Melons: The Dessert of the Garden
by Erica Renaud, Research Farm Manager

The obvious choice for a refreshing summer dessert from the garden is a juicy, ripe melon. Seeds of Change offers thirteen divine melon varieties to satisfy the melon gourmet or beginning gardener alike. Whether it's muskmelon, cantaloupe, casaba, crenshaw, or honeydew, melons range in flavor, sweetness, shape, size, color and skin firmness: all factors that might determine the gardener's selection. Fundamental to the development of any fine specimen is attaining the right level of fertility, employing optimal cultural techniques and knowing just when to harvest!

Botanical Description:
Melons are annuals with monoecious flowering characteristics (separate male and female flowers on the same plant) and extensive but relatively shallow root systems. Melon plant stems are ridged with simple tendrils and most cultivars are vining, although some bush-type cultivars are being developed. Male flowers form in clusters of three to five on thin peduncles (A primary flower stalk, supporting either a cluster or a solitary flower). Female and hermaphroditic flowers develop singularly, opening during the early morning and are insect-pollinated. Ultimately, plants produce many more flowers than become set as fruit, which makes hand pollination a very labor-intensive and inefficient way to ensure purity when growing more than one variety at a time if you are intending to grow melons for seed.

Melons are classified as a pepo, a fruit in which the ovary wall is fused with the receptacle tissue to form a hard rind or skin. Fruits are usually spherical or oval oblong with smooth, glabrous, (having no hair) surfaces. Some are deeply ridged, while others are covered with a reticulate (corky) netting. Flesh colors range from white to green, pink, or orange.

Origin:
Melons (Cucumis melo) predominantly originated from the desertland savanna regions of Africa and southwestern Asia and include cultivated, feral and wild populations. Wild strains occur in Africa from south of the Sahara to the Transvaal in South Africa and in Southwest Asia ranging from Asia Minor to Afghanistan. Melons are thought to come from Africa because there are wild forms there, though the earliest references to melons are from China. In the 11th century the Chinese began growing cantaloupes and honeydews that originated in western Asia. The name cantaloupe is mentioned as having originated from the city of Cantaluppi in Italy or from the estate and castle of Cantalupo, also in Italy.

Categories of Melons:

• Muskmelons have pumpkin-like ribbing and skin covered with a netting of shallow veins. Flesh ranges from salmon to green. Seeds of Change varieties that fall under this category include: 'Blenheim Orange', 'Eel River', 'Hale's Best Jumbo', 'Harvest Queen', 'Imperial' and 'Rocky Ford'.
• True cantaloupes, grown mostly in Europe, have orange flesh and rough, scaly skin with dark, distinct veins. Known for their superb gourmet flavor, they are dense, aromatic and extremely sweet. Seeds of Change offers a superb 'Charentais Cantaloupe' variety.
• Winter melons (also a type of muskmelon), including honeydews, crenshaws, casabas and Persians, ripen as the weather starts to turn cool and will keep for 2-3 weeks if stored between 45 and 50 degrees at high humidity (95%). These larger, more oval fruits have waxy skins that can be smooth or wrinkled, with less fragrant flesh. They all require a growing season of over 100 days and are somewhat more susceptible to disease.
• Casabas have wrinkled, golden skins and white flesh that stays sweet and juicy over a long period. Our 'Sungold Casaba'.is a classic example of this short season cultivar.
• Large, round Persian melons have thick, orange or green flesh.. Our 'Haogen' was bred in Israel and has a sweet tangy flavor.
• Honeydew melons typically have smooth, creamy white skins and lime green flesh. Our Swan Lake melon, a Seeds of Change original,.is an unusual variation on the classic Honeydew having white flesh with swirls of peach to pale salmon.
• Crenshaws have salmon pink flesh with a distinctive flavor. The tenderness of their dark green skins make them difficult to ship.

• If the flesh texture is hard, the melon is underripe, while softness indicates over-ripeness;
• Some melons abscise or slip from the vine when ripe; others don't abscise until they're overripe. When melons are at full slip, a crack completely encircles the stem;
• Muskmelons should be harvested at full slip (the stem separates easily from the fruit) for best flavor. Many of the European Charantais varieties have to be harvested before slip to be at their best.
• Inodorous melons, such as canary or casaba, lack smell, netting, abscission zone, or softening; and their ripeness is frustrating for the melon lover to decipher. Leave these on the vine as long as possible; be alert to minute cracks in the rind and very subtle color changes that signal maturity, and let frost be the indicator of the cut.

Photo captions: (top)Melon tasting with Seeds of Change trial growers. (bottom) Eel River Melon