Thinking of using my raised bed to grow cantaloupes this year. It would be new to me. It’s a fruit that my kids love and would never go to waste. What are some good varieties for mid Atlantic region. Disease resistant varieties if possible.
The best cantaloupe I’ve ever tasted was Sugar Kiss and it was available at Sam’s Club at the end of last summer. I should’ve saved some seeds but didnt think about it. I’ve been watching some YouTube videos touting Tigger melon and Kajari Melon as really nice flavorful interesting varieties.
The local big box stores have common varieties like Hales Best.
I’m open to anything. Any suggestions and if so what sources for seeds?
There are many good varieties, and some of them are great. Athena has been mentioned, and I agree with that choice. One of my current favorites is Sarah’s Choice from Johnny’s Seeds. It has great melon flavor, gets very sweet and I’ve had no disease problems. It seems to be very productive too.
You won’t go wrong with the other varieties that have been suggested but Aphrodite is my current favorite. They are productive as well as some of the sweetest, best-flavored loupes I have ever had.
I ordered Athena and Honey Rock melon seeds and received a package that also contained Spring Super Sweet Honeydew, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Chatentais Melon, Butternut Squash, Bell pepper, and Brassica Chinese cabbage seeds. It sure why there were so many extras but maybe they were feeling generous or maybe those seeds were old stock. We will see what happens.
Instead of the small raised bed I think I’m going to convert my old raspberry run into a cantaloupe run by installing cattle panels and growing vertically.
How did the melons turn out? The best melon I ever had was also from the Kiss series and I’m curious if the homegrown ones of the varieties you mentioned would be worth the effort. Thank you!