ruthie Yes, I quite enjoy watching garden fruits and veggies grow! carol I can't take a lot of credit because I have really good soil. It's red Georgia clay, but if plants are kept mulched, they grow pretty well. But the one drawback is that this southern location seems to have a lot more bugs than when I used to live, about 900 miles north! vgkg I just read here that charentais melons are ripe when they begin splitting. It says this: Charentais: More delicate than a canteloupe flavor, begins splitting when fully ripe which European consumers appreciate, this also attracts sap beetles. I haven't seen this comment anywhere except at this one site -- most advice about when they're ripe elsewhere isn't very helpful at all. No wonder people have trouble knowing when to pick them, since they don't slip! I guess nobody wants their melons to split out in the garden before picking them, so most people try to estimate ripeness by other characteristics.

The suggestions all of you posted pretty much covers what we do here. Check to see if the tendril nearest the stem is dead, AND the two tendrils directly left and right of the stem. Check the bottom of the melon for yellowness. Push on the melon a bit to hear it crack inside. This is hard to do but when you actually do hear it crack it is a sure sign. Thumping on the melon I found it to be mainly a sign of how crisp the melon is - how fresh. Not much of an indicator of when ripe, but if it is overripe. Another good thing to check ripeness AFTER the melon is picked is to check for syrup coming out of the stem. If you see this dark sticky substance oozing out, you have a real yummy one there! We have also found that certain varieties do not work well with the tendril technique. If you are having problems I'd just wait a week or so after the tendril dies and then pick the finicky watermelon. However, we have never gotten those hard to tell melons again just because of that. We stick to the best all around: Crimson Sweet! Wow, what a winner! As for musk melons we always look for the overall tan/ yellow color of the outer rind, the more corky it looks the better, and how easy it is for the stem to be pulled off.

You can substitute it for spinach in any recipe where you will cook the spinach. Health Nut's Rainbow Dream Serves: 4 - 5 By: Roosebelt Balboa Ingredients: 2 teaspoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1/4 cup sibuyas Tagalog (native onions), sliced 1/2 cup tomatoes, sliced 1-1/2 cups water 1/2 cup ube (purple potato), cubed 1 large carrot, cubed 1 cup broccoli, chopped 1 small eggplant, thinly sliced 1/2 cup sitaw (yardlong beans), cut into 2-1/2 inch pieces 2 teaspoons bagoong alamang (shrimp paste) 1 siling labuyo (hot chili pepper) 1 tablespoon dayap (native lime) juice 1 cup alokon flowers and young leaves 1/2 cup malunggay (horseradish) leaves 1/2 cup ampalaya (bitter melon) leaves Cooking Method: Saute garlic and sibuyas Tagalog in hot olive oil in a large saucepan. When garlic is brown and sibuyas Tagalog is transparent, add tomatoes and water. Boil for 2 minutes. Add ube and cook over medium-high heat for 9 minutes. Add carrots, broccoli, eggplant, sitaw, bagoong alamang, siling labuyo and dayap juice and stir. Cook for 3 minutes on medium heat. Toss in alokon and cook for 2 minutes. Stir. Add malunggay and ampalaya leaves and cook briefly until wilted. Serve with rice. Here is a link that might be useful: Recipes using Bitter Melon Leaves aka ampalaya

In a typical year in typical conditions with adequate soil fertility and adequate moisture, Sugar Baby can easily produce 4 to 6 fruit per plant in our climate and sometimes 8 to 10 or more. It is hard to guess why your plants haven't formed many fruit or why the one you harvested was so small. It could be a soil fertility issue. It could be low rainfall. It could be that you are growing them in clay soil. They really do much better in sandy soil, although they will grow well enough in well-amended clay soil to which a lot of organic matter has been added. As for why the plants haven't set more fruit, it is anyone's guess. Most icebox melons just bloom and bloom and bloom. Every flower doesn't give you fruit, but you should get a decent number of fruit per plant. If they are not flowering, the plants might need to be fertilized. If they are flowering, but not setting fruit, it might be a lack of pollinators. While there is nothing at all wrong with Sugar Baby (it does have superb flavor), there are other icebox melons that produce more heavily. I usually grow several of them every year and my grow list of watermelons usually includes Sugar Baby, Yellow Baby, Yellow Doll, Tiger Baby, New Orchid and the slightly larger Hime Kansen, Blacktail Mountain and Harvest Moon. With the smaller-fruited melons, if they only produced 2 fruit per plant, I'd cross them off my list and plant something that is more productive. If your plant is staying really small and not producing more fruit and you have ruled out a lack of nutrients or lack of water, then I wonder if maybe you got Bush Sugar Baby instead of the regular Sugar Baby.