Diane,

In my experience, all the usual generic advice like "when the stem releases easily from the vine" and "when the melon at the stem yields to pressure" depends on the variety of melon you are growing.

So, my advice would be to tell us what melon varieties you are growing. Because I know the charentais are different from the market variety melons. Then, if it is a variety I have grown, I promise to share my secrets and probably others will also!

While we're at it, I am growing Crenshaws for the first time this year. Is there anything I need to know about them?

Marcy

Doh! I forgot to mention what exactly I'm growing: Everything! LOL I have a few different types of watermelon, some honeydews, and various canteloupes. Maybe even something else. Honestly, I was just trying to get a little of everything on hand planted and can't even remember most of the variety names now.

Lesson learned: Don't plant during times of stress unless you take lots and lots of notes!

Diane

Diane - I haven't grown many melons...ever. But last year I got over the fear (what the heck, right? "There's always next year!"). I grew Ambrosia "cantelope" and Sugar Baby Watermelons.

With the Ambrosia, to judge readiness - I used the "gently tug to release from the vine" method. But with the Sugar Babies - I waited until that first little curly-quew thingy from the melon stem turned brown. As long as I followed that, I never picked a green melon. (yeh, soooo not a scientific approach, but it worked for me).

Good luck!

Paula

I do what Paula does, but also revert back to my childhood and have to 'thump' a few watermelons. I really don't do much tugging on cantaloupe because if you put you finger under the stem near the melon and lift slightly, It will normally fall right off of the melon.

Diane,

To a certain extent, it comes from trial and error. Some people become pretty good at judging melon ripeness and it seems like others never do. The signs can vary by melon type.

My old rancher/farmer friend Fred says he used to cut a plug from a watermelon, check it for ripeness without picking the melon, and then replace the plug and let the melon keep growing if it wasn't ripe yet. He insisted the ants and other critters did not get into the plugged area, which seems odd to me. Nowadays, he just waits for the coyotes to harvest them for him because somehow the coyotes always know when they're ripe and the beat the farmer or gardener to them.

First of all, watch the size of the melons. If you're growing a watermelon variety that usually reaches 25-30 lbs., it likely will not be ripe when it is 12-15 lbs. With watermelons, you can usually go by the tendril nearest the melon...it will turn dry and brown. Some people have luck 'knocking' on the melon and not picking until they hear a dull, hollow sound instead of a sharper, higher-pitched pinging or ringing sound. I don't always have a lot of luck with that one myself. You also can keep an eye on the underside portion of the melon that rests on the ground. As the melon ripens, it will turn a dull, creamy off white to yellow color and often the texture of that ground spot will get a little rough. Usually, you use these clues in order: size, browning tendril, yellowish-white ground spot and THEN do the thumping test. If the thumping test is the only clue, your ears are like mine and you're hearing the wrong sound. Wait until all 4 clues are 'right' and you should be harvesting a ripe watermelon.

With cantaloupes and muskmelons, there are lots of clues. First of all, the netted melons we commonly call cantaloupes are not actually cantaloupes as the rest of the world knows them. So, for muskmelons, here are the signs of ripeness to watch for:

1) Days To Maturity---even if you've forgotten the variety, most of these types of melons mature in 75-90 days. In our very hot summers, you may find melons ripening more quickly than their DTM indicates, but not weeks and weeks early....just days early.

2) Most muskmelons slip from the vine by themselves when fully ripe. They form an abscission layer where the melon stem attaches to the vine. If you check that area daily, at some point you'll notice a slight crack. As the days go on, the crack on the stem grows larger and completely encircles the stem when the melon is at the peak of perfection. When you tug gently at the melon, it will detach easily at that abscission layer when the muskmelon is fully ripe. Once that melon is fully ripe (known as 'full slip')it only takes a very slight tug for the melon to separate. If you are tugging hard and the melon doesn't separate, it isn't ready yet.

3) Most muskmelons go from a greenish undertint to their rind to an orangey/salmon one, except for the melons that have white or green-flesh. With most muskmelons, the color of the rind becomes almost a golden-salmon color under the netting. This color can be surprising to see because most grocery-store muskmelons are picked before they reach that color so we aren't used to seeing it.

4) Most muskmelons develop a delicious aroma when near ripeness that smell so good, you're looking around for a split-open melon because it is hard to imagine you're getting that luscious smell from an intact melon.

5) On muskmelons, the netting develops more and becomes more prominent as the melon ripens. A melon that has partial netting, or skimpy undeveloped netting is not fully ripe.

Muskmelons don't continue to ripen after being picked, so take care to avoid picking too early. They will develop softer texture, but their flavor won't get any better than it was the day you picked it.

With true cantaloupes and many other melon types, it is a lot harder to tell because they have a thicker dense rind more like a watermelon, so you don't have netting to help you figure out the ripening, and some of them (like the canary and casaba types) don't form an abscission layer either. The ones from the inodorus group don't emit a 'ripe' aroma either, making it even harder to tell. Some of them, like Collective Farm Woman, have their rind completely change colors as they ripen, which you may not realize if it is your first time to grow that type. For example, with Collective Farm Woman, you'll see it ripen from dark green to mottled green gold to mostly gold. I harvested my first Collective Farm Woman cantaloupe green years ago because I didn't know to wait for it to turn gold. Other melons have their rind change from green to either gray, yellow or brown.

Marcy, Crenshaws, like the variety Crane or Sweet Freckles, for example, are in the Cucumis melo var. inodorus group, which I think is the group that gives the fewest clues to ripeness. They don't soften, they don't give off a ripe aroma and they don't form an abscission layer. I just wait for them to get to the right color and degree of freckles that I'd expect from that variety, if they have speckles/freckles. The Crenshaw types are late to ripen, and I usually use DTMs to help me know when they're ready. If in doubt, I leave them on the vine a bit longer because I tend to want to pick them too early. Do you know which Crenshaw variety you planted? If you do, I might have grown it before and might know what its rind looks like when it is fully ripe.

Diane, I almost forgot to add that with many melons, you can judge ripeness by pressing gently at the melon's blossom end. When you press on that area, an immature melon will be hard and will not 'give' when you press and a mature one will. The melon is at full ripeness when the skin is fairly easy to depress, and the melon is overripe when there is very little elasticity under finger pressure or if your pressure pushes your fingers right through the rind of the melon. Unfortunately, this pressure test doesn't work with winter melons like Crenshaws or with watermelons.

AFTER you pick a melon and cut it open, look at its flesh and learn to recognize how a ripe one looks. The melon flesh should be 'just right' as in not too hard or not too soft (mushy). Ripe melons will have conspicuous but tender fibers in their flesh.

If you pick melons too early and they aren't ripe and they aren't very tasty, you can puree them, add the sweetner of your choice and make them into a sorbet, or you can make them into melon soup so the other ingredients make up for the lack of sweet flavor.

Dawn

(*Light Blub Moment"!) I think I should give you credit for that knowledge, Carol, on the watermelons! I remember when I read your advice, it just made so much sense...it stuck!

Another indicator on the cantelope is really simple. Make sure all the skin is the right beige color, no green, and where it meets the stem won't be all green either.

Here's a thread from the Harvest Forum that's pretty informative. In fact, think I'll bookmark it as I'm growing Congo and Moon & Stars this year too.

Paula

P.S. Those curly-quew things are technically called "tendrils"....sheesh...

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting Melons

Okay.

*deep breath*

I'm not sure why melon harvesting stresses me out so much but it does. LOL I'm going to come back to this tomorrow and condense it all into pocket Cliff notes to carry to the gardens with me. Once I'm down there, I get all freaked out and second guess myself. This time, I'll have notes with me from all of you. Ha, take that, freaky self!

Thanks to you all! I'm sure I'll be back with more questions after I go look at the melons again with notes...

Diane, who really needs to seek therapy for her melon issues

Dawn,

I'm growing the Crenshaw 'Lilly F1' from Johnny's. It has a striped rind; not seeing any freckles.

Marcy

Marcy,

Of course I had to go to Johnny's website and look up 'Lily'. What a pretty melon! It is pretty early too.

All of the crenshaw types I have grown are heirlooms and do have what I call freckles, but which also could be called blotches or spots. One of them is named 'Sweet Freckles'. Some of the heirlooms are sort of 'ugly' compared to the hybrids, but the flavor is great.

I grew a melon from Italy several years ago with an Italian name that translated to "Ugly But Good". It not only had lots of freckles, blotches and spots but was rather irregular...almost lumpy....in shape and truly was the ugliest melon I'd ever seen. The ones in my garden were even uglier than the image on the seed packet, and I wasn't sure if I should be proud of or ashamed of their extra-ugly appearance.

Dawn

Okay, I've made a short page of notes to take to the garden with me. I am prepared, people! Wish me luck...

I also found my seed packets of (most of) what I planted this year. First plantings were on May 8th.

Ambrosia
Cochiti Pueblo melon
Pike melon
Sugar Queen cantaloupe
Janosik yellow-meated watermelon
Blacktail Mountain watermelon

Plus a buttload of unknown cantaloupe from a friend (I assume it's Hale or something very common since they stick to that sort of thing) and a few other assorted ones that I can't find the packets for but also common, like Black Diamond, etc.

Diane

I did it!! I'm so proud of myself! LOL

Raccoons, opossums, and whatever else was hungry helped themselves to three muskmelons night before last but, yesterday, I was able to harvest three water melons and three muskmelons. We cut them open today and they were absolutely perfect! I think maybe the muskmelons could have waited one more day but then the critters would have eaten them -- and they tasted perfect anyway.

I'm so excited, I'm beside myself. LOL We all l ove melon and have been gorging ourselves all day. There will be dozens more to harvest in the coming weeks (I did three staggered plantings) so we'll see whether or not we get sick of melons by fall...

I'd never, ever harvested a perfectly ripe melon of any sort before this year, even though I've grown them for years. LOL Thanks to you all for the help!

Diane

Diane,

That's terrific news! You do have to watch those critters as they're perfectly happy to harvest before peak ripeness.

Isn't it funny how great you feel when you master a garden skill that has stubbornly eluded you?

This thread is proof that many heads are better than one.

Dawn