This coming spring I’d like to devote one 30 gal. container to melons, and am looking for suggestions.

Needs to ripen before the really nasty heat and humidity sets in around mid-June.

I plant tomatoes out by mid-March so can start melon seeds around then.

I grew Tigger up in Massachusetts and liked it. So did the chipmunks. No experience with melons in Florida.

TIA!

I did melons awhile back and after trying a few years I gave up - One time I had 24 big Ambrosia Cantaloupes and when I picked them, all but 3 had a tiny pin hole - put the cantaloupe in a bucket of water and a worm (caterpillar) popped out. The next year, tried Minnesota Midgets and some of the container ones earlier in the season - same thing. I even was spraying BT that year.

On the cucumbers, you can use tulle to cover your plants b/c the pickleworm moth just comes out at dusk.

ETA - Melons like it hot.

Barb_FL wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 2:36 pm I did melons awhile back and after trying a few years I gave up - One time I had 24 big Ambrosia Cantaloupes and when I picked them, all but 3 had a tiny pin hole - put the cantaloupe in a bucket of water and a worm (caterpillar) popped out. The next year, tried Minnesota Midgets and some of the container ones earlier in the season - same thing. I even was spraying BT that year.

On the cucumbers, you can use tulle to cover your plants b/c the pickleworm moth just comes out at dusk.

ETA - Melons like it hot.

I do cover my cucumbers, and maybes I can rig up something for the melons.

Was it pickle worm that got your cantaloupes?

I'm not in Florida, but I would recommend looking into Charley's Pride, if you can get seeds. A relation of Hairymooseknuckles of other forums bred it in Texas, and it seems pretty awesome. I grew an off-type or a cross with it that I liked a lot. Extraordinarily sweet and good. The real thing is supposed to be striped, with normally large fruits (with yellow/orange rinds). I imagine some parts of Texas are similar to Florida, with regard to heat and humidity.

Not sure how they do in the southeast, but some notable, popular, eastern-style, hybrid cantaloupes include Ambrosia F1 and Athena F1. Edit: I didn't notice that Barb_FL mentioned Ambrosia F1 first; that's cool that it did well for her. It's supposed to be one of the best-tasting.

I'm not sure how it does with humidity or Florida, but a good, early and productive melon is Honeycomb F1. It' early, large, tasty, and has aesthetic appeal. The fruits are durable. The plants are vigorous and tolerate extra soil heat well compared to most other kinds I've grown. (Torpeda handles soil heat even better, but isn't quite as reliable, and splits a lot in my garden, given drought; very tasty, though, with extra large fruit. Torpeda needs a lot of heat, though, and is late in some gardens, but not in mine).

The reason I know they tolerate soil heat well is because I used black plastic during a very hot summer and it got too hot for many other plants (but not all).

If you want seeds, I actually have seeds for a cross between Honeycomb and Torpeda (F2), which are possibly crossed with something else altogether from 2019. The F1 was pretty great (kind of like Honeycomb F1, and early/tasty, but striped and somewhat oblong; very tasty). Not sure what the next generation will be like. I've got Honeycomb F2 seeds, too (which may or may not give you the F1 cross with Torpeda, or other crosses). I have Torpeda seeds, too, probably from the vendor (Baker Creek) and definitely from my saved seeds (also possibly crossed with other stuff). I'm pretty interested in growing out more Honeycomb F2s and the Honeycomb x Torpeda cross, but not as interested in Torpeda itself, at this point (because it split so much for me). Torpeda's fruits mature at seemingly random times throughout the season (they can be early or late).

You might see what Southern Exposure sells. They seem to target southern gardeners.

Thank you for all this information, Shule and Barb. Now I’ve got some great leads to follow!

- Joyce