Kitchen Garden Forum

We planted Noir des Carmes melons this yaer. It is said to be one of the easiest melons so having had little successpreviously we decided to give it a go.

We have harvested three melons from the plant in our greenhouse which were juicy and delicious. The we found a melon plant when harvesting squash. We had forgotten that we popped a spare plant outside just to see what would happen.

it had a fruit on it larger than those indoors, it felt ripe and had changed from the blackish green to the pale skin that is supposed to be a sign of a ripe fruit.

When we cut it in half part of the flesh was an orangy colour as it should have been but the rest more honeydew melon colour. When we tasted it though it was tasteless.

Has anyone grown melons outside that have ripened. The melon was being hidden by squash leaves so was it being shaded too much from the little sunshine that we had.

Yes, first time this year, I planted three outside we got about 8 melons,they ripened quite late, a small variety, with netted skins, taste was sweet but not really aromatic. Afterwards I read somewhere that it pays to remove the first fruit, then more female flowers get fertilised, does anyone know if that is true? They were ok but not special, trying some minnesota midget and Prescott fond blanc which promise an incredible scent, from real seed co, next year. Our garden is south facing and sheltered so we did OK but a greenhouse is probably better if I can remember to water regularly, they are heavy feeders so will manure bed well this autumn.

You are also much further south than we are NB

Wow, quite impressed that you manage 5 allotments, you must be very well organised. Yes we are on the south east near the coast, but we have still had our fair share of cloud and rain lately

Hi NB
Not all on my own it's a joint effort with my husband and we took one at a time mainly as no-one else wanted them and our site could have ended up having being at least partially closed.