in the Army we used to cube up melons of all type, put in mason jars and top of with 190 proof everclear. the fruit would absorb the liquor after about a week. dangerous stuff!
Last year I started cubing my surplus muskmelons and honeydews, freezing the cubes on a tray, and then ziplock bagging them. It has worked well; I use the thawed cubes mixed with fresh or frozen berries and yogurt or ice cream.
It’s a bust. No better than a normal cantaloupe but with the splitting issues of the Charentais. Next time I grow melons it will be the real deal, a French Charentais.
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Lots of Charentais seeds online. Most don’t say ‘French’.
Are they not the same? If not, how to be sure?
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I don’t know. It seems like French C. is what I’ve heard. They’re probably all about the same.
I am checking the tendril every day on these. I’m hoping I can wait and get them at the right time. knocking on them is no help, I’m hard of hearing and cannot tell what sounds they make. field spot and tendril? is there any other test I can try?
at any rate I’m very happy, several midget melons, cantaloupe (unexpected!) and some real watermelons in there, growing!
the patch is getting wild and a pumpkin found its way in
I’ve only ever had one melon of any kind succeed here so far in 6 years of trying and it was baseball sized. delicious but tiny. I read these melon threads start to finish, all I could find. warmed the soil, put down plastic and black fabric, straw and fertilized like crazy. I started some way early to get a head start on the season too.
thanks to everyone in these threads I will eat a melon this year. now if I can only get a handle on okra…
(this guy is 50 days old, lol)
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They are all different, I bought Charentais melon seeds from many different sources for more than 20+years. And the Charentais melons I saw at Lidl in Franch are different too. So who knows, I just go by the fragrance and that’s why I buy from many different sources.
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Only Rareseeds has that in the description. I haven’t seen at other places.
Seedsavers says Petit de Rennes came from Bishop of Rennes, 400 years ago.
Charentais came from a different Poitu-Charentes 1920.
Maybe so but I’ve had varieties way better. Better tasting and sweeter.
none of mine are ready yet, so we’ll see. Id think there might be a bit more to the terroir in a flavor as complex as muskmelon can be. Sometimes strawberries can taste flavorless or even disgusting, and Ive always imagined that the many compounds that give the strawberry its complexity of flavor could be out of balance.This might impact your perception of sweetness even, I imagine. Muskmelons must be chock a block with flavinoids and other compounds that probably taste terrible in any quantity, but that together taste like some kind of revelatory floral boquet in the right proportions.
I have limited experience with muskmeloms, but they’ve been far and away less productive and more fickle than watermelons. I know the stripers bother them much more, and they seem to get wilt much more readily. I grew Minnesota Midget for a couple of years but was disappointed with if for the most part. The fruit was SO small, and didn’t ripen all that early considering. I had pretty good luck with ‘Athena’. Very firm and meaty, a tad gritty. very sweet, good flavor, and plenty chunky at 6-7 lbs. or so. What muskmelons do you favor @fruitnut ?
I haven’t grown enough different ones to give a good answer.
@fruitnut and @Shibumi
We bought a variety of seeds from this company. The company sent it Sivan F 1 to us as a complement. It was wonderful charentai.
Everyone we gave it to love it. Most said the best they hve ever had. It was productive, sweet and aromatic.
The downside, only moderately resistant to fusarium wilt and powderly mildew. We did not have space for it this year. With the rain we have had this summer, it would be a disaster.
If I live in a drier place, I would grow this variety.
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A bunch of melons are finally starting to set on my two “Small Jadu’i” vines in the greenhouse. I have no idea how well they’ll ripen once the fall rains begin, but maybe that will be delayed this year. Here’s the largest, which is hanging from one of the vines that decided to grow up a key lime seedling in the experimental section of the greenhouse:
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Triple crown seedless. Great texture and flavor. The next ones of these will probably be even better. This one was really sweet in the heart but average towards the rind. Picked a little early I reckon.
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Genetics are all important in melons. I’ve hesitated to comment on Petit Gris de Rennes. I grew it in 2006 once and have not grown again. It was a relatively poor flavored melon compared with others I’ve grown. Susan Healy is a much better melon. Anne Arundel is also pretty good. I grew Charentais melons a few times and generally found them to have more problems with disease than I care to deal with. Also, claims above of “best” flavored melon IMO are premature at best. Melons originated in the “Stan’s” (Uzbekistan, Kazackhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc). Better flavored melons come from that area from time to time.
RE short season watermelons, Sandhill Preservation has arguably the shortest season varieties I’ve grown. Glenn also sells some of the best old fashioned cantaloupes and melons available.
Update on watermelons: I am growing watermelons that were in my freezer labeled as Ledmon from 2017. When I saw the fruits a few weeks ago, I realized they are not Ledmon! I finally figured out what they are when I remembered saving seed from a variant Moon & Stars watermelon several years ago that did not produce stars on the fruit. So anyone who got 2017 Ledmon seed from me this year, it is Moon & Stars sans the stars. Flavor is very good. Ledmon produces very light colored watermelons that never sunburn. I have Ledmon growing from seed planted about 5 weeks ago and will have fresh seed later this fall.
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what have you grown from sandhill? short season is exactly what I need here
Check Sandhill’s watermelons for any maturing in 70 to 78 days. New Hampshire Midget is very good. Petite Sweet is also a good one.
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While I’m waiting for my 8 or so Blacktail Mountain watermelons to size and ripen, I’m already thinking of next year.
Setting watermelons aside for now, there are soooooo many smaller melons to chose from. I’ve been looking through a few web sites like
https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/musk melon
and
It’s overwhelming. If course anyone selling seeds is not likely to have a writeup of a poor melon, right or wrong.
Since my growing season goes from early March to mid October at least, I think I’ll pick an early, mid, and late season variety to spread the harvest out.
If anyone wants to chime in on each I’d appreciate it. It’s probably easier to make a decent choice than a bad one, but still sometimes we just want to be told what to do…
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I hate when people mix species. Sakata Sweet is an oriental melon. It won’t cross with cantaloupes. If you like oriental melons, it is very sweet. I personally don’t like them preferring true cantaloupes. He also lists Piel de Sapo and Valencia which are winter storage melons. Look close before growing them as most growers are not familiar with storing melons to ripen. He also managed to include a hybrid which is ok if you like hybrids, but I prefer growing varieties I can save seed from. Gardener’s Path is IMO not a very good source of information. You might get a copy of “the melon” by Amy Goldman. She is a bit biased but manages to cover a lot of melons. One note of importance, what I recognize as a variety may not be what you can find seed of. Honeydew Orange to me is a specific variety but I suspect you will find a hybrid with almost the same name.
Of the varieties listed in the Gardeners Path article, Earli-Dew, Minnesota Midget, Collective Farm Woman, Rocky Ford, Hales Jumbo, Crenshaw, and Honeydew Orange are worth growing. Varieties he does not list but worth growing include: Anne Arundel, Charentais, Hollybrook Luscious, Sugar Salmon, Susan Healy, Ananas, and Romanian Green. Caution that Romanian Green is not super sweet. It is selected for unique flavor and tends to be a favorite of people who don’t enjoy extra sweet melons.
Keep in mind this is based on my taste buds which may not match what your taste buds prefer. Also, climate is local. What grows and tastes good here may not taste good where you live.
Edit to add: I can talk about a lot of melons and what they taste like, but one hybrid deserves mention. Ambrosia has been around a lot of years. Properly grown, it is a delicious melon.
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