The one I’m most interested in is торпедо or “tarpeda/torpedo” melon. I managed to get some seed from Odessa two years ago, and I’m hoping some of them will germinate. I’ve had a handful of other Uzbek melons, though I don’t know what variety names they had, which were good, but торпедо was in a class of its own for me.
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This article described certain unknown local type Uzbek melons as having legendary and transcendent flavor. The author of the article went hunting to try and find some of the varieties mentioned in historic accounts. I’ll see if I can dig it up.
I’m not expert on the different varieties, with the one I mentioned in the previous post being what I’m interested in purely on the merit of flavor.
The melons I had were grown in the south of Russia or in central Asia, which is a wildly different climate from me own, and I believe they are derived from Persian varieties, so I’m really not sure how they’re like my climate. One can only try and find out. I’m thinking I’ll plant early, mid, and late, since my summer is quite long and has fairly distinct phases most years.
Kejari I’ve not actually tasted myself. I’m growing it on recommendation from the YouTube channel Millennial Gardener, who lives about two hours from me. I tried tiger melons last year, and found them to be very resilient and fast, despite an incredibly late start and bad growing conditions (last year’s garden was an afterthought mostly). But the flavor of tiger melon was, non-existent, so I’m hoping kejari will be closer to what I was expecting from the tiger melons.
I haven’t had great success with watermelons, but one year I finally got about a dozen large sweet melons. Couldn’t begin to eat them all, so gave away several and then decided to experiment with freezing some. I accidentally grabbed a frozen quart bag of them, mistaking it for tomatoes, and threw it in some stew. I only realized the mistake when I started finding seeds in the stew. It was actually quite tasty stew! I also discovered that watermelons will keep for weeks in the fridge or even in a cool place, though they don’t fit well in the fridge.
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That’s what has kept me from trying these types in the past. I think many may be bland. Kajari sounds like may be an exception perhaps. Overall I like the idea of small fruit though. We have one or more heat spells most summer though they can come almost any month, and tend not to last too long, so little fruit that can size up and get some Brix sounds like a good thing to me.
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What is a gear spell?
Probably an autocorrect-inserted error from “heat” (though I’m not familiar with using the phrase “heat spell” instead of “heat wave” but maybe that’s a regionalism?). The letters for heat and gear are pretty close on the keyboard.
Yeah, my thumbs are fat. And autocorrect is pretty pernicious at times
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Search for “hami” melons and you will find a few things to read. Melons were traditionally developed for either summer or winter consumption. We mostly eat summer melons. Winter melons are stored a few months during which they sweeten up. The typical “cantaloupe” flavor is not very often found in Asian varieties. They tend to be white and less sweet on average. A few are specifically selected for very high sugar content.
I believe this is the article I was referring to:
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Ahhh yes, I remember this one. Good write up.
There’s a YouTube channel called weird explorer who did taste tests of fruit and berries (that’s the whole channel. He’s done like 700 so far, it’s crazy) and he did an video on canary and Uzbek melons where he tasyed one of those melons grown by the Armenian guy from this article.
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It’s been a few years since I’ve grown it, but IIRC it has a very thin rind. The flesh is not very crisp, more melting juice explosion type of texture. They’re very sweet with excellent flavor. It’s not quite the flavor you expect from red watermelon, but is not lacking in any way, just different. Probably this is due to lower flavonoid levels associated with white flesh. They’re fairly seedy, and curiously (I thought) about 1/2 their mature ripe seeds are beige rather than black.
Is anyone offering seeds of melons from these regions? I would love to grow some next year. I might have to make a trip to the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market since it’s not too far. Hopefully Ruben Mkrtchyan is still selling.
Those braided dried melons sound delicious. I wonder if the SoCal summer might make this a possibility at its height.
@hobilus I’ll have to try it next year.
I got a few from ARS-Grin. Here are the numbers:
PI 540496
PI 293789
AMES 27393
AMES 29571 Abunabat
PI 540410 Buri Kalla
PI 293788 white flesh with netting
PI 293790 Red flesh in description
AMES 29568 Emiri - long green/orange
PI 476334 Hangaliak
PI 540408 Khalt Khol
PI 540404 Sarik Kaun
PI 540413 Tashlaky
I still did not find Obinnovvot (alternate spelling for Obinovot) though I know I had it at one time. Obinovot is a soft flesh honey sweet melon. The name roughly translates to “Sugar Daddy”.
Edit: Adding to the list, just found some more varieties, different container.
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Have you grown any recently, perhaps in the past couple of years? Did the taste resonate with some of the descriptions from the article, even if the varieties might not be the same?
early moonbeam, midget melons, Charleston grey (optimistic), pocket melon, and a cantaloupe my partner saved seeds from, from the store, very excitably for me to plant. (sigh). I start a few early every year, they’re often the only melons we get. short season here
“cantaloupe via Phil”
I’ll be starting my orange flesh and a few others in the ground. I’ve got a bare patch by my shed and grass lawn I keep meaning to kill in front of it, thinking I could tarp over the grass and let the melons grow out over it from the shed dead zone, and mound/mulch there for them.
any suggestions for short season varieties that are easily obtainable would be much appreciated, as well as general thoughts on what to fertilize/mulch them in with. it’s very silty soil, with rocks. bare dirt, full sun, little water.
It’s hard to fathom your season would be shorter than ours, but maybe you’re in a frost pocket or something.
I’ve been getting ‘yellow baby’ starts the last few years from a local nursery. They grow their own starts and do a nice job of it. Looks like it may also go by ‘baby doll’. It’s an F-1 hybrid I believe. Well worth growing. It’s been the most reliable here, and ripens a week or more ahead of other short season varieties. I usually pick them through mid- October or so.
I picked the first one August 13 last year. August 23 I picked 8. Very good flavor and texture, relatively few seeds, super thin rind which also makes fabulous pickles when sliced into thin spears. They’re good size too- about 8-14 lbs. High Mowing carries them. You may be able to find starts.
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Last year I tried Doll Baby under a hoop house on black weed cloth and was amazed that I got something good! So this year I’m also starting Rainbow Sherbert -another in the icebox series. I think this series works in our short season!
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Here is a list of short season watermelons from Sandhill.
Siberian Lights
Blacktail Mountain
Early Canada
Petite Sweet
Arikara
New Hampshire Midget
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thank you I’ve got a good list to try now!