How to Grow Sweet, Tasty Muskmelons

For the best flavor, grow long-season varieties, says melon grower Laurie Todd. She offers advice on everything from seed starting to harvesting.

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When I moved from suburbia to a farm , I did n’t let the fact that I ’d never planted a fruit or veg dissuade me from starting my own agricultural enterprise . After lecture to people and read several articles , I adjudicate to grow melons . My rawness prove . neighbor gape at my crooked rows , and conserve a stupid quiet when they learn I ’d constitute more than 600 seedlings with a soup spoon because I did n’t own a trowel .

finally my neighbor Slim Bunk decide to help . In an retiring way , he showed me his garden and inquired about my crop . He gave me a string tune and help oneself me plant my first straight row . slender instruct me to identify weed and bugs , to drive a tractor , and to spot and solve problem before they uprise into calamity . At 83 , he remains my wise man and the first person with whom I discuss new ideas .

Thirteen years have drop dead since I harvested that initial , unsightly melon patch . Despite my naïveté , I had a beautiful craw . Since 1983 , I ’ve sell melons at the local farmers ’ securities industry . Even at the stature of the season , with 1,200 melon , I sell out . Locally grown melon are so luscious , they expose store - bought ones as vapid imitations . By using a few childlike tricks , you may bask them , too .

Long - season melon taste bestThe term muskmelon describes a stove of fruits that let in cantaloupe , honeydews , Cranshaws , and Charentais . Taste is my main criterion when choosing variety . With few exception , I ’ve discovered that only full - time of year melon vine possess the flavor I hope . These varieties , which maturate in 11 to 13 weeks , meld redolence and grain with a rich melon tang .

For honeydew , I wish ‘ recommendation ’ and ‘ Morning Ice ’ . ‘ Passport ’ is unusual because it is other ( 73 days ) and flavourful . My experience with ‘ Passport ’ is that the first - set fruits have fantabulous taste , but later - set fruit are n’t quite as good . ‘ Morning Ice ’ is an outstanding - savour , full - term honeydew .

Melon connoisseurs who want a real treat should consider growing ‘ flavor ’ , a French Charentais melon . Charentais are little , about 2 lb . , and around , with white-haired - green rind and rich orange flesh . They are renowned in Europe for their exceptional flavor , but are relatively unavailable in American market .

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In short - season sphere , start melon vine indoorsTo get full - time of year melons to mature in my upstate New York garden , I start them indoors and plant them flop after the frost - free appointment . melon ca n’t support freeze temperatures , but I usually risk an other planting , anyway . If you make up one’s mind to do the same , and set plants out before the last frost , be prepared to protect them with quarrel covers , hot cap , or newspaper .

I start melon vine three to four calendar week before my Robert Frost - destitute engagement . Although it ’s alluring to begin sooner , I do n’t . Melons should be growing rapidly when they go into the garden . plant keep too long indoors become potbound and stunted .

I utilise cellular telephone packs that are 1 - 1⁄2 in . in diam and 3 in . abstruse . It ’s okay to practice slightly turgid cubicle , but not smaller ones . I make full the cubicle with a sterilized , soilless premix , and institute two seed per cell , placing them 1⁄2 in . to 3/4 in . deep . Melons germinate at 75 ° to 80 ° F in moist , but not saturated , conditions . Once my seedlings pop up , I beef up them each week with a solution of Miracle - Gro or some other balanced fertilizer . Melon seedling require peck of light . Green , stocky plants are a sure sign of properly evolve , healthy melon .

When my seedling have grow their first unfeigned leave of absence ( at two to three weeks old ) , I prepare them for outdoor conditions by setting them alfresco and bit by bit increasing their exposure to wind and sun . Like other seedling , melons take from indoor conditions and planted directly in the garden may not survive the stupor .

Outdoor melon vine polish for any locationDespite folklore that melon vine require an teemingness of precipitation and heat , I have attain they perform best with middling to moderate rainfall and temperature in the mid 80s . But do n’t worry if you dwell in an field where summer scorcher commit temperatures into the XC and 100s . Once established , melons can take the heat .

melon like well - drain , fertile ground . In autumn , I turn composted manure into my future melon vine fleck . Come spring , I retread the background . At this meter , I also incorporate 3 to 4 lb . of 5 - 10 - 10 fertilizer ( 10 - 10 - 10 is okay , too ) per 100 sq . ft . of garden , thoroughly scan it into the top few inch of filth .

bootleg plastic speeds growth . In short - time of year areas , using a grim plastic mulch is primal to successfully grow full - time of year melons . formative warms the soil , prevent weed germination , and helps retain soil moisture . Since water can not diffuse unperforated plastic , I essay to lie the mulch when the earth is moist but dry enough so footprints do n’t leave shiny impressions . To ground the plastic , I cover all the edges with malicious gossip .

It ’s true - melons want way . I set mine 3 foot . asunder within the row and leave 6 ft . between row . If outer space is limited , your melon vine will do fine on a 30 in . by 5 ft . spacing . Although I ’ve never try this myself , I have read about gardeners who successfully manage to raise melons on vertical treillage .

I punch fix in the plastic where the melon will grow . Before I put my first industrial plant in the ground , I soundly irrigate all the seedlings . Except for a few seeds that break to shoot , I have two melon plants per electric cell . I keep these seedling together and plant them in the same hole . Melons do not like to have their base disturbed , so I gently take away flora from the containers . After loosening the soil in the hole with a trowel ( I did make this worthwhile investing ) , I plant my seedlings about an inch deeper in the garden than they were in the electric cell .

body of water well at planting time . I endeavor to irrigate melons within 30 instant of planting . They need about 2 cups per planting hole to secure right ground - to - root inter-group communication . To get my plants off to a quick start , I summate a tablespoon of 20 - 20 - 20 soluble plant food per gal of water .

During any grow season , there are times when melon need more water than nature provides . If it has n’t rain for a workweek , I commend a effective soaking . Melons are especially sensitive to parched conditions at planting , when they begin to vine out , and as their fruit begin to size - up .

at once after planting , I drape melon with a run-in screening like Reemay . Anchored every 3 ft . with a half - shovel of dirt , the rowing cover rest period directly on top of the plants . I take out it as soon as the first flowers appear so bee can pollinate the flush . Although the row concealment stays on my crop for only two or three weeks , its benefits last the entire time of year . Row cover ply about two degrees of surplus freeze protection , speed up plant development , and protect seedling from unassailable winds and airborne insects . In addition , melon started under row covers senesce a workweek or two early than their exposed twin .

Protect melon vine from weeds , pests , and disease . Although weeds wo n’t grow directly under pitch-dark charge card , they will pop up in the holes you ’ve made for plants and in between words . If you ’ve used a row top , you ’ll discover that weeds , as well as melons , have taken advantage of its benefits . I eliminate these competitors while they are still young and too little to adversely affect my plant .

Photo/Illustration: Susan Kahn

Striped cucumber beetle are pernicious plague in my garden . They arrive in June and impairment melons by manducate on plants and spreading bacterial virus . Adult beetle are yellow , 1⁄4 in . long , and have three black-market stripes on their wing . Sprays and biological controls are useable to curtail these foul bugs . If you do n’t want to expend pesticides , row covers put up some tribute .

Powdery mildew is another problem . This talcumlike growth first appear in July as little white position on older melon leaves . These spots originate and spread . Because powdery mould trim the photosynthetic capability of plants and thus sugar production , it causes melon vine to be less sweet . Of my diversity , only ‘ Summet ’ is tolerant to this disease . But all is not lost if powdery mould convey into non - tolerant variety . Your first crop of melons will be well establish before the mold takes hold . The negative upshot , therefore , will be more pronounced on late fruit .

[ [ [ PAGE]]]Reaping the rewardsAs harvest time approaches , melon vine vine shift energy from producing leafage to ripening fruits . So do n’t be surprised if the mature melon vine patch looks peaked compare to the plush growth of former summer . I ordinarily harvest four to six melon per flora . All the 1 I acquire except ‘ sapidity ’ and ‘ Morning Ice ’ much pick themselves . When ripe , they “ slip ” from the plant by disconnecting from the vine .

•Ways to serve muskmelon•Recipe : Melon Cake with Citrus Glaze•Recipe : Melon Frost

Muskmelons turn from green to beige , and then to beige with yellow undertones as they ripen . When you get to smell their smell , your melons are almost quick . Whenever I spot a melon with a yellowish undertone , I probe where that fruit join its vine . The melon is advanced when a aristocratic tug releases the fruit . This stage is called half slip . A dead - ripe melon will finally free itself from the vine . This is full shimmy . The time from one-half slipperiness to full slip is , at most , two sidereal day . To limit the identification number of fruits I “ share ” with mice and other unwelcome garden creatures , I contain them every day and pick them at half slip . Healthy vine continue to set yield well into summer , but in my climate , late - place fruits do n’t ripen .

Charentais melons like ‘ Savor ’ will not slip , but they will start up to separate from the vine . By the fourth dimension ‘ flavour ’ is ready to harvest , it often has warts and cracks , and is as homely as it is delectable . I plunk ‘ flavor ’ when its pelt has a beige tinge and when a hard jerk come off the yield . I do n’t thin Charentais from the vine .

Like ‘ sapidity ’ , ‘ break of the day Ice ’ may require a warm tug before it disengages from the vine . It be given to split up before reaching maturity . I allow split fruits to mature because I ’ve reveal that only a low lot of the melon needs to be discarded . Although it ’s hard to judge calibre by coming into court , I ’ve find that grueling netting ( the maze of rough webbing on the melon vine ’s Earth’s surface ) is a sign of ranking gustatory sensation in cantaloupe . As a grocery nurseryman , I tend to go out slick - look fruits of ‘ Goldstar ’ and ‘ Summet ’ in the field , but you ’ll want to eat every melon you turn .

by Laurie ToddJune 1997from upshot # 9

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