Melons

Sweet, juicy melons are a gardening favorite. Easy to grow, productive and delicious, what’s not to love?

It just wouldn’t be summer without slicing through the hard outer rind of a melon and devouring the sweet, refreshing wetness within. 

Sliced melons (PickPik) Public Domain

Melon families

Melons are members of the Cucurbit family, along with pumpkins, squashes, and even luffas! Within the melon family, there are several different groupings (by genus) of some familiar, and some not so familiar, melons:

• Winter melon (Benincasa hispida) - cooked as a vegetable in India and Asia
• Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) - enjoyed for over 4,000 years! (It’s wild cousin, Egusi, has inedible flesh but the seeds are an important food source in Africa
• Horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus) - has spikes!
• Muskmelon (Cucumis melo) - includes cantaloupe, casaba, honeydew, and canary melons

How melons grow

Like their cousins in the squash family, melons grow on vines. Unlike other vegetables crops, however, each vine has both male and female flowers. The male flowers generally appear first and usually only last for one day. Melon pollen is very sticky, so wind pollination does not occur. Honey bees are needed to carry the pollen from one flower to the next. If there are not enough honey bees in your area, you can use a fine paintbrush to transfer the sticky pollen to the female flowers, or you can break off a male flower, remove the petals, and apply the pollen that way. [I collect the pollen-carrying stamen for hand-pollinating, just in case.] Female flowers can be identified by the miniature fruit (ovary) at the base of each blossom.

Melon plants can be trained to grow vertically

How to grow melons

Melon seeds are big and easy to work with. In warm rgions, melons can be planted in May and June. They really love hot weather. Prepare the planting area by digging compost into the soil and creating hills. Each hill should be approximately 4 feet square. Plant 3 to 5 seeds, one inch deep and two inches apart, into the middle of each hill. Water the area well. Once your seeds have sprouted and grown into seedlings with a few sets of leaves, snip the smallest plants off at ground level, rather than thinning by pulling them out. This lets the remaining plant’s roots and helpful soil microorganisms stay undisturbed. Melons need to be watered every 2 or 3 days during the peak of summer. Sometimes even more. Regular watering can help prevent the fruit from splitting open. Side dressing melon plants with aged compost during the growing season also improves both crop quantity and quality. Side dressing simply means putting compost next to the plants and watering all those yummy nutrients into the surrounding soil. Easy and effective.

You may want to add a layer of straw or sawdust under your melons, to get them up off the ground. This helps prevent rotten areas, and insect and fungal infestation. Melons can also be grown in containers, towers, or straw bales, and trellised. The fruit itself will need personal hammocks if you use a trellis. You can tell a melon is ready to harvest when you see a slight crack around the stem where it is attached to the fruit. This is called the “full slip” stage. Crenshaw, casaba, and some honeydew varieties do not develop a slip. Casaba and honeydew melons can be stored for several weeks, while other varieties are best eaten right away.

Troubleshooting melon problems

Melons are susceptible to the same problems as cucumber, pumpkin, and squash. Use the symptoms listed below to find (and solve) your melon problems!

• Curled leaves - aphids on underside of leaves - insecticidal soap
• Fine stippling & webbing - spider mites - insecticidal soap or oil
• Chlorosis - whiteflies - remove infested leaves (look for white spiral egg laying pattern)
• Coarse, white stippling - leafhoppers
• Tunnels in leaves - leafminers
• Wilting plants; clumps on roots - nematodes - crop rotation
• Angular dead areas on leaves - leafspot - avoid overhead watering
• Holes in leaves; damaged runners, fruit, & crown - cucumber beetles - hand pick insects
• Small yellow spots on leaves that turn brown - squash bug - hand pick insects
• White, powdery areas - powdery mildew - avoid overhead watering; dust with sulfur
• Yellow spots on top of leaves, gray undersides - downy mildews - use resistant varieties
• Stunted plants; mottled leaves - mosaic virus - remove infected plants (fruit is edible)
• Deformed or bitter fruit - inadequate pollination, soil fertility & irrigation - attract bees, water regularly, get your soil tested
• Wilting; older leaves die first - Verticillium wilt - crop rotation
• Sudden wilting; rotten roots - Sudden wilt (Pythium fungus) - water regularly; ensure good drainage
• Runners turn yellow; plant collapses - Fusarium wilt - use resistant varieties; rotate crops
• Sunken dark areas on fruit - belly rot - trellis fruit; rotate crops; improve drainage
• Excessive vegetative growth - plants too close together 

     
Cutworms, wireworms, crickets and grasshoppers, various beetles, earwigs, stinkbugs, and thrips may also try getting into your delicious melons, so be vigilant! (A light dusting of diatomaceous earth might help, too.)

Cross-pollination myth

All too often, gardeners hear the myth that members of the Cucurbit family can cross-pollinate. This is simply not true. Pollination between different species does not occur. What can happen is two different types of melon can cross-pollinate. In fact, that’s how Crenshaw melons came about - Persian melons were crossed with casabas.

As you prepare to start growing your own melons, be sure to Plant It Forward with any leftover seeds!