When are my melons ready?

[Vince G]

Growing 2 Emir melons in the poly. Did some major pruning about 2 weeks ago. Cut out the sideshoots and removed a lot of the flowers and baby fruit to leave the 4 best fruit per plant around the size of a golf ball.

At the weekend I netted them to support them so the vine doesn't tear as they're getting heavy.

They're a little bigger than a grapefruit now I reckon. How do I know when they're ripe?

[tamsin]

The smell, when they are ripe they smell so tasty, you'll walk in and know

[PyreneesPlot]

^^^ Exactly!

I don't know about Emir, but when the Charentaise ripen the scent is amazing - my first I could smell 20 meters away when I opened the bedroom window in the morning. And that was in outdoors patch.

And the point where the stalk joins the fruit seems to crack a little.

[maljackson]

Cut out the sideshoots

Hello, are the side-shoots the things that have the tendrils on them? They're about 5-6 ft long on mine - it doesn't make sense that I have to cut them off.

My flipping Ingrid melon plants are massive with tiny fruits and I'm concerned that I'm going to cut the worng thing off and kill it.

Any help identifying the side-shoots appreciated.
Mal.

[binley100]

This year my melon (well the survivor) has gone one step better and has about 6 leaves on it .......

[Ananke]

Och i'm not happy with my melons, they form tiny fruits, go brown and drop off.

[tamsin]

Try hand pollinating them with a paintbush

[Ananke]

Thanks Tamsin, i'll do that tomorrow.

[Vince G]

Hello, are the side-shoots the things that have the tendrils on them? They're about 5-6 ft long on mine - it doesn't make sense that I have to cut them off.

My flipping Ingrid melon plants are massive with tiny fruits and I'm concerned that I'm going to cut the worng thing off and kill it.

Any help identifying the side-shoots appreciated.
Mal.

Mal, I read you need to thin the plants out so they don't have too many fruits on them and stand a chance of ripening. As I mentioned, I identified the best 4 fruit per plant, then I traced back any shoot without those fruit on back to the main stem and cut it out. Seems savage, but I understand it's the best thing to do to get at least a few ripe fruit in our climate.

[Vince G]

Walked in the poly last week after being away for a weeks and the scent was amazing. Wiggled a couple of melons on the vine and one cracked away from the stem nicely. They have both a more intense scent and sweetness than anything I ever bought from a shop - eaten with a bit of nice salty parma ham - amazing, I'm drooling just typing this.

Absolutely delighted with my first attempt at these. We have eaten 4 so far, 1 is in the fridge and 1 still on the vine, so 6 in all from 2 plants, so not a huge harvest, but worth every bit of effort. If you have a poly, have a go at melons growing up a string.

[stella]

I agree they are wonderful

[BUFFS]

i have lost my two survivers,they lasted thru the constant wet and dark,but this last fortnights cold wet weather has seen the melons off,just as they got to a good size,after several nights more like midwinter,all the leaves have shrivelled,this is the first time in the last 15yrs that we have no melons.i am going to keep the seed though,see if they germinate next spring,they were starting to look good and were swelling nicely,will put them in new hothouse and see what happens given all the extra room..