In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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August 13, 2007

Melons at their peak of perfection

I recently visited Home & Garden reader Paul Williams’ garden, and was inspired.

Williams, who lives in Sacramento, emailed me about the melons and pumpkins he’s growing. He has the most scrumptious melon patch I’ve ever seen. His Ambrosia melons smell heavenly. His Moon and Stars watermelons are growing plump and large. He also grows Georgia Rattlesnake and Carolina Cross watermelons. Williams shares his garden bounty with his neighbors. In fact, he hangs a blue bucket chock full of produce over the low, metal back fence for his neighbor.

Even though we get plenty of hot weather in the Sacramento Valley, melons, particularly cantaloupes, are tricky. The problem is we don’t get enough long, hot nights at the beginning and end of the growing season. But some years, everything comes together, and the melons are wonderful.

The million-dollar question, though, is how do you know when they’re ripe and sweet? You can pick a melon that is not quite ripe, and it will ripen and soften, but it won’t be sweet. That’s because the last thing the plant does is add the sugar.

The iVillage Garden Web offers detailed tips on how to determine if your cantaloupe, muskmelon or watermelon is ripe. Briefly, it says to cut, not break, the melon from the vine to prevent pathogens from entering the stem. Don’t overwater the weeks before the melons should be ripe since that diminishes the flavor. The cantaloupes should smell like cantaloupes when they are ripe. For watermelons, do the thump test. People experience at this say the watermelon should sound hollow, but not dull.

We used to sacrifice one for the sake of education: we’d take one we thought was ripe, and open it up. Sometimes we were right, but if nothing else, we could then figure out when the rest would be ripe.

Williams sent me home with an Ambrosia melon he said was at its peak. It scented the entire car. That night we opened it up, and I have to admit, it was perfect.

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