Alaska, Fastbreak, Kelsey, Sweet Granite, Minnesota Midget
Note tho that the extra early varieties are usually less tasty than mainseason varieties.

But late delayed fruits trying to ripen in cool short days aren't so great, either.

I've grown Minnesota Midgets. They ripen early, and are easy to tell when they are ripe, and are fairly productive, and taste good too.

Sun Jewel of Johnny is reputed to be the earliest Johnny offers. But where this melon gives you 3 days better than the competition, black plastic, hoop houses, hot manure trenches will give you 15-20 days.

glib - please elaborate on you hot manure trenches?

Have you thought about spraying your melons for insects and disease? Melons are fruit, so fruit sprays should be adequate. One should check with other locals to see which sprays work in your area.

If you don't want to spray, and/or just want early melons, and don't especially care what they look like, how big they grow, or what color the flesh is, then I would suggest Farthest North Melon Mix developed by Tim Peters of Peters Seed and Research. Many people have had very good luck with the mix. Farthest North is a grex, not an actual cultivar or landrace.

A grex is a genetically diverse mixture. Breeders who breed grexes often start with a couple plants each of several different cultivars. They let those plants cross with each other, and save the seeds from the fruit. The seeds then get planted the next year, and the plants get all crossed again. The resulting 2nd generation seeds have an extremely high diversity of genes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Farthest North Melon Mix

Fruit sprays are intended for orchards not vegetable gardens.Insecticide and fungicides intended for melons will be listed under vegetables.If one sprays one should deliberately target the specific pest or disease, not blast away with a broad spectrum product. Melons , cucumbers, squash share many pests and diseases, Few of which are common to fruits.

Yes I am aware that these are all botanically fruits as are eggplants, peppers, tomatoes etc. Fruiting vegtables is the more appropiate term.

lwn - I'm always wary about spraying insecticide any of the curcubits because of concern for the bees that pollinate them. I sprayed before they began to flower but failed to take out the cucumber beetles. And fungicide spray doesn't stop the bacterial wilt that the beetles spread.

Even without the beetles, we have a pretty short window for melon growing here, and I've had the later varieties fail to ripen, which is a waste of space I could use for an earlier fruit.

Try a Galia melon. Very good tasting and easy to grow. This year has been an awesome melon year for me. Plenty of bugs and disease, but enough melons to keep me satisfied.

I wouldn't spray. I never had a chance because my vines were constantly flowering all the time and bees LOVE melon flowers it would seem.

Diplomat is a nice early Galia type. In fact, it's the earliest I've grown. Harvesting them now. Thinking I'll give up on honeydews altogether and stick with Diplomat instead.

The vines are trying to set a second crop now, but I can tell it will be a futile endeavor, trying to beat the wilt.

Kelsey is a Galia type, listed at 15 days earlier than Diplomatwhich is an early main season Galia type. I prefer galias for eating, but not everyone agrees with me.
Diplomat; {{gwi:106495}}
Arava: {{gwi:106496}}
Antalya: {{gwi:106497}}
Courier:{{gwi:106498}}
Galia:{{gwi:106499}}
GaliaMax:{{gwi:106500}}
Girlie:{{gwi:60463}}
Passport:{{gwi:106501}}
Sigal:{{gwi:60466}}
{{gwi:60466}}
Visa:{{gwi:60466}}
Abu: an excellent yellow fleshed galia type;{{gwi:60461}}

Diplomat is a Passport type. That photo of Passport looks just like it - the bright gold color and minimized netting.

I'll look into Kelsey.