9/27/10 Harvest - First Cantaloupe

Lupe the Cantaloupe has finally arrived in time for this week's Harvest Monday!  In case you haven't read my previous cantaloupe posts, Lupe is the first melon from the first melon plant that I grew from a seed from a random supermarket cantaloupe.  It's been exactly three months since I sowed this seed outside, and Lupe was finally ready to be harvested this weekend.  She weighed in at just over 2 lbs, so she was fairly small for a cantaloupe, but Keith and I were nonetheless really excited about our first successful melon harvest.

Even though this melon smelled like a perfectly ripe melon on the outside (what a difference a week makes), I was still a bit anxious as I cut it in half.  What if it doesn't look right?  As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about because this was one ripe melon!  It may have been even a day or two overripe, but it was still very sweet, juicy and overall delicious.

Since the weather has been cooling down and the night time lows are more consistently falling down to the 40s, I'm not holding out much hope that we'll be able to harvest many more Jelly Bean tomatoes.  It's a little sad to see all those flower clusters and half-sized tomatoes that won't have time to grow to their full potential this year, but I keep reminding myself that these plants were started very late in the season (seeds were sown in early July) for experimental purposes, and any harvestable tomato is just a blessing.

I harvested all the ripe ones plus all the others that showed any hint of changing color.  Hopefully these green ones will ripen indoors.  There are still many more smaller green ones on the plants.  I'll let them go another week and see if I can get any more ripe or semi-ripe ones next week.  

I've noticed that these Jelly Bean tomatoes come in all different sizes (not sure if they are designed that way, or if the smaller fruits were just too stressed), with the smallest ones just a smidgen bigger than the size of real jelly beans.  As I mentioned last week, these tomatoes seem to be a bit on the thick-skinned side, but they are still very sweet and delicious.

I also harvested a few more cayenne peppers from our outdoor pepper plants whose days are probably numbered at this point.

These cayenne peppers just don't show any signs of turning red, but I'm going to just let them be and see if they will ripen and turn red indoors like tomatoes.  Otherwise, we can use them green, since these peppers pack plenty of heat as is.

Keith and I spent all weekend doing hard labor expanding our vegetable garden for next year.  This is a pretty big project for us and will require several more sweaty weekends, but I'm really looking forward to having more and better garden space next year to grow more of our own food.  Stay tuned for our drawings and designs for the new garden!  I'll post them later this week or next, as soon as I figure out how to convert my design documents to a picture format.

Waiting for Lupe the Cantaloupe

Well, I was really hoping that Lupe would be ready to harvest by now, but apparently she has other ideas.

According to my own post about When to Harvest Cantaloupe, she is not ready because 1) the melon is still more green than beige, 2) the melon does not smell sweet at all; it lacks all smell actually, and most importantly, 3) the melon is not showing any signs of slipping from the vine yet.  I guess what they say about muskmelons taking an average of five weeks from the initial fruit set to reach maturity is exactly that: just an average estimate. It has now been 5 1/2 weeks since Lupe first showed up on the plant, but she is definitely not ready for harvest.

You can see in this close-up picture that the part of the melon attached to the vine still looks very much attached, with no signs of slipping.

Sigh... I guess I'll wait another week (or more) until Lupe looks more ready.  No point in harvesting an unripe melon, right?  The good news is that our strange Indiana weather is still warm enough for a few more melon growing days.  The day time highs are mostly in the 90s this week (hot!) and in the 70s next week.  I hope Lupe will be ready to harvest before the end of the month.

Germinating Cantaloupe Seeds

Do you ever test-germinate your seeds to see how good they are?

We bought a cantaloupe from a local farmer's market a few weeks ago, and I saved the seeds.  I put the slimy gooey seeds into a bowl, filled it with water, discarded all the ones that floated to the top and just kept the ones that stayed at the bottom of the bowl.  Then I dried them on some newspaper.  Even after discarding the floaty seeds, I probably still have well over a hundred seeds.  I'm definitely not going to plant all of them and I'm sure they will go "bad" in a few years, long before I get around to ever using them all up, either personally or through seed trading.  But before I considered allocating garden space to these seeds and/or trading them away, I wanted to make sure that these seeds were good.

So I placed about a dozen seeds on a sheet of wet paper towel, loosely wrapped them up and put the whole thing in a ziploc bag.  I left the ziploc part open for ventilation, and placed the bag in my grow box.  About five days later, this is what they looked like:

Every single one of the seeds germinated!  Not only that, the roots were really starting to develop, with some of them growing through the double-ply paper towel and coming out on the bottom.  Since I don't know the variety of the parent cantaloupe, I probably won't plant very many of them.  But it's good to know that these seeds are good!

Before you ask, no, I did not save these seedlings, because our indoor grow box is definitely not big enough to grow melons in over the winter.  It's always difficult throwing perfectly good seedlings away, but they served their experimental purpose, and went to go rest (permanently) in the compost pile.

Have a happy Friday everyone, and stay tuned for a Lupe update this weekend!

When to Harvest Cantaloupe

It's been about three weeks since Lupe the Cantaloupe first appeared on the melon vine.  If all goes well, this melon should be ready in another two weeks or so.

If Lupe looks a bit less than perfectly round (or spherical, if you're three-dimensionally inclined) to you, then you're not alone.  I noticed the same thing last weekend when this picture was taken.  I don't know if our bandana support is not good enough or what, but Lupe has been looking a bit squished lately.  But as long as she continues to develop and ends up being tasty, I'm willing to let the aesthetics slide.

I also mentioned Lupe's little brother Tardo a couple of weeks ago.  Well, I'm sorry to report that he didn't make it. I know several of you were rooting for the underdog, but he just could not pull through.  This is what he looked like before I bid him goodbye.

Since then, Lupe has had more siblings.  Twins, in fact.  Unfortunately, one of them met the same fate as Tardo.  The other remaining twin, however, has gotten big enough to earn his own pink bandana (thanks to Sienna the dog).

At some point last week, the melon plant was supporting three melons: Lupe and the Twins.  I was in a bit of dilemma because I knew that Lupe would need less water as she neared ripeness, yet the Twins would continue to need lots of water for another few weeks.  I consulted by email with EG from Our Engineered Garden, who provided a lot of friendly and informative advice about melon support, sun requirements and watering needs.  He told me that it's difficult to cater to melons of different sizes on one plant and that the largest one usually fared the best.  He also advised me to abort the smaller of the Twins, which I ended up not having to do because it basically self-aborted.  I guess sometimes plants just know these things.

So, here's all the information I know about when to harvest a cantaloupe (muskmelon), based on my internet research and EG's helpful advice:

• Muskmelons generally reach maturity about 5 weeks after the initial fruit set.
• Water them "like crazy" (technical quote from EG) for the first 3 weeks
• Reduce watering during the last two weeks to ensure sweeter melons.  This is true for all melons, not just muskmelons.
• For muskmelons with netted/webbed skin (like Lupe), watch the webbing change color to indicate ripeness.  The melon itself will also usually change color from green to more beige as it ripens.
• Smell it.  Hopefully it starts to smell sweet and melony when it's nearing ripeness.
• Wait for the melon to "slip" (aka. separate, without completely falling off) from the vine natually.  Ripe muskmelon should pull off easily from the vine.

Oh, one last bit of melon information.  The term "muskmelon" refers to many cultivars of melons that include honeydew, casaba, crenshaw and yes, cantaloupe.  Apparently the true cantaloupes originated from Europe, and none are grown commercially in the U.S.  However, the term "cantaloupe" is commonly used to refer to any netted-skinned and orange-fleshed muskmelons in the U.S.

Since Lupe was grown from seed from a supermarket melon, she is technically a muskmelon.  But in the spirit of  "when in Rome..." I will continue to refer to her as a cantaloupe.

Lupe the Cantaloupe

Ever the creative one, Keith named our first melon Lupe, pronounced like the last two syllables of "Guadalupe" (does not rhyme with Cantaloupe).  I thought it was kind of a silly name (setting aside the fact that it's, um, a little silly to name your melon), but it somehow stuck.  So now we talk about Lupe all the time.

Here is my first time meeting Lupe last weekend.  Look how much she's grown since her debut just last week!  I think she was motivated by all the positive encouragement from our blog readers.

 Lupe on August 21, 2010 (Day 57)

Pretty in Pink on August 22, 2010 (Day 58)

Keith and I discussed the need to provide some sort of support for Lupe.  I have seen pictures of knee highs being used as melon support, but we didn't have any knee highs on hand.  So we borrowed this pink bandana from Reese (one of our dogs), who got it from the doggie groomer a few weeks ago.  We promised to return the bandana to Reese, after Lupe was done with it.  Reese didn't seem to mind at all.

We also have a second melon growing on this same plant.  He showed up a few days after Lupe, but he has been growing at a slower pace.  Much slower.  He is also shaped a little lopsided.  Keith has dubbed him Tardo.  We don't talk about him much.  And Keith tells me that this one is now turning yellow as of today.  I guess we really won't talk about him much anymore.

But here is a picture of him, if you must see.  You can also see Sienna (our other dog) in the background, wearing her pink bandana (each dog got her own bandana from the groomer).  Lupe is the blurry melon you see in the back.  Tardo is in the front.

This post is linked to Tuesday Garden Party.

Related Posts:

• First Cantaloupe Harvest (9/27/10)
• Waiting for Lupe the Cantaloupe
• When to Harvest Cantaloupe
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe - Melon on Day 51
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe Update (Day 43)
• Growing SUPERmarket Cantaloupe (Day 7 - 30)

SUPERmarket Cantaloupe - Melon on Day 51

Folks, we finally have a visible (and hopefully viable) melon on the plant grown from a supermarket cantaloupe seed!  I haven't actually seen it with my own eyes yet, but I can't wait to go home this weekend to see it for myself.

Considering that this plant started flowering (with just male flowers) more than three weeks ago, it has taken forever for the female flowers to show up.  Keith has been diligently combing over this plant for any signs of female flowers so that he could hand-pollinate them to ensure fruit set.  We had some doubts about his pollinating technique, after he told me that his hand-pollinated zucchini died, but doubt no more!  Keith is now a proud papa of our new cantaloupe baby.

August 15, 2010 (Day 51)

August 16, 2010 (Day 52)

The pictures are a bit blurry because they came from Keith's camera phone.  I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but Keith said that this baby melon's size visibly increased in just one day.  If I remember correctly, I read somewhere on the Internet that cantaloupe typically takes about five weeks to reach maturity after fruit set.  So our target melon tasting date is sometime around mid-September.

Initially, I thought that I would be happy just to get one melon out of this plant, just to see if I could grow it.  But now that I have one, I'm wondering how many more I could get to grow on this plant.  Such is human nature, eh? 

Visit An Oregon Cottage for more Tuesday Garden Party posts.

Related Posts:

• First Cantaloupe Harvest (9/27/10)
• Waiting for Lupe the Cantaloupe
• When to Harvest Cantaloupe
• Lupe the Cantaloupe (Day 57 and 58)
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe Update (Day 43)
• Growing SUPERmarket Cantaloupe (Day 7 - 30)

SUPERmarket Cantaloupe Update

Remember my SUPERmarket cantaloupe experiment, where I planted the seeds from a plain ol' melon I bought at the grocery store?  I'm happy to report that the one plant transplanted into a five gallon bucket has been thriving with lots of flowers.  It's kind of hard to see all the flowers with the sun shining from behind, but trust me, they are there! 

 August 7, 2010 (Day 43)

If you would like to see the pictures from Day 7 to Day 30, please click here.

Unfortunately, most of the flowers are still just male flowers.  Ladies, it's time to join the melon party!

Actually, Keith did spot one female flower last week, but it must not have gotten properly pollinated, because all I saw was the evidence of a shriveled up dead flower when I came back last weekend.  I'm hoping that was just the beginning and that we will get more female flowers soon.  We still have about 9 weeks left of the growing season before the first average frost date here in zone 5b, so I'm really hoping that we can get at least one or two melons out of this plant before then.

If only "hoping" made everything work out in the garden!

Visit An Oregon Cottage for more Tuesday Garden Party posts.

Related Post:

• First Cantaloupe Harvest (9/27/10)
• Waiting for Lupe the Cantaloupe
• When to Harvest Cantaloupe
• Lupe the Cantaloupe (Day 57 and 58)
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe - Melon on Day 51 
  
• Growing SUPERmarket Cantaloupe (Day 7 - 30)

Growing SUPERmarket Cantaloupe

Out of sheer curiosity, I planted seeds from a generic cantaloupe from the grocery store.

Before I started my Great Cantaloupe Experiment, I did some reading on the internet and came away with the following information:

• Many store-bought melons are hybrids, unless marked otherwise.
• Some hybrid melons are sterile.
• Some sterile hybrid melons have seeds that won't germinate; others will grow into plants that will never bear fruit.
• Some hybrid melons will bear fruit that will not resemble the parent melon.

After reading all this, I HAD to try this out for myself, even if I didn't get any melons out of it.

I bought a cantaloupe from a local Kroger in Texas.  It sported a sticker bearing the "Majesty" brand name, which I think is some mega corporation, giving me a near-certainty that I was dealing with a hybrid melon.  I harvested about 10 seeds by picking them out from the slimy inside seed cluster and and patting them dry with a napkin.

The seeds traveled back to Indiana with me in a small zip-loc bag.  They were planted in my square foot gardening beds on June 26, 2010.  To my surprise, ALL of the seeds germinated within days.  On Day 7, I transplanted two seedlings into two separate containers.

Take a look at their progress below:

July 3, 2010 (Day 7)
Two of these seedlings were transplanted into separate containers after this picture was taken.

July 10, 2010 (Day 14)

July 11, 2010 (Day 15)

July 17, 2010 (Day 21)

July 24, 2010 (Day 28)

July 24, 2010 (Day 28 Transplanting)

July 24, 2010 (Day 28 - transplanted into a new bucket)

As you can see, one of the two transplanted seedlings just took off and is growing like mad every day.  Keith has dubbed it the SUPERmarket cantaloupe.  It's even flowering, although I've spotted only male flowers so far. 

 July 25, 2010 (Day 30)

Next step: cross my fingers and hope that this plant ends up with some female flowers and bears some viable melons. 

Has anyone else here tried to grow any store-bought melons from seed?  Do you want guess how many melons, if any, I'll get out of this plant?

NEW UPDATES:

• First Cantaloupe Harvest (9/27/10)
• Waiting for Lupe the Cantaloupe
• When to Harvest Cantaloupe
• Lupe the Cantaloupe (Day 57 and 58)
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe - Melon on Day 51 
• SUPERmarket Cantaloupe Update (Day 43)