I finally did it -- grew excellent productive canteloupes without using any industrially produced plant food, or animal materials. I used only composted plant matter. I grew them, basicly, in pure compost, 1.5 feet deep. A 6 foot by 6 foot area of compost, 1.5 feet deep, supported one melon plant with 3 medium sized melons. To produce this amount of composted, I started with about 3 bags of grass clippings (from my own unfed lawn grass), and 4 bags of fall leaves. It had started out as a pile about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide and and 4 feet high (and became 1.5 feet deep and 6 feet by 6 feet, as it matured, and I forked it into a smaller area). That is a lot of collected material to feed 3 melons. A lot of time mowing my lawn and raking leaves. Canteloupes are heavy feeders. I would have needed only a handful of industrially produced plant food to grow the same melons, in unimproved sandy soil. This is the first year I got a good crop of melons without using industrially produced plant food in addition to composted plant matter. Normally, I try to grow about 100 melons, not 3, so I just don't have time to make a compost pile starting out 4 foot deep, 6 feet wide, and 400 feet long, which would be the amount needed. I don't even have enough room to make this much compost! It would require piling plant matter about 6 feet deep over my whole garden!

That's interesting. I never knew that about melons...I don't care for them so I've never tryed to grow them; I only use compost in my little garden.