Melons in the Mist

The rainy eastern rim of Oregon’s Coast Range is not ideal melon-producing habitat. Growing melons here requires a lot of care and maintenance. Patience and luck are important, too. I have grown mixed melons at a community garden since 2009.

I grew two types of melons from seed the first year: Lambkin and Galia. Lambkin is an All-America Selections winner from 2009. It is a Piel de Sapo variety, or Christmas melon, with origins in Spain. Piel de Sapo translates to “toad skin,” which describes the rough, mottled and slightly ribbed skin on these small, oval-shaped melons. Lambkin flesh is white with a thin rind. 

Two Lambkin melons on the vine. Leaves have suffered 
damage from powdery mildew after a light August rain.

Fresh Lambkin melon.

Galia melons look like a muskmelon on the outside, but have light green flesh instead of salmon-colored flesh. Galia melons were developed in Israel by crossing honeydew and muskmelons.

Two Galia melons right after harvest.

Galia flesh is about the same color as a honeydew.

The first year I covered a raised row with black plastic and cut holes in the plastic where I direct-seeded into the ground the first week of June. Germination was about 50 percent and I culled seedlings to one per hole. I ended up with three Lambkin plants and one Galia. I also had a yellow-flesh watermelon that I started as a transplant from a local nursery. Read more about that episode by clicking on my “Meloncholy Tale” tab above.

Since 2010, I have started seed at home and brought transplants to the garden site. I don’t bother with black plastic anymore. I add soil amendment both at the beginning and end of each growing season. I wait until the warm weather arrives to plant, usually not until the end of June, which is barely enough time to produce ripe fruit.

The 2010 growing season was one of the worst on record in Oregon. My plants produced only a couple of decent charentais melons, maybe one or two Lambkins and one ripe Korean melon.

An unseasonably late heat wave in 2011 resulted in a zero-hour recovery for the growing season. My plants produced a good crop of Lambkins, which was the only melon I grew that year.