Oh my ! It was so good and sweet. Weather has been perfect. Walked through the watermelons a few days ago and found a surprise,, several vines of what appears to be Honeydew. Have no idea where they came from,,didn`t buy any that I know of but some could have been mismarked.
Yippeee!!! I LOVE cantaloupe... and the stuff you get in the stores are just so blah. Remember I was trying to grow cantaloupes vertically? Well... one was on the ground and one of the ends was starting to split. So I thought it had to be ripe. Wrong. It was just on the verge of being ripe but was still a bit green and not so sweet. I ate most of it anyhow. I have several doing very well. How do I tell when they are ripe? When the "piggy tails" start to turn brown? The thumping method doesn't work for me... it all sounds the same.
No, they don`t really have the pig tails you can use for ripeness. But not to worry,, cantaloupe tell you when they are ripe. If you pick it up and the vine just drops off it is ripe. They separate from the vine on their own. Even then I usually don`t cut it till the next day for extra sweetness. Wish all melons were this easy. They will last a week or more in the fridge if you peel, slice and store in Tupperware in case you have too many at once. My problem is there are about 30 in my garden on the verge of ripeness. Not to mention the watermelons and the honeydew. I am going to have melons stacked like cord wood.
Thanks Mart. That's actually what I've been doing... just giving them a slight tug to see if they would drop off the vine. I don't know if I'll be able to wait a day before slicing them though!
That's good news Mart. The bonus was nice as well. Man. I do not know when I shall get melons. It will be some time yet...that's for sure. Have you a pic of your melons? I would like to see them. Which kind of watermelons are you growing this year?
Getting a pic will be hard but I can try. We always just let the field go after the last plowing. We need the weeds to shade the melons or they blister in Texas heat I will try to take a pic of a few individual melons. Hard to tell you what kind we are growing. LOL I can tell you what I thought I bought. Black Diamond, Jubilee, Super Sweet, orange and yellow, and Desert King late season. There are a couple of vines I am not so sure what are, and the honedew which look a bit odd for honeydew melons. They are oblong and quite a bit larger than is normal in stores. Going to cut one today to see what it tastes like.
Oh I love cantaloupe! Wish we could grow them here. Shopping this morning I see they are $5.00 each! Needless to say it is still in the store.
Our growing season starts around the second week of June. Sometimes we might be able to plant in the first week. That depends on how heavy rains we get and how fast the ground dries up. Things stop growing about the end of August and if we have a good fall it can stretch to the middle of September. We can have frost here as early as the first week of September so I have to watch Cumbers and Squash quite closely. So our growing season is about 3 months. I have a small greenhouse and start tomatoes and a few other things early. It is not heated so about the middle of April I take over the kitchen table to start my seedlings until I can move them into the green house. Little bit of an inconvenience but well worth it in the end!
Thanks for the information,mart. I sure will be ordering cantaloupe seeds when I place my spring order. I order my seeds from Utah.(They send to Canada,no problem.) I see they have 4 different varieties. They are Hales Best Jumbo, Hearts of Gold, Iroquois and Minnesota Midget. These are all heirloom seeds. Any take on what would be the best? I know nothing about growing cantaloupes. Thanks
Just let me know and I will send you some of the ones I grow. They are heirloom but have no idea what variety. They have been saved by the same family for years and years. And now I do too.
