Try Honey Girl Charentais, Alice!

This is from a couple of days ago & the melon was picked unripe about a week earlier:

The 1st year, I planted seed in the garden and got only a few ripe melons. The last 2 years, I have started them in the greenhouse about a month before setting out and they've done really fine. Or, I should say that they've done well once they've gotten out in the garden. Only 6 (I believe it was) germinated and survived in the greenhouse. I don't know what happened to them or if there was a problem with the seed.

There are other early Charentais melon varieties but I'm afraid to tamper with success. I've still got a HUGE basket of the Honey Girls and hoping that they ripen and maintain their quality over the next week or so. Even if they don't, it has been a good Summer.

digitS'
PS I love Crenshaws but consider them hopelessly beyond my reach. But then, I considered watermelon beyond my reach until this year (so maybe they are somewhere in my future :o).

Oh, I didn't know you could bring them in and they'd finish ripening!

Anything special to do with them once you've brought them in?

That basket isn't exactly in (and not exactly a basket - milk crate piled high). The weather has been quite warm here. (Isn't that the way it is after hard frost? Darn, this is the first year in many that I didn't turn the sprinklers on and try to mitigate the cold temperatures.)

Okay, enuf of the parenthetical speaking . . . The melons are in the carport and I don't know how they will store. The cooperative extension trials showed that charentais were not suitable as shippers, partly because it was difficult to harvest them at just the right moment.

I tried half a melon from the carport last night. It had the wonderful flavor; it was sweet but it was also stringy. I don't know "what's up with that" but the Honey Girl in the picture and the melon last night both had a rather thick rind of inedible flesh.

As we know, melons ripen from the seeds out. Obviously, they are having a little trouble ripening. Just hope that I can enjoy a few more of these but I've been harvesting them since mid-August.

Sweet Granite melons weren't very tasty and quit producing very early. Passport didn't ripen until fairly late and had few fruits but were sure tasty. Fastbreak were good but are now gone. Additional comment on Fastbreak (see, no parenthesis - - oops! ;o), it was direct-seeded to the garden so I have high hopes for its performance in 2008 when I can start it indoors!

digitS'