2004 Specialty Melon Project

2004 Growing Methods
During the growing season of 2004 we grew 15 varieties of melons at the Horticulture Research Center. Unfortunately we were plagued by an intense golf-ball sized hail storm on August 10, 2004. The marketable harvest of most melons was drastically reduced. However, we were able to record some data on the remaining melons and that information is presented here. Taste tests were also conducted with data reported below.

The plants were started in the greenhouse on April 16th in peat pots, fertilized once a week with fish emulsion fertilizer, and transplanted to the field on May 24th with 14" in-row spacing and 5' between rows (note: commercial melon production is usually 12" in-row spacing). Approximately 40 plants of each variety (except for the variety Amy, which had only 5 demonstration plants) were transplanted into a black plastic mulch with a single line of drip tape. We began harvesting melons in early August and continued through the end of September. Taste tests were conducted at the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Fall Picnic and our Fall Specialty Crops Field Day.

In addition to the hail, flea beetles also damaged our melon plants this year, especially soon after transplanting. We sprayed spinosad on the plants two times in the end of June.

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2004 Yield Data

The following table displays the average melon weight for the different melon varieties. The percentage of melons lost after hail damage is also listed - this is based on counts of melons at the time of the hail storm versus what was actually harvested and marketable.

The following graph demonstrates the difference in yield between two melon varieties grown both in 2003 and 2004. Significantly cooler temperatures in 2004 resulted in a later harvest and possibly contributed to reduced yield in addition to the hail damage (see our Study Area web page for weather information).

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2004 Melon Photos and Production Notes

Variety - Type	Photo - outside	Photo - inside	Notes
Rayaan - Anana			Football shaped fruits, if rind starts to yellow then it is getting over-ripe.
Sun Jewel - Asian			Extremely productive and early harvest, not a big winner in taste tests, small sized melon.
Serenade - Butterscotch			Charentais-like, small, not very productive.
Sweetie # 6 - Butterscotch		No Photo Available	Small, charentais-like, problems with recognizing ripe melons.
Earligold - Canteloupe			Good performing western style canteloupe, not deeply sutured, fine netting.
Earliqueen - Canteloupe			Medium-sized melon, good flavor.
Edonis - French Charentais			Rich color, medium to small melon.
Savor - French Charentais			Small, classic Charentais melon.
Arava - Galia/Tropical		No Photo Available	Large fruits, very round, hit or miss flavor.
Passport - Galia/Tropical			Very aromatic, nice texture, , early season melons seem to be the most flavorful
Honey Orange - Honeydew			Somewhat difficult to tell when melon is ripe in the field, big winner in taste tests.
Honey Pearl - Honeydew	No Photo Available (looks very similar to Honey Orange on the outside)		Also somewhat difficult to tell when melon is ripe in the field.
Amy - Spanish/Canary		No Photo Available	Reliable melon, smooth yellow skin, good taste.
Golden Beauty - Spanish/Canary	No Photo Available		Large football shaped fruits.
Sugar Nut - Spanish/Canary			Very productive, good medium sized fruits, another winner in taste tests.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

2004 Taste Tests

Approximately 50 volunteers were lured into participating in the 2004 melon variety taste tests at the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Fall Picnic. Volunteers took their jobs very seriously as can be seen below.

Volunteer taste testers at the Horticulture and L.A. Fall Picnic

Our volunteer tasters had varying opinions of course on the melon varieties we grew; however, there were some obvious winners and losers. Honey Orange and Sugar Nut were favorites among most taste testers. Rayaan was also often mentioned as a good tasting melon. Sun Jewel consistently rated the lowest in taste tests however a few individuals liked it. See below for detailed information on each variety.

*0% indicates that there were no "most favorite" or "least favorite" votes for that variety.

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