I'm growing 8 different melons. I bought seed. I doubt I will ever buy more, no need. As each packet comes with way too many, and I will save seed. They probably will cross, but then I'll have a melon nobody else has. The plants need a lot of room forming large multiple branched vines. Melons are now forming. The challenge is going to be trying to figure out when ripe!

The two lower left halves look typical, the other halves are similar to some of mine that are actually over-ripe, that is, the gel becomes a void and the flesh becomes leathery. Did your tree receive regular water during fruit formation? The brownish areas of the fruit are typical of the leathery syndrome also. Feijoa fruit will ripen when brought indoors, but you do not give a timeline. Some of my hard fruit has taken a week to soften indoors. Perhaps feijoas do not respond to gassing in a bag. If the fruit feels rubbery when squeezed and is solid and gives a juicy sheen when cut, it should be edible. The whole west coast had an odd spring and summer this year, I would wait until next year's crop to doubt the potential quality of your fruit. Fruit up here (Portland) is very late and only a minority of fruits have filled out. Nothing has dropped so far. I would have expected California fruit to be long gone.

It sounds to me like rodents. If you lived here I'd say tree-rats (squirrels). They need to discover it and being the social animals they are, they tell the whole squirrel neighborhood. So suddenly that can happen. They are very sloppy eaters and mercilessly slobber fruit all over and seem to like taking bites out of green fruit and leaving them half finished. They massacred my green strawberries. Short of exterminating them, the best bet is to get a dog or cat. Or put a motion activated noisemaker. I tried putting hot pepper powder - the Capsiyummiest, and they just mocked me and ate away. Other people say it works, so I can only tell you what I saw, day after day. Once rodents discover a taste they like there is no stopping them and they develop a mischievous obsession to maximize your pain. I had to go to a support group to try to get over mine ;-), but nothing ever cured me.

What Annie and GGal said...they posted about the same time. Looks like you had an environmental issue. I get fruit 2 out of 5 years depending on weather and variety. Pears are climacteric. About 95% depending on variety....always an exception. They ripen off the tree like bananas. Berries are non-climacteric. Once picked they will not continue to ripen, just start the downhill rotting process. Pick ripe and freeze, eat or process. If they fall or are picked before a certain point, (weather issues). they are compost like you have found out. A shame but I deal with it sadly every year. Tomatoes are climacteric as well and will continue to ripen picked early if at the color break stage. In all the heat, wet soggy weather, my tomatoes are about done! Most seasons I am just enjoying now and through September. Last year I was checking Brix on my pears. They were a week from harvest, just about ready when a bear, better at knowing the perfect time, wiped us out. He broke off two main branches climbing...I caught him sitting in my pear tree. He left me just a few out of his reach. A teen bear. He was young and brave but ran off when he saw us. ( I should have harvested that week earlier) A refractometer is a good tool to have to check/follow brix for fruit trees. Some years it just does not line up. And why we find amazing grocery fruit one year, then carp the next. Farms are dependent on climate. They still harvest and sell needing the income. Too much rain produces watery cantaloupe, etc. Then randomly they are amazing....same exterior skin. So...I have a dozen varieties of fruit trees, and grapes, and grow all melons and winter squashes and so much that I am not often disappointed knowing every year will give an abundance of at least a few things. This year is all about the peppers! Never in 25years have I had such a pepper harvest.