A Greene County Garden in September: Melons

By Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson

When is a cantaloupe (technically a muskmelon) ready to harvest? Truly ripe melons offer a taste of paradise, but commercial growers typically harvest them when not fully ripe, so they won’t bruise when shipped long distances. That’s why homegrown melons are so much more luscious than grocery-store melons. Farmer’s market melons, which can be harvested just before market day and transported only the short distance between farm and market, can also be especially sweet and delicious.

Long-season melons, like honeydews, are still best grown in the South, but short-season varieties have been developed that ripen well in our climate. Sugar Cube is a disease-resistant muskmelon with smaller fruit that ripens in about 80 days. Petite specialty melons like Galia and Charentais have also have become more available to U.S. gardeners. And though climate change brings upsetting conditions like floods, smoke, and hotter summer weather, that hotter summer is a silver lining for Greene County gardeners, because it ripens great melons. If gardeners are doing our part to reduce fossil fuel emissions, we might as well enjoy the few benefits of our new climate.

Melon seeds are best planted in late spring. They sprout sluggishly in cold, wet ground and may not develop into strong plants. It’s often recommended to surround melon plants with black plastic or weed-blocking mat, but gardeners who want to avoid plastic can substitute a mulch of dark compost—it’s the dark color that absorbs heat and warms the ground. Another ground-warming strategy can be a raised bed, maybe a foot or two square, constructed with a couple of layers of bricks. The bricks will hold warmth, allowing melons to be planted a couple of weeks earlier than might otherwise be possible.

Melon vines are natural climbers, with curling tendrils that will cling to whatever support is available. Training them up a trellis or garden fence will keep the fruits off the ground and away from marauding groundhogs. The wild ancestors of our modern melons probably climbed trees; some wild melons bear only nonfruiting male flowers until they reach the sunshine in the treetops.

But when to harvest? Melons change color as they ripen, from green to a more golden color that may be subtle or pronounced. Their scent will become noticeable—some varieties can perfume the whole garden. A perfectly ripe cantaloupe’s stem will begin to separate—slip—from the fruit. While it’s a good idea to provide support, perhaps a simple sling, to keep a ripe melon from falling to the ground, melon rinds are sturdy enough that a fall will not seriously damage the fruit—just be sure to get to it before your resident groundhog does!