Honeydew melons are now available all year round because they are grown in many warm countries around the world. With good care, you can also grow the sweet vitamin bombs yourself in your own garden.
How do you plant honeydew melons in your own garden?
To plant honeydew melons in the garden, choose a sunny location, prepare the soil with fertilizer and plant the melons at least one to two meters apart. Provide them with a trellis or net to climb on and water regularly, especially before harvest.
Where do you get the plants from?
In some garden centers, young watermelon plants can now also be purchased during the outdoor season from the beginning of May. The fruits can also be grown from the seeds in commercially available fruits. However, these must first be freed from any pulp, otherwise the seeds can become moldy in the moist soil before they germinate.
What is the right location for honeydew melons?
For strong growth, honeydew melons primarily need the following ingredients:
- Sunlight
- Warmth
- Water
- Nutrients
The location for honeydew melons should be chosen as bright and warm as possible. Growing honeydew melons therefore works particularly well in greenhouses, as they can compensate for the cooler climate in this country compared to the countries of origin. If the young plants are brought forward in time in the spring, the fruits will ripen by autumn if they are grown on a sunny mound or in a raised bed. If possible, the soil should have been mixed with manure or another fertilizer the previous autumn, so that no fresh manure or compost needs to be added during the growing phase.
How are honeydew melons planted?
Honeydew melons feel particularly comfortable when they can let their tendrils grow upwards. So plant the plants sufficiently deep in the substrate, but also offer the honeydew melons a trellis or a net as a climbing opportunity.
When can you prefer honeydew melon?
Honeydew melons can be planted outdoors from around May when the nights are frost-free. When growing in a greenhouse, this can sometimes happen a little earlier. The seeds should be placed in the ground about four weeks before planting, as they also need about one to two weeks for germination (€6.00 on Amazon).
How are honeydew melons propagated?
Honeydew melons are botanically a vegetable and are therefore not propagated through offshoots or lowering plants. Since the plant parts of the honeydew melon die off completely at the time of harvest, new young plants are only created through the germination of the seeds contained in the fruit.
When can we expect fruit to be ready for harvest?
In this country, due to the climate, honeydew melons can only be grown seasonally, as temperatures cannot be kept consistently warm all year round, even in a greenhouse. However, the harvest depends heavily on the time of sowing and the location. As a rule, it takes until around September or October for the plant parts of the honeydew melon to die off, generally indicating that the golden yellow fruits are fully ripe.
What distance should you keep between honeydew melon plants?
Since honeydew melons can grow and climb strongly with good fertilization and care, a distance of at least one to two meters should be maintained between the individual plants, depending on the availability of climbing opportunities.
Tips & Tricks
During the last few weeks before harvest, honeydew melons need a lot of water. Therefore, water the plants regularly so that the fruits do not suffer any loss of quality due to dry phases.