Toss Muskmelon Seeds into a Flower Pot, and a Few Months Later There Are So Many Fruits You Can't Eat Them All

A netizen was eating muskmelon in summer and casually tossed the seeds she spat out into an old flower pot on the balcony, paying them no further attention. A few months later, that flower pot was actually covered in vines and hung with cluster after cluster of muskmelons. The netizen exclaimed, "If I'd known, I would have planted more back then. Now I can't even finish them all and have to give them away to the neighbors!"

At first, the netizen didn't take it seriously at all. She said eating muskmelon in summer is especially refreshing; the only hassle is spitting out the seeds. There happened to be an empty flower pot on the balcony with a bit of soil left over from growing flowers before, so she casually tossed the seeds in. She didn't even turn the soil, just splashed a little water on them while watering the flowers, and then forgot all about it.

After about ten days or so, she accidentally noticed several tender green sprouts poking out of the flower pot, with round little leaves that looked especially vigorous. It took her a while to realize that the muskmelon seeds she had tossed in earlier might have sprouted. At that time she didn't have any expectations, thinking "at most it'll just grow some leaves, it can't really bear melons, can it?" So she still just raised them casually, watering when she remembered, and letting them fend for themselves when she didn't.

But these little seedlings grew like crazy! In less than a month, the vines had already climbed out over the edge of the flower pot and grown fine tendrils. Worried they would sprawl everywhere, the netizen found a bamboo pole and stuck it into the flower pot. Unexpectedly, the vines twined up along the bamboo pole and soon covered half the balcony. Even more surprising was that before long, the vines actually produced small yellow flowers, each a tiny bloom with a faint fragrance. Only then did the netizen start taking it seriously, going to the balcony to check every day and watering the plant with some diluted rice-washing water, thinking "even if it doesn't bear melons, it's nice to look at the flowers."

After about another month, the netizen discovered that after the flowers fell, tiny muskmelon fruits had actually appeared! At first they were only as big as a fingernail, green, and she was afraid they wouldn't survive, so she deliberately looked it up online. It turned out that after muskmelons set fruit, you have to build a support for the vines so the melons have somewhere to hang, otherwise the branches can easily break under the weight. She quickly found a few strings, secured the vines, and occasionally misted the leaves with water.

Unexpectedly, these muskmelons grew extremely fast. Within a few days they had grown to the size of a fist, and their color slowly changed from green to pale yellow, feeling quite firm to the touch. When the skin had completely turned yellow and they smelled sweet, the netizen picked one and tasted it - it was actually sweeter than the ones bought outside! The flesh was soft and glutinous, with plenty of juice, not inferior at all to the varieties sold in supermarkets.

Now in her balcony flower pot, more than a dozen ripe muskmelons are hanging, with several green ones still slowly growing. The netizen said, "Every day after work I come home and pick one to eat. They're so fresh and sweet, and the ones I can't finish I bag up and give to the neighbors. Everyone finds it amazing - who would have thought that casually tossed seeds could bear so much fruit!"

This story really tempted me too. Next time I eat muskmelon, I'll never casually toss the seeds again. Maybe my balcony can also achieve "muskmelon freedom"!