Melon
Tips And Hints For Growing Easy-Care Warm-Season Crops
(Cantaloupe) Planting months: May, June, July Spacing: 12 inches apart, rows 6 feet apart, or in tires or mounds 4 to 6 feet apart, Special
Tips: grow over black plastic to preserve heat, plant in tire for early harvest and more heat along coast. Stop watering a week or two before harvest (after fruit is full grown but not yet ripe) or fruit will be watery and flavorless. Harvesting: look for good color and crack around the stem.Cantaloupe will fall off stem easily with a slight twist when it’s ripe (called full slip). For other types count days to harvest, watch for color changes, and check for aroma, according to package directions for each.
(Late melons don’t slip off the stem.) Recommended Varieties: Ambrosia (delicious anywhere; the only one for coastal gardens), Burpee Hybrid, Earligold, Sweet’n’Early, Charentais (French type), Gallica (delicious very sweet, green-fleshed from Israel.) Late melon for long, hot summer inland only: “Crenshaw”.
(Protect from sunburn with a shingle.)
NOTE: If you are growing vegetables year-round there will be some carry over of cool-season crops into warm weather, for example artichokes, which can be put in from transplants in March and harvested in June, or globe onions, which are planted from seeds in November and harvested in late May or June, and strawberries which are also planted in November and harvested throughout spring into early summer.