Fruit vegetables
Melon
Cucumis melo
Timings for your region
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Start indoorsearly April – late April
Plantingmid May – early June
Harvestearly August – mid September
Practical tip
Ripeness shows in the scent and in the stalk, which cracks and almost detaches itself — not in the colour. Outdoors it only pays off in genuinely warm areas; otherwise it belongs in a greenhouse or against a south wall.
Origin & history
Cucumis melo was not domesticated in Africa, as was long assumed, but in Asia, according to current genetic work; Egyptians and Romans already grew it, though it only became sweet and aromatic late on. The cantaloupe type takes its name from Cantalupo near Rome, a papal country estate where seed from Armenia was grown from the 15th century. In Germany the melon stayed a matter for grand gardens with hotbeds and their own melon houses for centuries — it never became an ordinary garden vegetable here. The watermelon, incidentally, belongs to a different genus.
Varieties
Outdoors only the early cantaloupe and Charentais types are worth considering. “Petit Gris de Rennes” is the dependable classic for cool summers, “Sweetheart” and “Emir” are early F1 hybrids, and “Ogen” is a slightly later Galia type. Honeydew and winter melons of the inodorus group need a long hot autumn and will not finish here, however good the spot is. Small-fruited varieties of 500 g to 1.5 kg ripen far more reliably than three-kilo ones. Grafted young plants cope with cool soil better than plants on their own roots.
Care
Melons will not put up with root disturbance: sow into individual pots, not a tray, do not prick out, and plant with the root ball intact. That is also why you do not sow before the second week of April — a seven-week-old plant is pot-bound, sits still after planting and is overtaken by one sown three weeks later. Black mulch film or fleece over the first few weeks buys the soil several degrees. Pinch the tip of the main shoot after the fifth or sixth leaf, because the female flowers sit on the side shoots. Leave three or four fruits per plant; more will not finish.
What can go wrong
The main problem is not fungal but thermal: in a cool summer the plant sets fruit that never turns sweet — a polytunnel or a place in the greenhouse decides the matter. If the little fruits stay walnut-sized and drop, pollination was missing; help by hand in the morning with a male flower. A board, a tile or a handful of straw belongs under every fruit, or it rots where it lies on damp soil. Splitting comes from heavy rain after a dry spell. Against mildew from August, generous spacing, watering at the base and tolerant varieties all help; leave four years after cucumber, courgette or pumpkin.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
A melon does not get any sweeter once picked, only softer — taken too early it stays bland, and no amount of work in the kitchen repairs that. Whole fruits sit for three to five days at room temperature; once cut they belong in the fridge under cover, or the butter tastes of melon. Serve at around 12 degrees, since ice-cold you taste nothing at all. It goes with air-dried ham, in a salad with feta and mint, or into a sorbet. Whatever is still green at the end of the season can be treated like a cucumber and pickled sweet and sour with ginger.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.