Asian golden sweet melon

[curly_kate]

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?

 

[digitS']

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

 

[wifezilla]

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.

 

[hoodat]

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.

 

[curly_kate]

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. :/

 

[Northernrose]

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

 

[digitS']

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