best melon for my greenhouse

[craig1971]

whats the best melon variety to grow in my 6x4 unheated greenhouse?

[horticultural_hobbit]

There is a variety called sharks fin, that a few grapes have tried. I have a variety called sweet crimson that I plan to sow. Not yet though, may be in a few weeks.

[catgirl]

I'm trying Galia melons this year but no idea how they're going to turn out. I considered watermelons but they spread out like crazy, so I would choose something quite compact that is known to grow okay in an unheated greenhouse in our climate.

[binley100]

Warning....don't whatever you do grow a sharks fin in your gh . Its a thug of the highest degree and isn't really a melon. Plus you'll need a chainsaw to cut it open and tbh it tastes yuk . I've tried cooking a mature one to make shsrksfin soup and roasting an immmature one , which tasted marginally better.

[Tadpole123]

Water melon sugar baby. Only spreads a yard square and produces little water melons.
Lidl sell the seeds @ 29p pkt or various places on line.

[Kristen]

Cantaloupe rather than Watermelon? If so then I've grown lots of varieties of over the years, and the top of my Good Do'er list would be Sweetheart. I tend not to have enough time to train them carefully, and pollinate them when I should, and despite that Sweetheart gives me a good crop.

Many of the more fancy ones I have tried over the years haven't really made enough foliage to support the crop that they promise to make, so I doubt the claims (either that or I am doing something wrong), Sweetheart is quite a thug by comparison and makes masses of foliage.

I grow mine trained up (and along) wires mounted against the glass on the West side of my N-S greenhouse. They are planted in the border, and the soil is changed each year (and is a mix of compost heap and well rotted manure) - so I reckon they haven't got many excuses for NOT doing well!

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

This year i will be growing 'Collective Farm Woman' from Real Seeds:

'This old Ukrainian variety is not only nice and early, but has sweet, crunchy flesh. Each vine produces several melons just the right size for two (greedy) people to eat. Said to be grown in central Russia and even to ripen in Moscow - we can believe it. Most unusually, it keeps for several weeks after picking.

It has always been very reliable in the UK, and popular with you all, so when in 2010 it was dropped by the Seedsavers Exchange, we took it on.

^ Might try a couple in the GH and a couple outside. Can't really offer any direct experience as nothing else I have tried has come to anything.