I have 4 melons out there and not really sure when to pick them, here are a couple pictures.
these are the snowmass honeydew, the leaves are yellowing around the plants bu tthe stems are still very much in tact, I do have some of these melons that are turning whitish, like it's time to pick them
more pictures.
french charentais savor
I also have others of these that are bigger and more close to being ready to pick.
i'm sorry, the first picture is sarah's choice cantelope.
here are some snowmass. like other pics, I have some that are turning whitish in color.
some of the sarah's choice are quite nice sized. but no dead vines yet.
more of the snowmass.
Usually melons are ready when the curly pigtail at the juncture of the melon stem and the vine dies. It should turn from green to yellow or brown. Another tip is that the leaf just past the melon on the vine will turn yellow, and/or the attachment of the stem to the vine becomes translucent (I've never noticed this last one.) Different melons look different at maturity. I just picked a Noir de Carmes because it was partly yellow and looked as though it was ready, and it has gotten all yellow on the kitchen counter. I'm not sure if I sacrificed any sweetness by picking before it had gotten completely yellow but I wanted to get it before the turtles did!
It looks like the Charentais behind the closer one is ready to pick, since the pigtail looks brown from what I can see.
Well, now I need to go out and investigate, thanks, I think i see that little pigtail that your talking about.
well, i went out there and picked 3 melons, 2 were good, but could have stayed on the counter for a couple days, but I couldn't help myself I had to cut them open, i'll know next time to let them set a couple days. the savor was far from ready. wasn't even sweet, so i probably could have left that on the vine longer too. I will watch them, cause there are quite a few out there with the curly pigtail dried up and leaf next to the melon brown or yellow. I have plans to make melon balls and freeze them individually then put them into seal ameal bags. for sorbets and other tasty treats this winter.
If you have any ideas for their use after I freeze them, feel free to share if you have the time. thanks for all your help.
kathy ann, watermelons are ones that are usually judged by the tendril drying up. That plus the color change on their bottom is a good sign.
With cantaloupes and many other melons you will do better by letting them grow until they pull themselves from the vine. In other words, grab one and if it easily releases it'll be ready. That combined with a strong ripe smell is what you are looking for.
As for letting it sit on the counter and such after picking, it'll get softer but not any more flavorful or tasty. Sugar content and flavor won't increase once it is picked.
I'm not familiar with the snowmasses though, are they a cantaloupe type?
Hope this helps,
Shoe
Shoe, the leaf turning yellow marker that I cited is from a French garden site, as is the translucent stem idea. Some of my melons don't slip (detach readily from the vine) even when they're ripe, so I was looking for other clues.
Here's the text in French:
*Melons - Astuce du Jarnier *
Un melon sucré est un melon cueilli à maturité. Pour reconnaître le stade de cueillette , c’est très facile : Soit la feuille juste après le melon mur jaunie ( les autres feuilles restent bien vertes ). Ou l’attache du pédoncule devient translucide et apparaît la zone de détachage.
Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.
gh-gal, "Shoe, the leaf turning yellow marker that I cited is from a French garden site, as is the translucent stem idea. Some of my melons don't slip"
Yeh, the slipping melon seems to be more prevalent with cantaloupes. I'll have to keep an eye out for the yellow leaf tip sometime. The past few summers though the dang stink bugs get all my melon plants before the fruit is ready to harvest.
Thanks for the write-up but I don't read French.
Shoe
Oh, well, I translated most of it above. Almost all of my melons are French types rather than true cantaloupes, and the first year I grew them I had a devil of a time figuring out when they were ripe, so I researched it. You're probably right about the pigtail being just for watermelons, but the other markers should work. Try it out.
I've been growing Charentais (French) melons for three summers and have found they don't *slip*. If you are not careful they will just crack open and the bugs will have a feast.
Watch for the stem to have a crack around it where it joins the melon - that's how I tell they are ready. I also pick them up and look at the underside, because that's where they start cracking most often.
Melons do not ripen once picked. When I have more than I can eat - I take off the rind, cut, into chunks and freeze them. After being defrosted, the texture is rather *rubbery* but they taste like melons. I'm going to try using them in smoothies this winter.
I had a bumper crop of melons this summer - they seemed to love the hot weather.
I often lose melons underneath leaves where they crack before I see that they are ready. I'd been watching that Noir de Carmes for a while now, so I would be sure to get it in time. There was still some dark green on the skin but it smells lovely, so I'm curious to see how it will taste when I cut into it.
Thanks honeybee, I'll keep an eye out for that. bummer on them tasting rubbery after frozen. that's discouraging.
kathy_ann - in the middle of January when there's snow on the ground, you won't mind that they taste rubbery. LOL
I love taking food out of the freezer in winter - it reminds me of what it took to get it there. Then I start thinking of next summer's crops, and before I know it - IT'S SPRING!
Gardeners are eternal optimists :)
I also have melons that don't slip. I use the yellow/brown leaf to tell when they are ready. One extra tip: where the melon is attached to a stem may only be a short vine that is attached to the main vine about 6 inches away, and the main vine is where you need to check for the yellow/brown leaf. I have some Asian melons (can't remember the name, not home right now) that don't slip. I watch those for the yellow leaf and also rind color change.
I agree with HOneybee on the Charentais melons, they can be tricky. I've lost more than one to the bugs.
Calalily - the first summer I grew Charentais, I lost all but one to the bugs/squirrels. The second summer, was almost as bad. This year, I got far more than they did! LOL
Well, I picked a couple of Sarah's choice today and pulled one up off the ground and there was the biggest black widow spider on the bottom of the melon that I had ever seen, i will not walk out in that garden any more with my flip flops on. that scared me that thing was big enough to cause some major harm.
kathy_ann - O, my goodness! Even I would have been a little rattled at seeing a black widow. I'm so glad she didn't bite you. I've only ever seen one, they are a beautiful looking spider, but are not welcome in my back yard!
I saw my first Black Widow (at least to my knowledge) when I was in CA for the 4th of July. It was just hanging on a web in the patio it was HUGE, I walked right next to it. I thought "If its dangerous they wouldnt let it hang there". I pointed it out and it was like I yelled "fire". They eventually smashed it with a broom, I didnt realize they got so big. I've never seen one here and now I'm glad we only have scorpions
Here's a video link of a black widow in action! ♥
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/animals/bugs-animals/spiders-and-scorpions/black-widow-spider-predation.html
Tons of Widow Spiders here. Gotta be careful where you put your hands because they love to hangout under the rim of my containers. They are one creature that makes me take a step back and reevaluate the situation. For the past few years the Brown Widow has been much more prevalent, probably 20 to every 1 Black Widow. The Brown are supposed to be less aggressive but aren't near as secretive as the Black. They hang out anywhere and everywhere we do. Chairs, tables, around doors, etc. Last year cleaning and carrying stacks of containers I ended up having 3 on me at one time. Thankfully I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans, so I just flicked them off after about 10 seconds of paralyzed arachnophobia :) Actually surprised I've never been bitten because I encounter them a lot.
Here's what the Brown Widow looks like. She was hanging out next to the back door.
Question please?
When purchasing canteloupe, you can actually smell the fragrance when they are ripe.
Before picking the Charentais melon, can one smell it when ripened?
Good question podster, and now that i'm affraid to get close to the ground out there, i don'tknow if i'll ever be able to smell the melons before picking them lol
LOL ~ sorry ~ that didn't even cross my mind. I planted the vines to grow up a cattlepanel so I can visibly inspect them safely and thoroughly. Whew!
LOOk, I picked one ofm y savor melons tonight, cause it slipped off the vine when I picked it up, and it tastes SO GOOD!!
Looks very yummy! Mine are slower but the vines are loaded. Could you smell it before you cut into it?
My Noire des Carmes melons were ripe but were very bland. It was quite disappointing. I had even added a trace of Borax and epsom salts to the melon patch to help give them more flavor. I wonder why they were so flat.
it did have a nice sweet smell to it, and definitely orangish in color where the rest are still green.
The vines are loaded and I'm watching them like a hawk. Thanks for the when to pick 'em education.
Has anyone tried a banana melon? IMO it was bland and rather like a honeydew.
The banana melons I grew years ago were bland too. My favorites for flavor are Sivan, Ein D'or and Emerald Gem.
Hmmm... new choices to add to the list ~ thanks.
greenhouse_gal - Some of my Charentais were "volunteers" and I noticed some of them were bland. It did occur to me that it was the soil they were growing in that caused it.
The ones I sowed from seed saved from the sweetest Charentais from last year all tasted good. I saved the seed from the sweetest ones to sow again next year. The bed these were in was augmented with crab shell, greensand, and seabird guano. They were also fertilized every two weeks. The volunteers grew all over the place and I did not attend to them.
Having said that: the sweetest melons grew amongst the sweet potatoes. They were not Charentais, but some hybrid from the compost pile. I've saved those seeds, too. Perhaps I'll get more sweet ones again next year.
Thanks, Honeybee. It really seems to be a crap shoot whether melons are sweet or not. I started off saving seeds from some of mine and then tossed them when I realized that the melons they came from were almost tasteless!
greenhouse_gal - I can send you some of my melon seeds if you like.
A couple of summers ago, I let some volunteer tomatoes grow. They looked wonderful, but had no taste whatsoever! Since then, I've not let volunteer tomatoes grow, although when they pop up, it's a good indicator that the ground is warm enough to set out a few home-grown ones.
I was thinking about that! Do you know what kind they are?
My tomato plants are all open-pollinated so any volunteers are true to type.
I need to go and do some reading but it seems I had read that water should be withheld from melon for the last couple of weeks, just like the sweet potatoes. Perhaps too much moisture makes the melons tasteless.
Well, we did have plenty of rain recently. But how do you withhold rain???
