All About Growing Melons

By Barbara Pleasant
Published on May 25, 2011
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From watermelons and muskmelons to honeydew and Asian melons, you’ll be stunned by the variety of colors and shapes melons can bring to your garden. 
From watermelons and muskmelons to honeydew and Asian melons, you’ll be stunned by the variety of colors and shapes melons can bring to your garden. 
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Fresh, lightly chilled chunks of melon need no further accompaniment on a hot summer day. Making smoothies and other liquid concoctions is a refreshing way to use a bumper crop of melons.
Fresh, lightly chilled chunks of melon need no further accompaniment on a hot summer day. Making smoothies and other liquid concoctions is a refreshing way to use a bumper crop of melons.

(For details on growing many other vegetables and fruits, visit our Crop at a Glance collection page.)

Delicious and packed with nutrition, melons have delighted gardeners for about 2,500 years. Their rambling vines grow best in warm weather, and fruit flavor and texture improve if rain becomes less frequent as the fruits mature. Melons come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors, providing a multitude of options for summertime fare. All melons grow best in fertile, well-drained soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.

Types of Melons

Finding the right melons for your garden will take some experimenting, because varieties that thrive in dry climates may fail under moist conditions, and vice versa. Check out our chart of melon types, which includes our recommended varieties of melons for home gardeners.

Watermelons mature after 80 to 100 days in hot, humid climates — they won’t grow well or taste good without plenty of warmth and sun. Watermelons tend to be the easiest melons to grow in organic gardens because of their pest and disease resistance.

American cantaloupes, properly called muskmelons because of their fruity fragrance, produce 75 to 85 days after planting. Some varieties have smooth rinds, but the most popular and nutritious varieties have orange flesh beneath heavily netted rinds.

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