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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2019 20:29:22 GMT -5
Back during the winter I decided that I would plant "the sweetest of all cantaloupes", an israeli melon whose name escapes me now. I found that it only grew to about two pounds, the equivalent of a quart of water, and forgot it. Galia, the name was Galia, a hybrid.
Now I read a thread here that discusses a very sweet Israeli melon sold by Wilhite, of Pooleville, TX. Very sweet, large, fragile, cannot be shipped. So, I ordered seeds today and if they arrive promptly have time to get fruit in late fall.
I was crazy about cantaloupes as a kid, but the ones I've grown or bought lately have little to recommend them--tough as boot leather and bland. I planted Hale's Best this year, but I am not excited about them.
Martin's comments about the spread of watermelon and vining squash roots are interesting. I have planted butternut squash in OK in a garden 60' by 100, nothing in it but squash and melons. Some of the butternut vines traveled from the center all the way to the edge and had small squash on those vine ends when frost killed them.
Last year my watermelon vines traveled about half that far, but when frost killed the vines and I went out to mow I found melons hidden in the vines. I must have picked and disposed of (eaten or given away) 25 melons and there were half a dozen of the hidden ones. The "one or two per vine" will be an understatement here and farther south I think. I know that people who want huge melons do not allow more to grow, but I do not need 50 pound melons. I grew 50 pound black diamonds in OK, but who needs one? You wind up eating the heart and throwing the rest over the fence for the cattle. Here I have no cattle.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jun 24, 2019 20:42:51 GMT -5
My family cantaloupe is huge. My Uncle Charley selected over the years till he got a giant sweet salmons fleshed melon. They will occasionally throw a small white fleshed melon. I have shared them over the years with people on several forums. I haven't grown them out since 2017. I need to do a grow out next year for sure. When I say giant, the cantaloupes will get the size of sugar baby watermelon and some will be quite a bit bigger. Of course you also get a few smaller ones the size of normal cantaloupe. They are smooth skinned without the netting most cantaloupes have.
I gave them the name Charley's Pride.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 25, 2019 11:28:42 GMT -5
@oxankle2, I'll be interested to hear how your Israeli melon works out. My kids love cantaloupes and melons. DH does, too. hairymooseknuckles, am I right to assume that your Charley's Pride melon is a big vine, since it makes giant melons?
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Post by carolyn on Jun 25, 2019 11:48:22 GMT -5
Hairymooseknuckles do you still have some of those seeds to share?
oxankle2, we grow athena and goddess. both are about a 75 day melon and both are excellent for us here in our area. not huge melons not like a honeyrock and I think larger than the hales best, which I grew and was leeeeeessssssss than impressed.
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Post by paquebot on Jun 25, 2019 12:11:45 GMT -5
Speaking of sweet cantaloupe,, I have not found one sweeter than Montreal Melon, AKA Cinnamon Melon. It;s another of those which have a shelf life of just running it in from the garden. Was lost for years until someone found a few in a seed bank. If I had the space, I'd grow enough to enjoy one every day.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jun 25, 2019 12:29:57 GMT -5
@oxankle2 , I'll be interested to hear how your Israeli melon works out. My kids love cantaloupes and melons. DH does, too. hairymooseknuckles , am I right to assume that your Charley's Pride melon is a big vine, since it makes giant melons? Yes, it's a nice sized vine, but it's very manageable as long as you have some space to let it run. I've got pictures somewhere of the vine and melon.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jun 25, 2019 12:32:04 GMT -5
Hairymooseknuckles do you still have some of those seeds to share? Sure! My seeds are getting older, but should still be viable. I also saved a few back in 2017. Shoot me a pm.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2019 8:34:47 GMT -5
I'm new to this forum and do not know how to readily find old posts, but someone here mentioned Israeli melons and Wilhite Seeds---which is why I went there to buy seed.
Wilhite sells two varieties of Israeli melon---I bought the original variety, and I am not sure that this is the one the OP grew.
I have been looking for "the sweetest cantaloupe" for some time. I thought I had the perfect melon when I found Galia, a hybrid, but I decided that I did not want such a small melon, two pounds.
At any rate, I have someone on this forum to thank for putting me on to Wilhite. I'll report on results if I get a crop before frost.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2019 8:56:08 GMT -5
Martin: What is your opinion on the adaptability of plants to differences in latitude and/or climate? We know that onions have their preferences and we know that a difference in soil types will influence outcomes.
Do you think that a melon that does well in the far North would prosper in Texas or Arkansas? Has anyone studied this?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2019 17:28:33 GMT -5
I think I reported buying cantaloupe and cuke seed from Wilhite, and I may have reported wrapping them in damp paper towel and putting them on top of the fridge where they grew three inch roots in three days. I planted those seeds last Friday, as I recall, and today the cucumbers are up like a little row of soldiers. Only two cantaloupe up, but I need only enough plants to test the melons.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jul 8, 2019 20:33:59 GMT -5
That sounds like a great melon, hairymooseknuckles! And I assume that it doesn't mind heat, if you can grow it in your area?
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jul 8, 2019 21:37:16 GMT -5
That sounds like a great melon, hairymooseknuckles ! And I assume that it doesn't mind heat, if you can grow it in your area? Yes, it does very well here. It's one of those that has a nice smell when you've picked them. Just carrying them to the house will make you want to cut it open and eat. I've shared it with a number of people, but only two that I remembered giving me any feedback. One in Mississippi, one in Iowa. They both said it grew fine in their area.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jul 10, 2019 17:48:14 GMT -5
This is Charley's Pride. That's a big old 2 person washtub front and center and the washtub in the back is a regular one that 1 person can carry.
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Post by carolyn on Jul 11, 2019 7:32:27 GMT -5
wow! thanks for the photo. I would have been looking for a browner melon.
Mine are up now BTW. thanks for sharing the seeds. any idea how many days to maturity? 80, 90? 70? 100?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 11, 2019 14:20:28 GMT -5
Wow, some of those are real whoppers. Pretty, too.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jul 11, 2019 15:03:45 GMT -5
wow! thanks for the photo. I would have been looking for a browner melon. Mine are up now BTW. thanks for sharing the seeds. any idea how many days to maturity? 80, 90? 70? 100? Somewhere buried in my notes over the years is the answer, but off the top of my head I don't remember. I just asked my Uncle Charley since they are his babies and he said let him think on it a few minutes. He's 89, so his memory isn't what it once was. I remember we picked them for several weeks. They don't store all that well either. We kept them in a hot shed though. A dozen vines will make you sick of looking at Cantaloupe. I used to supply everyone at work with tomatoes, peas and melons. When I left that job, I still received phone calls during the summer months for years. They pretty much left me alone during winter, but man sakes alive they remembered me during summer.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2019 11:49:45 GMT -5
So; My HALE'S BEST are ripening, almost all at once. There are some small green ones out on the ends of the vines, but the vines are showing signs of stress and I do not expect to get those little melons.
As I recall, HALE'S BEST were said to be best "at full slip". Well, I can tell you that if you wait until full slip the bottom of the melon will have a bad spot. I have thrown away fully 20% of my melons because they have a rotten spot on bottom where they lay on the ground. Flavor of the fully-ripe melons is good but not exciting.
Moreover, this getting ripe all at once is no good for the home garden; we need a melon that produces over a long period.
Any suggestions?
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Post by carolyn on Aug 8, 2019 13:32:54 GMT -5
our goddess melons were TERRIBLE this year. I wonder what they have done to the breeding line...We asked the farm market up the road about them and he said they quit growing them as they have become bland.
waiting patiently for Charlies Pride now.
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Post by carolyn on Aug 8, 2019 13:35:46 GMT -5
So; My HALE'S BEST are ripening, almost all at once. There are some small green ones out on the ends of the vines, but the vines are showing signs of stress and I do not expect to get those little melons. As I recall, HALE'S BEST were said to be best "at full slip". Well, I can tell you that if you wait until full slip the bottom of the melon will have a bad spot. I have thrown away fully 20% of my melons because they have a rotten spot on bottom where they lay on the ground. Flavor of the fully-ripe melons is good but not exciting. Moreover, this getting ripe all at once is no good for the home garden; we need a melon that produces over a long period.Any suggestions? I have grown hales best once. I was so disappointed as they were bland. might have been the weather. might have been too wet? plant in succession don't plant your melons all on the same day. once a week or every 10-15 days a new planting/ or plant several varieties with different maturity dates all at the same time but that isn't fool proof either. We also plant in plastic and in between the rows we lay ground cover to keep the melons off the dirt.
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Post by Gianna on Aug 8, 2019 15:57:22 GMT -5
fully 20% of my melons because they have a rotten spot on bottom where they lay on the ground. When I used to grow garden melons, I had to slip a tile or flat piece of wood under each melon or sometimes they would rot. Also, sometimes a gopher would come up from underneath and eat it out from the bottom. Surprise! Same with winter squash. Of course my patches werent that large, so putting things under the fruits was not that big a job. As for Hale's Best... I would have hated to taste Hale's Worst. I thought Ambrosia was quite good, though a somewhat soft fruit.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Aug 8, 2019 18:00:04 GMT -5
I don't think I've grown hale's best. When I think of Israel melon, one called Ha'ogen comes to mind. I didn't care for those either, but they seem pretty popular. I'm down to two basic melons. Charley's Pride and Charentais.
if I cut a Cantaloupe open and it doesn't have salmon flesh, I'm totally bummed out. Especially if the flesh has a green tint to it. Makes me think of honeydew. Eeeeew!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 12:17:21 GMT -5
Has anyone grown Galia? That one is supposed to be thw sweetest of all. IO did not plant it because it is said to be only about two pounds--the weight of a quart of water, rind and all. That would be a tiny melon.
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reubent
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Post by reubent on Sept 19, 2019 11:15:55 GMT -5
I've fooled with melons a long time. Got everything from super sweet delicious to super dull tasteless balls of garbage. I think the genetics starts things off but the fertility makes or breaks the flavor. The article on the Weston price website gets started explaining it some. www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/farm-ranch/the-quest-for-nutrient-dense-food-high-brix-farming-and-gardening/ I will be experimenting a lot more with fertility and see what I can get. Hopefully I can set things up to grow things right through the winter under cover as well and keep playing with fertility more.
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