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)