Musk or rock melon – Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis
Casaba, honeydew, Asian melons – Cucumis melo var. inodorus
Watermelon – Cucumis lanatus
Melons are fruits, or berries (pepo) in botanical terms, closely related to cucumber and squash. Sometimes in autumn you might pick an unripe melon to eat, when it has run out of time to ripen, and the flesh tastes almost identical to cucumber.
Melons were grown in ancient Egypt and further south in Africa. There is little certainty about how long ago they were domesticated. Possibly the first melon plants were developed in India and parts of Asia.
- The one thing that all these places have in common is a hot climate.
Harvest period
- Days from seed to first harvest: 90–110, according to warmth.
- Best climate is a hot summer, with daytime temperatures of 24–35 °C/75–95° F.
Why grow them
It is possible to buy tasty melons. However, eating one that is freshly picked and homegrown allows you to experience an extra dimension of flavour, partly a result of that freshness. It’s not only the sweetness but other tastes too, which I wish I could describe in words.
Pattern of growth
The season of growth is short, but we can prolong it by early sowing under cover. Growth in the main season is rapid, during just the three summer months. By early autumn leaves start to die and fruits finish ripening.
Don’t underestimate the need for warmth, otherwise you may spend a lot of time and effort for little result. In cool summers it’s possible to have melons, but with little sweetness or flavour, and you will have used a lot of precious space. At Homeacres I grow them mostly under cover for decent harvests, but rarely enjoy success with outdoor melons.
Sweetest harvests come during the summer months rather than in early autumn, because sunlight is stronger and leaves have more light to convert into sugar. A ripe melon here in August is sweeter than a ripe one harvested in September, although the latter can surprise, when favourable conditions have allowed leaves to stay green.
Melon plants are killed by frost but rarely grow that far into the autumn.
- Melons can self-pollinate, so one plant of any variety will give fruit. They also cross-pollinate with other varieties.
- This is irrelevant for harvesting melons to eat because they are true to type; it’s just the seeds that will not be – see ‘Seed saving’ below
Suitable for containers/shade?
Melon plants need full sunshine.
It is possible to grow them in a container, preferably a large one. The best method is to allow plant stems to trail on the ground, where they can soak up warmth from the soil or concrete. This means you need to allow space around your container.
Minnesota Midget could be a good choice. I have noticed how it adapts to conditions and can grow quite a small plant, with small melons for sure, when the root run is restricted.
Types
Muskmelons have rough and textured or netted skin, and most varieties have orange flesh.
Inodorus melons have smooth skin and flesh of varied consistency and colour, often pale green.
Watermelons have a hard skin and the flesh is more watery than other melons here, plus they need hotter conditions than the other two types, to mature their fruits. The photos below show how well they store, thanks to the hard skin.
Varieties
- Muskmelon or Cantaloupe
Minnesota Midget appeared in the 1940s – it is productive in cooler summers and tastes wonderful when fully ripe.
Sweet Granite is super early, of decent size and with classic orange flesh.
Prescott Fond Blanc needs warmth – it is a 200-year-old variety from France, with large fruit, like squash in appearance.
Kasakh goes from dark green to yellow-green when ripe, with pale green flesh – it has top flavour and sweetness even though green!
Hybrids such as Sweetheart, Alvaro and Emir grow big harvests of fine tasting fruits, up to 1 kg/2.2 lb in weight.
- Inodorus
Tiger melon is from Turkey and has tasty white flesh, a little soft when ripe.
Honeydew melons need more warmth than most musk melons. I grew them outdoors in Southwest France with good results, but they never had as rich a flavour as the local Cantaloupe melons.
- Watermelon
Sugar Baby grows fruits up to 2 kg/4.4 lb in weight, and they take longer to ripen than the other melons described here.
Early Moonbeam lives up to its name and, thanks to its earliness, we can enjoy a sweet harvest herek when other watermelons don’t make it. The flesh is yellow not red, and fruits weigh up to 4 kg/9 lb.
Clear
It’s a quick job to cut surface roots just below the bottom of a main stem.
Or, if you have a string in the plant hole, stand with a foot on either side of the rooting zone close to the main stem, and pull. This removes the plant and string, while leaving most of its roots in the ground, and disturbs the soil very little.
Follow with
Melons finish in autumn, and the best transplants to set in the ground at that time of year are leaf-producing plants, for winter and spring harvest – any salads, chard, kale and spinach.
Also herbs such as coriander and parsley, which are frost hardy and slow to flower when transplanted in autumn. Growth in winter is slow, but you enjoy harvests over a long period.