What varieties are you planting this year? 
1 Like
Minnesota Midget Melon and Hale’s Best Jumbo canteloupe, but only 2 plants of each, don’t really like melon that much.
I am also trying Egusi watermelons for the seeds and Namib Tsamma as a supposedly drought tolerent perennial to grow by my cacti.
1 Like
Never tried melons before. We have had bad luck with most squash varieties due to the SVB. Moved to a new house and were actually successful last year. Encouraged by that we’re trying these varieties this year. Put them in the ground yesterday.
Edisto 47 cantaloupe
Blacktail Mountain watermelon
Missouri Yellow watermelon
1 Like
Was going to plant some watermelon but my can of Tetsukabuto F1 seeds I use as rootstock is empty. Have to pick up some more.
1 Like
I feel attacked… jk 
If I can get my garden up in time: two of every seed i have and i have about 30 different kinds of Melon seeds.
If no, then i guess not…
3 Likes
Its a small melon, both in plant and fruit. Supposed to ripen really fast too. I grew one last year to see how it would do through our summer. Needs to be in almost full shade but nearby the heat. Pretty good for a growbag melon.
1 Like
Yay melon thread! We love melons. Last year was the second year, and we grew Charentais, heart of gold and crimson sweet. Buoyed by success and 4 new cattle panel trellises, this year I’m doing the same plus golden midget, sugar baby, orange tendersweet, red moon and stars, galia and something else I can’t remember…the small ones will be in raised beds growing up the trellises and the larger ones in ground or bags scattered around and mixed in with the pumpkin patch. I started them late this year, and some I will direct sow next week. Please offer suggestions if you don’t like any of the new ones I listed. But, is there a bad melon??
3 Likes
Bad melons are tasteless melons lol. Kiku chrysanthemum Melon is pretty bland
Minnesota midgets, blacktail, sugar baby, Kazakh, and trying for orangeglo again against the odds.
my partner started two others but I do not know which, I didn’t label them, he did
2 Likes
What went wrong with the orangeglo?
1 Like
short warm season for me with ground temp, they didn’t ripen in time
I have grown Golden Midget before and thought it was subpar. It is really neat seeing the watermelon change color, but the flavor wasn’t good. Nevertheless, I think you should grow it! You might like it; or, I could’ve had a bad year with that variety.
This year I want to grow some French melons (I still have to purchase them from Seed Savers Exchange) and Turkish melons (these I’ll be getting from Two Seeds in a Pod). I really want to grow an Uzbek variety (these were mentioned in the 2023 thread), but I couldn’t find seeds in any of the sites I buy from.
2 Likes
One of mine didn’t have time to size up and ripen. The other got to a decent size, but something are a hole in it and I got fetid orangegoo when I sliced it. Trying it again this year. It’s being planted in a few days instead of August since I have the seeds.
1 Like
I got 10 of each Orangeglo and jubilee watermelon plants growing in the green house now and ready to transplant in ground around May 1st. Our weather is in the 70s now.
Tony
2 Likes
Is orangeglo preferred over orange tendersweet?
I am not sure but Orangeglo is a great orange flesh color watermelon with large size, productive with adequate water and nitrogen, sweet and crunchy.
Tony
it has a slightly shorter season which is my reasoning to pick it. I’ve got a bunch of seed for a lot of melons and try different ones every year, the midgets are the best here so far (muskmelons) but last year we got a really good pink melon from rattlesnake that I started early. I got some honeydew types near the end of the season too.
1 Like
There is also unripe melons, very easy to find that in stores, and many of them never taste ripe. That is why I prefer growing melons myself.
7 out of 12 melon seeds have already germinated.
I love ‘Ha’Ogen melons’, I am growing them again this year.
And this year I am experimenting with ‘Juane Canary’ melons, that one sounds a lot like something I’d like, I have not tried the variety yet.
We are also growing some watermelon, this is on top of the 12 aforementioned melon seeds.
Even though I like all ripe melons, I prefer melons that are not the North American Cantaloupe type.
1 Like
This year, trialing melons for our cool summers:
Cantaloupes:
- Minnesota Midget (F1)
- Tasty Bites (F1)-
- Sweet Granite (OP)-
Watermelons:
- Blacktail Mountain (OP)
- Beni Kodama- (OP)
I had given up on Ha’Ogen, but ALL decided to sprout 6 weeks (!) after sowing. It’s a little late to get them started, but will plant them out if they do get big enough. They’re growing rapidly.
The seeds were all a little on the old side, so I took some extra steps: 10 min 3% hydrogen peroxide soak, followed by hot-soak scarification, then soaking in kelp water for 24h before sowing. I also added mycorrhizae powder. Had nearly 100% germination despite old seeds.
1 Like