How are your melons growing this year, and what are your challenges and goals?
How was germination of the GTS mix?
What does diversity look like in your seedlings, have you noticed differences?
You can post your observations here through the growing season, special bonus for stories and photos of overcoming challenges.
Feel free to add photos to our photo album.
I live somewhere that âmelons do not growâ.
So my goal for a couple of years has been cold summer temperature tolerance. See thread here
This year it warmed up enough to plant on May 25th (last year was June 5th).
I have plenty of seeds luckily, so I sowed densely. Especially if youâre short on space or have a challenging melon growing area, consider doing the same-- plant 5 seeds for every plant you want to keep eventually.
Many of these seeds are descended from work that Joseph Lofthouse did to adapt melons to his high desert climate. This made them very early compared to other varieties.
The âPolar Mixâ melons were then grown on the Northern CA coastal bluffs for two years, allowing selection for high tolerance to windy and foggy summers.
If you havenât planted yet:
We encourage you to direct sow these half an inch deep in your garden, as cucurbits donât always thrive after being transplanted, and grow quickly.
Choose a spot with full sun, in soil that has been worked, ideally a raised bed (warmer soil). If you plant them too early, they will fail to germinate in cold soil. Keep moist but donât overwater, as waterlogged soil will be colder and reduce early seedling vigor. As soon as seeds have emerged, reduce water to allow soil to warm up.
I will write the next section about thinning next week-- Iâm short on melon seedling photos to include in my melon email to everybody, so if you have some to share/use, very much appreciated.
I have a mix of GTS 2024, commercial and trades with GTS members.
8a/8b. First round in April mostly wiped out by late freeze/false spring. Second round in March most are small and not putting on a lot of growth. I have one that has put on healthy grown and a second that has huge amounts of healthy growth and already has two fruits growing and a large amount of open flowers.
There is some indirect insect pressure as the squash are the current magnets for heavy insect pressure in the garden.
Thanks for this Julia! Its very helpful. I havenât yet planted my musk melon seeds because I wasnât sure what would be best for them. This helps boost the confidence level to get them in sooner than later.
I just hope that the thousands of slugs im dealing with donât eradicate every single oneâŚ
My melon seedlings (GTS mix + various other sources) are quite variable in size and colour.
I start my seedlings in airpruning trays because it works a gazillion times better for me. Iâve been starting melons early and often - we had a very early spring, so the first batch went out 3 weeks before our usual last frost date.
Many (although not all) my melon seedlings have suffered from some severe pest pressure - I think the early spring messed up population balances. Also possibly the cooler temps made the melons more susceptible to pest pressure, but oddly itâs some of the specifically âcold tolerantâ varieties that fared worst. The healthiest of the first melon batch are starting to form flower buds now.
Transplanted out today!
Hereâs my next installment for the 2024 melons. Love to include any of your photos or experiences before sending it out to all the people who ordered seeds.
For those of you in warmer climates, you may already see melons developing, and for those of us with short seasons or cold summers, we are looking at seedlings. If you got poor germination or heavy pest pressure and planted before mid or late May, consider planting later next year. Melons love warm temperatures and are very sensitive to cold (much more sensitive than corn, beans and squash).
Celebrating strong seedlings: By now you might be noticing the variation in your seedlings. Some probably didnât germinate at all, or days later than others. Some might look generally yellow or have yellow leaf tips, or have holes in the leaves from bugs or snails. Some seedlings are able to produce more of the magical compounds that keep bugs and slugs from devouring them. Letâs celebrate those seedlings (and share photos!)
From the article âModern Seeds arenât ready for climate changeâ: ââŚcrop plants have evolved alongside microbial and animal species to tolerate a wide range of environments. For example, many plants produce compounds that attract local insects to prey on the plantâs parasites. In other words, says Chen, theyâve evolved a trait to âcall in bodyguards.â But plants from mass-produced seed havenât retained this trait, which they donât need with âconstant support from pesticides,â Chen says. Having lost this ancient connection to their environment, plants donât issue that call for help: âformal seed system crops have been selected to be mute.â
Good flavor news: Seedlings that have more resistance to pests and other stresses now (by producing more antioxidants and other natural chemicals) may be more likely to have more flavor in their fruit. [Study on tomatoes.]
If your seedlings arenât touching yet, or it isnât apparent which ones are happier in your garden, you can wait. Maybe you wonât need to thin them at all.
Diverse melon seedlings that should be thinned.
Thinned seedlings, spaced about 6â apart. They will be thinned again in a few weeks or when the leaves start touching.
If you have enough seeds and seedlings, I recommend thinning every couple of weeks or months, because if youâre in a challenging growing environment, you donât know now which melon plants will thrive despite whatever is coming next. For example, I have cool nights, and will remove about half of the plants that flower but donât start producing melons, and still have good coverage at the end of the season. By planting extra seeds and succession thinning, youâre more likely to get a good yield in the space that you have (no bare spots).
Reminder: You donât have to remove seedlings! You may have reasons to keep them all, and if they arenât crowding each other, thereâs no reason to. Yellow seedlings now may turn a corner and get healthy. If you have gaps, you can also move crowded seedlings to those areas.
Diversity helps ensure that at least some of your melons will thrive despite cool/dry/hot, pests or less fertile soil conditions. Early risers who survive the initial challenges of the season may have valuable traits worth saving seeds from, such as resilience to early-season pests or diseases, stronger, more vigorous root systems, or the ability to associate with more beneficial bacteria or mycorrhizal fungi in the soil.
Outsmarting Pests and Disease: Adaptation gardening encourages us to use natural strategies to combat pests and diseases. One effective method is succession planting. If your melon seedlings fall victim to pests or cold soils, donât despairâ plant more seeds! This will ensure a continuous supply of seedlings that will have varying levels of exposure to pests and diseases, increasing the chances that some will survive.
Weâd love to hear from you! Did your melons succeed or fail in a challenging environment? Share photos or write us back to share your story in the next melon newsletter. Your contributions and observations are valuable as we continue to adapt our seed varieties and adaptation experiences together.
Share your photos here (shared album below).
Happy Growing!
My observations regarding my musk melons (zone 6, clay soil, keep weed barrier on soil until seeding, no compost or anything added, no watering):
Maarten
The one and only melon that decided to grow while the rest of the mix decided not to.
Itâs a Tuscan style ribbed melon with some netting, a cantaloupe style interior. Yellow when ripe, this one fell off the vine when moved so I brought it inside.
Seeds saved.
Im in zone 5 and planted both GTS muskmelon mixes and mixed in a few other varietys. I direct seeded them 2 weeks before the last frost and planted some in trays to replace the ones that the slugs eat which was a bunch! There was a light frost one morning but they all made it through and I now have around 40 healthy looking plants
some pretty cool looking melons!
My GTS muskmelons are getting absolutely toasted in the afternoons on this concrete slab, but they all have at least one melon on them!
(Zone 10a)
Itâs been a cold summer in the Catskills of NY but one single melon made it. It got ripe enough for the chipmunks to get into it before I found it. You can imagine how I feel about the seeds in this melonâ¤ď¸canât wait to give them a go next year!
My GTS muskmelon âDelicious Mixâ did really well this very hot summer in Boise, Idaho (Zone 7a). I planted three pots, about 3 seeds each, outside in a cold frame in late April/early May. Something ate all 3 seeds in one pot, so I had just two pots, with a couple plants each that I transplanted the last week of May. They grew well, and only one vine succumbed to the squash bug onslaught that took out all my moschata and figleaf squash. I got 5 or 6 melons total. The earliest couple were ripe in early August, and tasted OK. Hereâs the first one that ripened:
The best were not ripe till early September, and they lived up to their âDelicious Mixâ name!
I also got one very interesting looking melon:
That last âfunâ one is Kajari melon.
Kajari melons are a type of heirloom melon with green stripes that turn persimmon as they ripen.
The stripes on a Kajari melon change as it matures, from green to burnt orange and cream.
When ripe, the melon is ready to harvest when:
OK, thanks @peterd for that info, itâs good to know. It came in with the GTS âDelicious Mixâ muskmelon seeds. Sounds like it could have had just a bit longer to reach maturity. When we ate it the flesh was just a bit firmer than a fully ripe cantaloupe or honeydew, but not as firm as those often are in the grocery store. It came off the vine easily when I slightly pulled on it, but from what youâre saying about the color, maybe I could have waited another few days. I didnât keep the seeds separate from the other melons, though, so it could show up in the mix I send back to GTS. 
Definitely too early. When ripe it will be soft. The flavor will be a combination between honeydew and cantaloupe and it will be sweet.
