Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Melon Sweetness...variety, soil, or weather?

Ruth_10 · January 10, 2009

Happyscientist,
The Petit Gris and Charentais are charentais varieties (I think Noir de Carmes is as well). One aspect of charentais varieties that can be a challenge is judging when they are ready to pick. They do not "slip" from the vine the way varieties like Ambrosia do. In addition, the charentais varieties are prone to splitting when they are ripe (I guess that is one way to judge ripeness, lol). In the Amy Goldman book she mentions Noir de Crames splitting at the stem end. As I mentioned in an above post, I've had Petit Gris and Charentais split as well. That leaves you with Jenny Lind, which is a netted type of melon. I could be wrong, but I think the netted types slip from the vine when ripe.

All of those varieties are flavorful. Jenny Lind might be an easier variety for the first time growing melons.

January 10, 2009	#11
Ruth_10 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MO z6a near St. Louis Posts: 1,349	Happyscientist, The Petit Gris and Charentais are charentais varieties (I think Noir de Carmes is as well). One aspect of charentais varieties that can be a challenge is judging when they are ready to pick. They do not "slip" from the vine the way varieties like Ambrosia do. In addition, the charentais varieties are prone to splitting when they are ripe (I guess that is one way to judge ripeness, lol). In the Amy Goldman book she mentions Noir de Crames splitting at the stem end. As I mentioned in an above post, I've had Petit Gris and Charentais split as well. That leaves you with Jenny Lind, which is a netted type of melon. I could be wrong, but I think the netted types slip from the vine when ripe. All of those varieties are flavorful. Jenny Lind might be an easier variety for the first time growing melons. __________________ --Ruth Some say the glass half-full. Others say the glass is half-empty. To an engineer, it’s twice as big as it needs to be.