<p>75 days. The taste of the tropics! These medium-large 1.5-1.8kg (31/2-4 lb.) fruits turn colour from green to yellow and slip off the vine like a cantaloupe when ripe. Round and ribless, well netted and firm, green fleshed and very sweet. Heavy yields. Tolerant to anthracnose and gummy stem blight.</p><p>Melon plants need 8-10 weeks of good, hot growing weather to grow and ripen. During that time, a melon vine must grow 5-9 leaves before starting to flower, then set 4 or more male flowers before making its first female flower, and then ripen its first set of melons before cool damp weather and powdery mildew set in. So it is essential to start indoors about a month before setting them out in the greenhouse by the end of May, or in a cold frame or other protection in the garden by mid-June. Melon seed germinates best at 20-25 deg. C (68-77 deg. F) in soil only slightly moist. Fill individual 10cm (4 in.) diameter peat pots with damp soil (barely forms a ball when squeezed). Sow the seeds 4cm (11/2 in.) deep, and seal the pots in small clear plastic bags in a warm, brightly lit place until germination occurs. You must transplant melons outside before the seedlings have developed the 2nd true leaf, never beyond the 3rd leaf. Carefully transplant out 60cm (24 in.) apart in rows at least 2m (6 ft.) apart in full sun. Use floating row cover to cover the transplants (but remove it when the female flowers appear), or first cover the row with black plastic. Cut a hole 13-15cm (5-6 in.) in diameter and gently set the transplant into soil (which has had 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer worked in). The black plastic is essential to warm up the soil enough to produce good vine and seedling growth. <br>DISEASE: All melons are susceptible to powdery mildew, which attacks when conditions are cool and damp, particularly when the vine is weakened by carrying a heavy load of fruit. Once mildewed, leaves can no longer manufacture food and begin to die, and melons will not ripen. Resistant varieties only hold off the disease a day or two longer. So start the vines early and give good nutrition for a good harvest; practise rotation gardening (plant melons in last year’s broccoli bed, sharing the ground with root crops). Powdery mildew can also kill seedlings before they emerge if they are sown in very damp soil. <br>INSECTS: Control cucumber beetle with pyrethrin or rotenone. If wireworms are a problem put a board or stiff paper under each fruit. <br>HARVEST: Fruit will not ripen off the vine! Cantaloupe will easily slip from the stem when ripe. <br>SEEDSPEC: Minimum germination standard: 80%. Days to emergence: 3-8. Optimum soil temperature range for germination: 20-27 deg. C (70-80 deg. F). Days to maturity: from date of transplanting; add 10-15 days if direct seeding. Approx. 20-40 seeds/g. Usual seed life: 3 years.</p><p>Melons really are a tropical vine, but they will grow anywhere with a warm growing season over 80 days, and will reward you with their wonderful flavour.</p>
