Cucumis melo
sugar melon
Common names: honey melon, cantaloupe
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 60 cm, rows 120 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Apr–May
- Harvest
- Aug–Sep
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below 5 °C
- Water need
- High
- For children
- Well suited
Photo: Forest & Kim Starr · CC BY 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The sugar melon is a heat-loving relative of the cucumber, whose sweet fragrant flesh ripens in midsummer. In our latitudes it does best in a greenhouse, in a cold frame, or on a warm house wall. Proven field varieties are the early-ripening 'Petit Gris de Rennes' and 'Sweetheart'.
Care instructions
Preheat the plants warm from April and plant them only after the last frost, mid May week 20, in the warmest spot in the garden with plenty of compost. Water evenly at the root, but reduce water as the fruit matures so the fruit becomes sweet. Place ripening melons on a board or straw so they do not rot from below; they are ripe when they smell at the stem base and easily detach.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–May
HarvestAug–Sep
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 15 °C, ideally 28 °C
- Days to sprout
- 5 to 10 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 2 cm
- How to start
- Start indoors, then plant out
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
sandy, loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Give the melon a humus-rich, sandy-loamy soil that drains well and does not become waterlogged. Improve heavy clay soils and pure sandy soils generously with mature compost before planting; this loosens them, improves drainage and helps to retain moisture. Choose a warm, wind-sheltered spot in full sun; a soil that warms up quickly is ideal.
Cucurbits (cucumber, pumpkin, courgette) are heavy feeders. Give them plenty of compost and about 4 years' break on the same bed.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Apr–Aug
In spring before planting out, work mature compost and some horn shavings shallowly into the bed to ensure a basic supply. Once the plants have established, top up from June with well-rotted manure or compost. At flowering and fruit set in high summer, switch to a potassium-rich organic feed, such as comfrey or nettle liquid feed; this promotes sugar formation. Avoid an excess of nitrogen while the fruit ripens, because it drives foliage and leads to watery fruit.
Overwintering
The sugar melon is an annual. It dies at the first frost and is sown anew every year. Start it on the windowsill from mid-April and plant it out only after the Ice Saints (mid-May · week 20), because it cannot tolerate cold; you can keep your own seeds cool and dry until the next season.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
In the home garden you propagate sugar melons exclusively by sowing. As an annual crop, the plant dies after harvest, so cuttings or division are not worthwhile. Sow indoors from mid-April: put 1 to 2 seeds about 1 to 2 cm deep in seed compost in each small pot (7 to 9 cm) and keep them constantly warm at 22 to 28 °C. A windowsill above a radiator or a heated propagation mat helps. Tip: soak the seeds overnight in lukewarm water, which makes germination easier. Germination takes about 7 to 14 days. After that, keep the young plants at no less than 18 to 20 °C, because below 16 °C growth is permanently stunted. Harden them off about two weeks before planting out by putting them outside, sheltered, during the day. The plants may go into the greenhouse or under a polytunnel from the end of April/beginning of May, and into a sheltered outdoor spot only after the Ice Saints (mid-May), when single-digit night temperatures are no longer a threat. Choose early-ripening varieties suited to the Central European climate. If you want to save your own seed, let a fully ripe fruit ripen further, take out the seeds, then wash and dry them thoroughly. Important: only open-pollinated varieties give you offspring that is true to type and that can be stored and will germinate. Seeds from F1 hybrids turn out inconsistent and are not worth raising. Since cucurbits are cross-pollinators, you should let only one melon variety flower if you want pure seed (the sugar melon does not, however, cross with cucumbers or pumpkins).
Companion planting
Good neighbors
legume family (Fabaceae)
Beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen, which cucurbits, as heavy feeders, can make good use of.
For example PeaPole beanBroad beanSnow peaWrinkled peaRunner bean and 35 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Rather not
nightshade family (Solanaceae)
You should avoid planting potato and cucumber together because they share disease pathogens such as leaf and brown rot and stand in each other's way as strong feeders.
For example TomatoSweet pepperCocktail tomatoEggplantCape gooseberryChili and 13 more species in the catalogue
Source: basic crop-rotation rule
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow sugar melon yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
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