I don't know much about growing melons in the tropics, but I do know that Tigger likes very dry conditions. And I've read a lot of comments from people who lost their plants to powdery mildew in humid conditions. Isn't there a Florida forum? That may be the closest we have in the U.S. to tropical conditions.

Here are a couple more links for Asian melons to consider. One mentions resistance to mildew:

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/orientalmelon.html
http://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_216-90.html

Perhaps even better, people on this forum post about fruits in the REAL tropics.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asian Vegetables Forum

cool, thanks, carolyn.

where I am, humidity will be a big problem and temp is always consistently between 88-90 (high) and 78-79(low)

Lily

As Carolyn said, Florida forum would be the closest in terms of temp. to your conditions. In fact, even the people in the entire East Coast would know more about this than us in the west coast. The one thing I can add is that Hales Best and similar western type muskmelons (with a lot of netting) prefer dry climates. They don't taste as good and are susceptible to a lot of diseases in more humid weather. Most the fruit stand melons I ever see in Florida and humid parts of the US are hybrids. When I lived in Virginia, I grew a Hales Best melon in the warm but rainy and humid summer. Bottom line, it was kind of bland. A neighbor grew a Burpee Hybrid, and it was probably twice as sweet. In any case, neither of those two melons meet your size criteria. 3" across melons are uncommon, but firm-fleshed Korean type melons such as Early Silver line are small and do well in a container, esp. if you have a cage or trellis for them to grow up on. There are some other early melons that size, i.e. Minnesota Midget from Victory Seeds.

Perhaps a seed company from Vietnam could satisfy your needs (see below). I think most of them are more like 5" across, though. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. If it were me, I'd go down to the market and get a local melon with the size and taste you like. Usually, these small family growers do not use hybrid seeds and the resulting plant will be like the parents.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Seeds

OK, I'm taking my questions to the florida forum. Thks.

Wait a minute, Carolyn mentioned the Asian Vegetable forum while Bill referred to the Florida Gardening forum. Both aren't the same.

Anyway, I'm inclined to think now that melons are not suitable for my climate.

Lilyred writes,
"Anyway, I'm inclined to think now that melons are not suitable for my climate"

Wait, that's not true. There are melons suitable for your climate, though I don't know what they are. I have been to Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia - and we had some nice local melons in the restaurants amd maarkets. But to be honest with you, I was too busy eating the many types of mangoes and other fruit (including Durian) that melons were served mainly for breakfast only.

The Asian veg. forum might be the better place, there are actually people living in the Philippines, Hawaii, etc. that post there.

I'm growing "Golden Sweet" this summer. I live in a Houston suburb where summers are tropical and this melon has done very well for me. It hasn't been affected by any diseases, even after a period of two weeks when we got over 14 inches of rain. By all means give it a try. It has a sweet, somewhat crunchy flesh and fruit are small enough that the vine can be trellised without support.

Kasia