Let's talk melons!

OK--I'm going to start a thread....I finally got some seeds of the melon I've really been wanting at the RU yesterday from AMPY of Austin (one cool gardening girl!). I refused to grow the others I had, sulking over the fact that Johnny's wanted $4 something for the seeds and I didn't need anything else from them. It's motivated me to get out there and plant my Charentais melons....we have such a long season, I was getting in the last of my spring green beans last weekend and glad I waited! Ok, I know you guys from Fla got melons and Fool has melons; and others have melons. Straw bale melons, EB melon, in the ground melons, melons in UFO's...let's see ya'lls melons and hear all about them!
Debbie

Debbie, by melons I am going to include watermelons as they have nearly always been my favorite fruit/vegetable. We have a tomato forum with hundreds of posts so thank you Debbie for giving a voice to melons.

I tried for years to raise good melons and I believe I have learned a lot about how to get those nice lusious ones. They grow them big time in SW Indiana, but they need extra help here for the most part.

I do have cantaloupes. I plan on about 18 plants.....about 8 of that super star...Willhite's Sugar Queen. Then I like to throw in a Pulsar and some crenshaws and St. Nick of the Santa Claus type.

For watermelons...I LOVE that Raspa from Willhite and their Rojo Grande. Sangrias can be super too as are about 15 other varieties I have started. ...kind of like the tomato freaks. Yes, you have to about grow them yourselves to get what you want and picked dead ripe and not a week sooner for shipment...what a difference!

Indy--I'm so glad you posted! I'm sitting here making a Willhite order (I love that company!) and you helped me decide on Raspa, Rojo Grande, and Sangria! Oh yes--watermelons are most DEFINITELY melons! Actually the queen of melons! I'm only growing the Charentais and everything else is watermelons. I have some sugar baby someone gave me...they probably aren't worth the "limited space" huh? I'm intuitively feeling I should go with those Willhite varieties. I get alot of green beans, carrots, and cucmbers from them too.
Debbie

Debbie, I have never grown Sugar Baby. I think that a newer version is Jade Star...but I like others much better.
Willhite doesn't carry Sangria [Twilley Seeds does though].
Though cantaloupe can be really good, nothing compares to properly raised home watermelons grown in that amended soil!! [tomatoes are good, but watermelons can be scrumptious and heavenly]

And alot sweeter too!
Debbie

Most of my melons got wiped out last year by that stupid cucumber beetle virus. But one survived that and everything else: the Ali Baba watermelon from Iraq (got it at Baker Creek). It performed beautifully, and those melons had a lovely rich, sweet flavor. They weren't *just* sweet; there was something a bit more complicated to the flavor. Maybe they were just super watermelony. :)

Thanks for the thread Debbie. It's nice to know I won't be alone. I had to leave my seeds in my shed and come inside today as it was to hot but I will go back out around 7pm and plant them in my EBs.

Zeppy,
I tried Ali Baba in 2003. They grew well, but in two different locations they did not have much sweetness or flavor for me. They are almost identical in looks to the Charleston Gray melon except seed color perhaps.

dmj, wish I had know you wanted the Charentias seeds, I have a gazillion.

I hear your just the person I need to talk to about the Sept Kentucky roundup...roadrunner made it sound like a "must hit" DG event...tell me more!
Debbie

I just transplanted Ananas Melon into an earthbox.I bought the seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds.

These are the melons we used to eat when I lived in Israel.They are very sweet.This is the first time I am growing melons in this garden.

This year I'm growing Ambrosia muskmelon (cantaloupe) as well as a new one for me called "Hearts of Gold" and also Sakata's sweet melon (seed savers exchange). My Ambrosia's did really well last year - so much better than any melon I had bought in the store. It was the first time I grew melons. I trellised them. I also did Noir de Carmes and a Charentais last year, but they were nothing to write home about, which was disappointing. I will try them again this year.

Grew Crimson Sweet watermelon last year, started a bit late for this far northern climate and harvested them long after first frost only by covering the patch with plastic at night.

This year, I planned ahead and will have Sugar Baby seedlings ready to set out when the ground warms. It would be nice to have a watermelon on Labor Day rather than a month later.

Next year, I'd like to try other melons, like cantelopes. Or maybe this year if the garden center has any plants. Been a long time since I grew them down in a little warmer area.

Wayne

I tried Ambrosia once about 10 years ago, it did not do well but I think I'm going to have to revisit that variety again now that my soil is much better! Anything with a name like that I think deserves a second try!
Debbie

Debbie - good thread!

I grew Charentais last year but I think it's too hot here for them. I only got a few fruit.

I'll be planting melons soon, hopefully by this weekend. I need to weed one of the garden areas where some of my fall maters have been the past 6 months.

Here's what I've got for this season - Sugar Baby, Orangeglo and Scaleybark watermelons; Rockford honeydew and Iroquois melon.

Flip

My favorite of the Orange fleshed cantaloupes. Note that Ambrosia does not make my top ten. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/96241/index.html. Of course my personal favorite melons are the Galia types like Passport and Rocky Sweet. Trialing Antalya this year.

Sounds good Farmerdill, but as you point out in PlantFiles, seeds of that variety are not easy to find. Doesn't seem to be available but a search is tricky because the word "supermarket" pulls up so much other junk on grocery stores! Do you have seed you are willing to share/trade?

Maybe because growing the ambrosia was the first time I grew melons, and it was so much better than the store-bought type, I just don't have a wide enough experience with other varieties. The ones I brought in to work, people just raved about. But there could be even better out there for my Iowa zone and clay (although amended) soil.

I haven't had much luck with melons but I still keep on trying. The most discouraging part is watching them ripening and just as they reach their peak, finding out the racoons have been watching them too and have cleaned you out while you were sleeping. Urrrh! Those rotten raccoons dug up half a dozen annuals and a few planters I had just finsihed setting out and dug them up and turned them over.

Rose--I feel your pain with the raccoons. I had part of my winter garlic eatten by some unknown rodent (squirrel or rat) and know the frustration!

Flip--If its too hot there for Charentais, its probably going to be too hot here too. I'll cut back to one hill of that variety and see how it does.

Everyone--thanks for posting...I'm rethinking my melon varieties since I can still order and easily make a crop here (heats one thing we got for a LONG TIME to come! LOL). I think I'll try one hill of Sugar Baby and those two varieties from Willhite. I bet in my "smallish" garden vines are going to be everywhere! Good--maybe they will shade the fall tomato transplants?

Pumpkins roughly qualify as melons, huh? What are ya'lls plans there? Or should we start a squash thread?

Debbie

We're going to try the Howard Dill Atlantic Giant pumpkin. It's the first time.

We grow a lot of other squash too - zucchini mostly, patty-pan, and butternut (first time this year).

So far no raccoons in my yard, hope it stays that way!

I get the cantaloupe Supermarket from Wetzels ( Harrisonburg Virginia) They can be mailordered from Merrifield garden Center http://www.merrifieldgardencenter.com/products.php?openparent=1108&pid=

Thanks for the link! I'll use it and try that variety this year as long as they ship soon!

So can I grow watermelons from seed here in 4b? I haven't seen any grown here.

If you can. Sandy soil is prefered. Watermelons hate clay. Try a very early maturing cultivar. Little Baby Flower (F1)(Johnny's) , Yellow Doll (Stokes),
Lantha, New Queen , (Veseys), New Hampshire Midget (Sandhill Preservation). This is a case where you may want to start in cups and use black plastic to warm the soil.

Thanks Farmerdill. I shall attempt this plant this year.

This my first year with melons. I really want the charentais melons and ordered them, but they never came. I am growing canteloupes: Haley's Best Jumbo, Ambrosia and Athena. I am also growing honeydew and sugar baby watermelons.

I have got to get some of those charentais seeds.

kanita

I made raised beds on top of my clay and filled them with topsoil, mushroom compost, home-made compost, and some peat. The cantaloupes seemed to like it last year. I have noticed lots of worms in the raised beds this year so I hope they are slowly amending the soil underneath also (i.e. under the sod that is at the bottom of the raised beds).

Kanita, I have some charentais seeds from Seed Savers Exchange purchased last year. I could send you some if you like.

I raise transplant melons here to get earlier ones...like July....and on. It works because I harvested an early type on June 21st a couple years ago. My early ones are starting to vine. ...... regular ones are ready to plant when it warms and dries more and I got some just coming up.

I raise mostly Raspa, Rojo Grande, Sangria, Ole, Royal Star...and...about 15 others of one or two apiece....like Gold Strike, Orangeglo, SF 790, Crest, Yellow Doll, Tiger Baby, Legacy, Tendergold, Crimson Sweet, AU Sweet Scarlet. Yeah I like watermelons. I don't eat slices, but eat quarters at a time as this saves the juice in the "boat" which is the best part of all.

For cantaloupes I like Sugar Queen best. I am partial to crenshaw like types. Also that St. Nick is so good and very productive.

I have one Savor charentais type but may not like it if it is anything like Ambrosia which is winey and musky to me.

Just for kicks, My top ten American type cantaloupes.
1. Super market
2. Burpee Hybrid/ Star Headliner
4. Sugar Queen
5. Excellence
6. Honey Rock (op)
7. Roadside
8. Iroqouis (op)
9. Rocky Ford Gold flesh (op)
10. Pulsar

Water melons
1. AU Sweet Scarlet (op)
2. Tendersweet (orange flesh)(op)
3. Legacy (0p)
4. Dixie Queen /Chris Cross (op)
6. Orangeglow (op)
7. Desert King (op)
8. Crimson Sweet (op)
9. Stone Mountain (op)
10. Cream of Saskatchewan/ White Sugar lump

Misc melons
1. Passport ( Galia type)
2. Rocky Sweet (Galia Type)
3. Earli-dew ( honey dew type)
4. Venus (honey dew type)
5. Ogen (Haogen, Israeli) (op). This thing is productive and delicious when conditions are right. A little picky about growing conditions tho.
6. Burpee's Early Crenshaw
7. Yellow Canary (op)
8. Magic to Dew (Honeydew type)
9. Rocky Ford Green flesh (op)
10. Sweetie

Thanks Cmoxen. You have d-mail.

Thanks for the listing Farmerdill, you have just made my seed ordering much more complicated!! I will have to pick and choose a few and see if I have room to grow a few more plants this year. I better buy a few more pairs of nylons too, because I cut them up and use them for fruit slings as the melons are ripening (since I trellis and they would be too heavy for the stems otherwise).

Now I'm really scratching my head since I need to get an order in.....too many choices is a good thing! Glad to see the excitement about this thread. Soon we will see melon pics?
Debbie

My ambrosia pictures are in plantfiles from last year! Makes me hungry to look at them! Also I posted pics of Noir de Carmes.

yeppers--they both made me hungry too..................
Debbie

I just took a break from my plantings. I'm planting all kinds of melons in my Earthboxes. Took a break to come in and have some ice cold watermelon. Planting all those melons and knowing I had a real cold one in my refrigerator (watermelon that is) was to much to bear. Now I'm relaxing a bit before I go out again. I'll take some pictures and name the melons. See ya later.

I transplanted 2 cantaloupes today. All of that batch are 23 days old and huge. I am waiting on slightly warmer weather to transplant the rest..also I hope they get their burn-down spraying done in the nearby field done first.
I transplanted a Sugar Queen and a St. Nick...no pictures. The HP picture down load is not working right. Also 28 watermelons are ready too. I have about 30 that are only 7 days old, but they are growing nicely.

This message was edited May 5, 2006 5:12 PM

OK--that Willhite orders' going in tonight!
Debbie

This is my best helper! Be lost without it. Tractor seat,handy holder under seat for seeds, tape etc. At the back a tool holder basket or whatever. I wouldn't be able to do anything in the garden if it wasn't for my scooter.

Great idea!
Debbie