crabjoe,

Did you check the Vegetable Forum FAQ?

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Melons: How do you know when a melon is ripe?

Yes, but it doesn't help.

The reason it doesn't help is because it only talks about when a fruit is ripe. I'm trying to figure out an aprox number of days for the fruit to ripen from fruit set because the wait is killing me.

From fruit set, does it normally take 3, 4, 5, or 6 weeks?

There is no way to tell you exactly, there are far too many environmental factors involved. Wouldn't want to get your expectations up but expect 5-6 weeks. It helps if you distract yourself with adding to your compost, side dressing your vegetabale plants, weeding, pruning, putting up birdhouses, mulching, working, reading, etc.

*wink*

Here Joe, Hales Best. If I am not mistaken it says 85 days. Do you remember when you planted them. There will always be some slight variances due to climate, season etc. but that should put you in the ball park.

There are some things that you can read up on, about color, neting, how to tell they are ripe and watch as they are approaching that state. They usually begin to smell good too.":^) Some of them slip from the vine on their own, or with just slight pressure on the stem to push it aside. I have some pictures around somewhere if you think that they might help, I will look for them.
Bill P.

Bill,

I planted May 6th, so lets see... I've got about 25 days to do. So either by the end of this month or the start of August, I should have some melons to eat. Yummy!!

Although all the melons are still green, I did notice one has started to get a slight netting developing. Do you know if it will still grow in size or is it pretty much done growing? If it's done growing, then it's much smaller then the melons I buy at the markets.

I sure wish that the nursery I bought the plants from would have had the info on the started plants instead of just a popsicle stick with the name on it.

BTW, thanks for the info. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow of it so people here can guess at days to ripe.

Yo Joe, I found the pictures that I mentioned Joe. Hopefully it will be of some help in judging appearance, but I do not know what variety, perhaps it was a volunteer, but it did taste great.

You can see the , and what had happened as I went by. It was a good thing that I had put that sling or hammock there, it was about 3 1/2 feet off the ground and probably would have broke when it fell, like Humpty Dumpty. ":^)
Bill P.

I've got some huge ones out there now and I'm checking on them daily for the orange color change. They seem so big now that it could happen any moment. Harvest time varies from year to year by about 10 days depending on many factors. I just hope we don't get a BIG Rain just as they are ripening. Dry & Sweet can't be beat. I broke down and picked 2 watermelons yesterday, was trying to wait till the first Loaupe was ripe first, but not. Will open one melon up after work today.

Here's the pics.

As you can see the melons are starting to get netting. They are netted almost double what it was yesterday.

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Below is my garden. Yes, it's a mess, but it's the 1st time for me. Oh, the melon patch is up front behind my Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Alfred.

{{gwi:8300}}

BTW, the weather isn't as nice as it looks in the picture. In reality, there's a white haze in the air from all the heat and humidity. I enriched the colors with Photoshop.

Nice dog Joe.

I am gonna guess one week, two at the outside for the one more hidden by leaves, just going on what I can see from the picture. The other one should not be far behind. And yeah, they may get just a little bit bigger, but probably not a lot. Tell me later if I am right or wrong ":^)
Bill P.

Here's an updated picture of the same melons above.

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Ummm... melon party at Joe's in a couple of weeks?? LOL

Looking good. My boys are still waiting for some girls to come join the party *sigh* When you harvest the first one, don't forget to take a picture of it cut in half! :^)

Those look very nice.

I happened upon a website that covers the time spans until harvest for all of the more common garden crops. Since I just replanted melon FOR THE THIRD TIME this year, I'm going to be pushing it getting ripe melons before the frost hits them.

If these ones survive. I seem to be melon cursed.

But here's the site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Times till harvest

Perhaps it is just me Joe, but now I can not see any of your pictures. Mine are still there. If you move then around any on Photobucket after you have posted a link to them, it breaks the link and they can no longer be seen.
Bill P.

Bill,

I'm not using Photobucket. I'm using the space my ISP provides to it's users. It's weird you can't see the pics now, but I know you saw them a week ago.

If you see a red X, try right clicking on it then there should be an option that says "Show Picture".

Here's the direct links to the pics.

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{{gwi:87434}}

It was the little broken link square Joe, but they are back now. Perhaps your ISP was having some issues at that particular time. I know mine does at times, with their email servers under assault from spammers and on and on. Most of the time it works great however.

I can see the progression in the melons. They are really looking nice.
Bill P.

As of this morning, the tendril now has a ever so slight touch of gray. Hopefully, this means it's getting ripe and I'll be eating some yummy cantaloupe within the next week...

Wish me luck!!