Asian golden sweet melon

This is my first year growing these, and I'm not exactly sure how to tell when they are ripe. I picked one today; it's bright yellow, about 5" across. It doesn't seem unripe, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like. The inside kind of reminded me of a sweet cucumber. Is that right? Or should I leave the next one on the vine a bit longer?

Kate, I grew Golden Sweet several years ago.



I was told that I harvested the fruits a little too early but that I shouldn't expect a lot of sweetness anyway! What's that, despite the name?

They were nice and that, unfortunately, was all I could say about them. A number of Asian melons ripen earlier than other varieties that we may be more used to. I had big hopes, in my melon-challenged garden, and tried a few different ones but haven't found quite what I was looking for.

Steve

I go by smell. If it smells strongly like melon it is usually ripe. This works for many melon varieties. Not sure about the golden sweets though. I have a few vines going but no melons yet.

I always found most of the Asian melons rather bland for my taste. As you say they tase more like a cucumber than a melon. They might be a good salad additive though.

Digits, mine looks nothing like the one you posted a pic of, so I'm wondering if it's the same variety. Mine is this: http://rareseeds.com/vegetables-d-o/melons/melons-asian/golden-sweet-melon.html. I had a terrible time getting them to even germinate, so I'm thinking I might go with a different one next year. :/

I bought some seeds from Baker's Creek this year and so far have had weird results with my Asian melons. I bought the "Early Silver line" and out of the 3 seeds I planted from that packet I've gotten 3 different types of melons. One looks almost like a lemon cucumber (light yellow with darker yellow stripes), but is a melon that tastes kind of like a sweet cucumber but awful and nearly all seeds with not much flesh. The little melons fall of the vine when ripe, so I know I'm not picking them "green". The other is a light solid green type melon that is nearly round (not ripe yet). Another looks close to the picture of a Silver line melon, but has only set one fruit on the vine so far (not ripe yet). I think I got cross bred seeds in that seed packet

My other Asian melon is a "Tigger melon" and so far is green with dark green stripes. I hope they color up when ripe like the picture.

Trisha

My picture info only says, "Asian melon" so I'm not entirely sure if it was Golden Sweet or, perhaps, "Honda."

http://evergreenseeds.com/meswho.html

I bought seed for both from Evergreen. They were in my garden for 2 years and quite similar in appearance. Picture info says ‎September ‎29, ‎2008 so harvest was much later than July.

Steve