an experiment is all about. Could this plant grow and produce fruit without traditional garden soil and consistent watering?

Our compost heap fills a wire cage that is 3 feet in diameter and about 4 feet high.There was about 3 feet of yard waste in the compost pile. I added a little garden soil to the top of the pile and planted a few Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds.

The seeds germinated. The plant grew. The plant flowered. Even during the extensive heat wave in July the plant did well without exhibiting any signs of stress.

Time passes and in August, we are in the garden weeding around the compost pile when I spot it – a beautiful, green, round watermelon.

Never having grown watermelon I had no idea when to harvest it. When Brian Nigro was visiting later that day I asked him to show me how to determine ripeness. We headed over to the compost heap and and he’s telling me to check the tendril closest to the watermelon to see if it is drying up and as he’s showing me we realize the watermelon isn’t even attached to the vine anymore. Gasp! When I was weeding around the compost i must have pulled a weed too roughly through the watermelon plant. Experiment FAIL!

Oh well. Not all is lost as the chickens will enjoy this under ripe watermelon. The area was for compost not plants so it’s no real loss. I’ll just add the vine to the compost pile, eventually.

But last week I was working in the garden and I saw another beautiful, round watermelon. My heart skipped a beat and I did a little happy dance in the the backyard. I never expected another watermelon so late in the season.

The tendril is starting to shrivel and the rest of the plant still looks healthy. The bottom of the fruit is starting to turn a yellow green which is another sign that it’s ripening, but it doesn’t sound hollow yet so I’m going to wait, pray for mild weather, and hope that it has time to ripen.

In the garden it’s time for fall cleanup to begin.

• Remove spent annuals
• Plant a cover crop – Talmage Farm Agway has winter rye in stock. Plant it now and dig it into the soil in the spring.
• Weed
• Deadhead and clean up spent perennials
• Plant daffodil and tulip bulbs now for spring bloom
• Peonies prefer being transplanted during the fall. The peonies will take a couple of years to start blooming well but once they do you will get a profusion of flowers. For more information on the culture of peonies see Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s informative guide.

Amy Davidson is a resident of downtown Riverhead and co-founder of River and Roots Community Garden. She has been a backyard gardener for 16 years. When she is not in the garden she is herding seven chickens, two dogs, two cats, two kids and one very patient husband.

Contact Amy Davidson: amy@riverheadlocal.com