How to Grow Honeydew Melon Plants: The Complete Guide (2024)

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Honeydews love light, slightly sandy, well-drained soil but still need moisture. A neutral pH of about 7.0 is ideal. Add a bit of compost for some fertility–melons are heavyfeeders.

Plant them in a sunny spot in hills, with room to spread. Alternatively, they can be trained to climb a trellis, but you’ll want to support the melons as they form. Vertical melons make a dramatic garden focal piece and savespace.

When to PlantHoneydews

Plant honeydew melons about two weeks after your last frost once the soil has warmed. If starting seeds indoors, 2 to 3 weeks before your last frost is sufficient. Trying to transplant melons older than four weeks can stress them, and you don’t want melons crawling all over your seed startingarea.

How to PlantHoneydews

Honeydews are typically direct-seeded right into the garden, but you can also start them inside a few weeks before your last frost to give them a headstart.

To planthoneydews:

• Prepare the soil by adding some compost and working in, building small hills a bit bigger than a dinner plant and several inches tall.
  
• Sow seeds ½-1 inch deep in hills, 3-4 seeds per hill.
  
• Space hills about 36 inches apart.
  
• Thin to 1-2 plants per hill after the first true leaves have shown. Use scissors to snip them off and avoid damaging the remaining plants’ rootsystems.

Tip: If transplanting melons grown inside, take care not to disturb the roots. Harden them off like other seedlings and wait to transplant until about two weeks after your last frost date. They look small when planted in the garden, but they’ll soon getlarger.

Honeydews will spread and sprawl around like other melons. Be sure to give them enoughspace.

• Mulch under/around your melons to keep the weeds down and the soil moist. A layer of mulch will also reduce soil splash, which can carry wilt diseases, and give your melons a nice dry spot to lay on as they grow. They’ll be clean and attractive.
  
• Keep the soil moist when the plants are young. Dig your finger under the mulch. If the soil feels dry and warm, turn on the irrigation.
  
• Don’t provide extra water after fruits are softball-sized (unless the vines are wilting or you’re in a drought). Overwatering can lead to blandfruit.

• ‘Snow Leopard’ is a more petite, personal-sized melon, with fruits averaging about two pounds. It has small, dark green variegations on the rind and sweet, white flesh. Resistant to Fusarium wilt.
  
• ‘Earli-Dew’ is an early-ripening variety with a short season for northern gardeners. Ready in about 80 days.
  
• ‘Full Moon’ is a strong-performing hybrid melon with larger 3-4 pound fruits that are creamy white on the outside and pale green on the inside.
  
• ‘Sweet Reward’ is a canary yellow hybrid with large 5-pound fruits and super-sweet flesh. Great forsmoothies.

• Honeydews are ready to harvest when they have turned a creamy white–for white versions–or a bright yellow for other varieties.
  
• They should be firm and heavy for their size, and the stem end should yield slightly when pressed.
  
• You’ll need a knife to cut the stem. Honeydews don’t pull free or “slip” from their vines until they are overripe.
  
• Honeydew melons can be stored after cutting for a week or more in the refrigerator or cut up and frozen in freezer bags for mood-lifting winter smoothies andtreats.

Andy Wilcox