How to grow Melon

Cucumis melo · muskmelon, cantaloupe

Heat-loving trailing vegetable that produces sweet, fleshy fruits. Requires high temperatures and a long growing season to reach full sugar content.

Quick facts

Type	Vegetable
Family	Cucurbitaceae
Light	Full sun
Soil pH	6–7
Frost	does not tolerate frost
Soil for sowing	from 18 °C
Germination	7 days
Seedlings ready	45 days
Sowing to harvest	110 days
Where it grows	Greenhouse, Open ground

When to plant

Sow for seedlings about 7 weeks before planting out.

Plant out in open ground about a week after your last spring frost, once the soil is warm.

In an unheated greenhouse everything moves about three weeks earlier.

The first harvest comes about 110 days after the shoots appear.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Greenhouse

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Seedlings	every 3 days	20…28 °C	balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage
Growth	every 4 days	18…30 °C	nitrogen, 14 days into the stage
Flowering	every 3 days	18…32 °C	phosphorus and potassium, at the start of the stage
Fruiting	every 3 days	18…32 °C	potassium, at the start of the stage; potassium, 21 days into the stage

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Seedlings	every 3 days	18…25 °C	balanced (NPK), 14 days into the stage
Growth	every 5 days	15…30 °C	nitrogen, 14 days into the stage
Flowering	every 4 days	15…32 °C	phosphorus and potassium, at the start of the stage
Fruiting	every 4 days	15…32 °C	potassium, at the start of the stage; potassium, 21 days into the stage

Growing notes

Light

Full sun is essential for fruit ripening and sugar development.

Soil

Rich, sandy loam with plenty of organic matter; must be well-draining.

Care

Provide a trellis or mulch the ground to keep fruit off the soil and prevent rot. Water consistently but reduce watering as the fruit nears ripeness to concentrate sugars. Hand-pollinate flowers if bees are scarce in greenhouses.

How to tell it is ripe

Rind between the netting has turned from green to tan or yellow.
A crack has formed around the stem where it joins the fruit.
A ripe melon separates from the stem with a gentle pull.
The blossom end gives slightly and smells sweet.
Wait until the stem slips, because a melon stops gaining sugar once picked; smooth honeydew types do not slip, so cut them when fully yellow.

Pests and diseases of Melon

Anthracnose
Bacterial wilt
Cucumber beetles
Downy Mildew
Fruit cracking
Fusarium Wilt
Leaf Curl Virus
Two-spotted spider mite
Verticillium Wilt
White mould (Sclerotinia)
Whitefly

Sources

Figures cited from these sources.