When the opossums eat it, in any case.
One amongst many first questions I had this summer time season season about my new patch of cantaloupe rising contained within the raised mattress yard was, “How one can inform when cantaloupe is ripe? How are you acutely conscious it’s time to decide on it??”
The truth is, I searched on-line for the reply. “It could possibly odor musky.” Musky? What the heck does that even counsel?
“It could possibly separate merely from the vine.” Okay, that’s good.
“The webbing will flip into pronounced.” Affirm.
I’ve one utterly totally different reply to tell: when the opossums take bites out of it.
Rising Cantaloupe contained within the Yard – Pests
My husband insists that the marks aren’t possum bites. We’ve had possums dig into our fruit sooner than, they normally depart distinctive crescent-shaped chunk marks – and usually purchase piercing the onerous rind. He thinks it was the slugs contained within the raised mattress that took these bites out of the fruit. Regardless of the pest that started consuming the melon, I was able to salvage it sooner than they ate by way of the rind. We cherished it remaining night time time. It was heavenly.
How one can Inform When Cantaloupe Is Ripe
First, let’s unpack the advice I found on-line and the precise reality of inform when cantaloupe is ripe.
- It could possibly odor musky: Positive, it truly does. I uncover the odor unpleasant. Ripe cantaloupe exudes a sturdy odor. It’s half melon scent and an practically sickly sweet, rotten odor. I truly actually really feel that’s what the consultants dubbed “musky.” It undoubtedly has a sturdy odor. I’ve two melons now on the kitchen counter and my full kitchen smells like ripe cantaloupe.
- It could possibly separate merely from the vine: It’s a specific optimistic. The melons had already separate from the vine and have been totally separated by the goal I found them. An extra cantaloupe that I harvested yesterday merely detached as rapidly as I picked it up, identical to the fruit fell from the vine.
- The webbing turns into pronounced: The cantaloupe’s coloration modified from inexperienced to brownish tan to yellow tan in just a few days. It went from the brownish-tan coloration to yellow-tan in two days. We’re experiencing a heatwave now, and I think about that hastened the ripening course of.
Rising Cantaloupe in Containers versus Raised Mattress Gardens
Lastly, one utterly totally different commentary on the excellence between rising cantaloupe in containers versus contained within the raised mattress gardens.
The picture beneath reveals two melons, every “Ambrosia” varieties started from vegetation purchased on the yard coronary coronary coronary heart.
Uncover the excellence? All the melons I’m harvesting from the container-grown cantaloupes are smaller than the raised mattress melons. The model is equal. I get about twice as many melons from the vegetation grown contained within the raised mattress in fastidiously amended soil. We added not lower than 4 inches of mushroom compost this 12 months to the soil, and it has made all of the excellence contained within the vigor of the vegetation and the usual of the fruit.
The harvest this 12 months has been ample. We’ve canned over 60 pints of beets, dozens of beet and turnip greens, strawberry jam, and pickled peppers. Subsequent up would be the tomatoes: we’re starting to reap them each day. We grew numerous beds of Roma tomatoes for sauce making. Our first batches shall be pizza sauce and ketchup, adopted by weekends full of creating no-salt tomato sauce and canning it for the winter.
I like this time of 12 months. The kitchen desk is completely lined with produce harvested from my yard or the farmer’s market. The one exception is a plate of bananas, and if I might develop them at dwelling, I’d. Completely joyful summer time season season, cozy gardening, all!
