Melon harvest of the day
Now the melon harvest peak. After a cold start in june, it has been a warm summer for the melons. Now every day some will loosen at the slightest touch, ready to harvest. Some days onlythree, other days more, like seven, and then comes a day like today – I needed a box for the harvest.
Like last year I grow Farthest North Melon Mix. A lot of very early varieties crossed up by good people in USA. Most of the plants set ripe fruits in my garden. In older posts you can read how I grow my melons. A one hour drive south of my garden, Merete from Vild med have grow the same melon mix. (text in danish, but lots of photos)
Farthest North Melon Mix
It is obvious, that each plant is an individual when you study the melons. Some small, others tiny. Some very delicious, some boring and a few with an unpleasant taste. The idea is that every grower of this melon mix select an original variety suited to the microclimate of the garden. It can be done very quickly, saving seeds from the very best melon every year. I intend to do it slowly, as it gives me the possibility to select for more of the traits I find desirable. I probaly don’t even want to create a new variety, but a race with desired variation. I find it very charming, when there’s a differences between melons from different plants, I just want them all to taste gorgous and grow on a well behaved robust plant, even in a less than perfect summer in open ground in my north west european climate.
September 16, 2009 at 04:38
I am also looking for a melon that suits our mountain side here in British Columbia, Canada
Do you know the names of the varieties you have?
I understand choosing the best tasting melon for seed but isn’t the fruit the same as the mother plant unlike the seeds that were fertilised by some other melons pollen? I don’t know much about melon breeding so please explain.
Thanks Sarah
September 16, 2009 at 18:58
You are right Sarah, the fruit is part of the mother plant, the seeds are mixed up with some other melon plant. I might not know the father, but find it helpful just knowing the mother. To select, I need to put up some criteria, and I only have the mother plants to compare to the criterias. This is part of the fun working on a mass cross.
In a search for the right melons for you, I suggest you visit
http://alanbishop.proboards.com/
Merry melongrowing!