Melon Growing

How to Grow and Harvest Melon

Heirloom Melons mostly have a short shelf life as opposed to store bough melons; however the taste is in a class of its own!

Soil Preparation and feeding for Melons

Melons grow relatively fast when conditions are optimal. Soil should be rich fertile and very well drained. At Glen Seeds we grow melons many times on compost heaps with very good results.

Planting times for melons in South Africa

Aug to December

Please note:  Planting times supplied are in a general South African sense and are based on typical South African Highveld conditions. Your particular area of South Africa might vary, for instance if you live in Tzaneen you have summer all year long and can grow summer crops January to December!

Sun exposure:

Full sun

Seed Planting and Germination

2 to 4 Melon seeds should be planted in elevated mounds ('hills') with flattened crests.  Space plants 2m by 2m apart.  Mulch crests well after seeds sown

Melon seeds germinate at between 20 and 35 degrees Celsius.  At lower temperatures germination will be poor and delayed or will fail.

Germination takes approximately 3 to 12 days.

Days to harvest

Picnic:                          70 - 90 days

Note:

• Days to harvest is based on typical good growing conditions and can sometimes vary depending on climate, state of soil, and in some instances length of day and climate for the area in South Africa where you reside.
• The specific plant might have characteristic/s that fall outside of the typical type norm.
• Days to harvest are counted from germination or seedling transplant date whichever is the latest.

Harvest

Timing is crucial when harvesting Melons.  Melons can get overripe very quick and you don’t want to pick them early either else sweetness and flavor will lack:

Check your melons regularly they are ripe when:

• Either the stem side started to crack where the stem is attached to the fruit
• Or cracks appeared at the blossom end

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