My sad attempt to grow the Tursuluk Kelek

In Turkish, the term Tursuluk Kelek roughly translates into “unripe melon”. However, the word Kelek or unripe can mean a number of other things, such as without hair or stupid. A doctor I was talking to one day who came from Turkey said that it also means that something is “no good”. The last meaning is what my experience with the Tursuluk Kelek.

March 23rd, 2019

March 26th

April 1st

April 3rd

The seeds that I received from my brother were very good seeds. They sprouted quickly and the plants grew well. Once in the ground, however, it was a different story. As anyone who has grown in a sterile soil can tell you, plants require healthy bacteria to grow well.

April 11th

April 29th

Having healthy bacteria - along with being aware of when the plant was low on water - were two things was just one of the many mistakes I made with this plant. Part of the problem was how I set up my hydroponic buckets. The issue is that I was using tomato cages that were larger than the baskets. This meant that if I wanted to look under the baskets, I had to remove the wire cages from the soil around the buckets.

April 30th

June 11th

By the time in the season that I figured out this trick and began looking at water levels more often, it was too late. I tried my best to add water to the Tursuluk Kelek, but the roots that required air were already growing down toward the bottom of the bucket. This meant that when I added a lot of water, I drowned the plant. If you, as a gardener, have ever experienced how a plant acts when it cannot get air, you will understand what I am talking about. Though I imagine plant roots can live without air longer than people can, the window of time for plants to survive without air is extremely short.

June 14th