Melons are delicious little presents that we anxiously await from our garden.
While other gardeners and homesteaders were busy focusing on watermelons and cantaloupes, we decided that we were going to take on Sakata’s Sweet Melon.
You won’t find too much information about experiences elsewhere; however, we’re about to lay it all out on the table for you!
From starting the seed and how it grows, to harvesting and flavor- come check it out!
Growing Sakata’s Sweet Melon: Our Experience, Was It Worth It?
To be honest, our experience with Sakata’s Sweet Melon was mixed and slightly complicated, but easily remedied. This Asian melon, from the Muskmelon or Cucumis Melo family, is closely related to the cantaloupe and honeydew melon. As a matter of fact, it may cross breed with cantaloupe in the garden. The yellow-green fruits are between 3″ and 4″ in size with an apple shape to them, which made it an attractive purchase for me; a small, personal-sized melon with edible flesh? Yes please!
It took me quite a bit of digging to also discover that my collected seeds are safe; meaning that they don’t cross with other cucurbits, such as cucumbers or squash. You see, the vines actually look very similar to cucumbers, so I was somewhat worried about the purity of my collected seed. Even with the challenges faced, we WILL be growing this delicious Asian melon again next year, especially with all of the seeds I’ve saved! My recommendation is to give it a shot- you might like it, you might not. Personally, I think it would be a perfect companion in a strawberry salad, made with strawberries from the seeds I grew! So, let’s analyze this cute little melon!
Starting and Growing Sakata’s Sweet Melon Seeds:
Difficulty: EASY!
So, here it was. A sweltering late spring, right around the beginning of June. I cleared a patch of virgin earth of its grasses, disturbed the soil, and laid down some hay. Spaced roughly 12″ apart, I placed mounds of soil. I popped 3 seeds in each hill, soaked them with some water, and watched for the seedlings to come up. Within a week, they were poking their heads through the earth; I never watered them again!
During late June and July, we experienced very little rainfall. We would have torrential rainfall, then nothing for 10+ days. A lot of the garden suffered without additional water- and the beans? Well, they were on strike. Still on strike, actually (they can’t handle this heat). Sakata’s Sweet Melon took off. It loved the clay soil, and its roots must be running rather deep.
The vines trailed everywhere, with beautiful yellow flowers popping up from end to end. They began to set small marble-sized fruits within 60 days, and my excitement shot straight up, since harvest is roughly 80 to 90 days; they were largely ignored and neglected, as I wanted to see if this vine could take it. I also wanted to expose any weaknesses associated with growing this fruit this year, so I knew what to do for the 2019 gardening season!
Harvesting: Was the Flavor of the Sakata’s Melon Worth Growing It?
In my opinion? Absolutely. Now, there are conflicting accounts of what this melon tastes like- and as I discuss below, it is very hard to figure out when the melons are ripe. The flavor and smell is drastically different between a ripe and unripe melon, so please learn from my mistakes!
If unripe, the Sakata Melon will smell a lot like a cucumber when cut; I couldn’t smell anything from an uncut, unripe melon. The flavor is ridiculously, soul-crushingly bitter- I don’t even know how the flavor was at this point, because the bitterness of the melon had me spitting so violently, that I can only assume my instincts were coming into play in that moment. It was awful.
When ripe, this melon is absolutely delicious. If you enjoy cantaloupe, you will enjoy this melon very, very much! It is closely related to cantaloupe, and that is the flavor you should expect. This melon is super sweet, somewhat mushy yet slightly crisp (I feel like if you timed harvest perfectly, it may be more crisp… but I have yet to master that sorcery), and is the perfect individual serving. However, you don’t have to peel it or cut it up, and the vines can take neglect; just grab a ripe fruit, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and enjoy it with a spoon! You can eat the skin, but I choose to eat it much like a grapefruit.
Now for the Cons: What Are the Most Challenging Obstacles When Growing Sakata’s Sweet Melons?
There were a few different lessons I learned while growing these melons, so I will point them out in this bullet list. My main issues with this fruit are able to be largely remedied, especially with ingenuity and gained experience. Many of them I’m already prepared to fix, or have solved, so don’t be completely discouraged! After all, this melon is incredibly easy to start!
- Firstly, this melon should be trellised. I wanted to let it sprawl along the ground, even with recommendations to trellis it. This vine can grow to over 10 feet, so I think I will be using an overhead cattle panel trellising system for them next year- also, grow them far away from your cantaloupe if you plan to save seed, and be sure to “net” and hand pollinate the flowers. One fruit will give you over 100 seeds, so this shouldn’t be too difficult for the average gardener or homesteader!
- This melon will rot along the ground. I believe the melons themselves are incredibly prone to rot, especially in wetter weather. As the melons began to mature, we had more rain; now, the melons could have rotted due to a lack of water (much like blossom end rot), as the rotting seemed to worsen with rain after a very dry period, however the rotting largely disappeared once the rain was gone and the soil was moist. This may sound confusing, but I encourage you to research blossom end rot caused by drought. Trellising could vastly improve this issue, as well as a weekly watering once the first fruits reach the size of a golf ball.
- These melons are very hard to find within the vines & grass on the ground. If you miss the very short ripe window, they will rot quickly. Trellising will greatly reduce losses.
- The trickiest part of growing Sakata’s Sweet Melon is determining when to harvest. You must wait for the flesh to turn yellow-green, but you will be expecting a far more yellow coloration; your first few melons will likely rot before you pick them, because you’ll wait too long, expecting more color. If you pick too early, they are absolutely vile. If you wait too long, they will begin to rot. I find this process seems to take less than 2 or 3 days- sometimes even less! Look for a very pale yellow-green color, and smell for a fragrant melon scent at the blossom end before picking. This is what you’re looking for.
- The melons definitely do not store for long. They rot quite quickly. This is probably why this melon is impossible to find anywhere other than the home garden and farmers markets; the cantaloupe is larger, easier to harvest, and stores longer. However, you could choose to dehydrate the melon or freeze dry it. It might also be an excellent candidate for freezing, for use in smoothies, popsicles, or baby food purees. I did not see any brown discoloration on melons, which means that you won’t have the discoloration that apples and potatoes have.
Below, you will see an image of how the blossom end is SUPPOSED to look (yes, this is normal! This is not rot!), the second image is of some slight exterior rot, but the melon was still perfectly fine for eating. All images here are of the same melon, so some exterior rotting does not mean the melon is bad!
Did you try pressing on the blossom end for a ripeness test? If it gives, it should be ripe. I use this for any melon that doesn’t have the slip from the vine test.