Melon harvest of the day

Now the melon harvest peak. After a cold start in june, it has been a warm summer for the melons. Now every day some will loosen at the slightest touch, ready to harvest. Some days onlythree, other days more, like seven, and then comes a day like today – I needed a box for the harvest.

Like last year I grow Farthest North Melon Mix. A lot of very early varieties crossed up by good people in USA. Most of the plants set ripe fruits in my garden. In older posts you can read how I grow my melons. A one hour drive south of my garden, Merete from Vild med have grow the same melon mix. (text in danish, but lots of photos)

Farthest North Melon Mix

It is obvious, that each plant is an individual when you study the melons. Some small, others tiny. Some very delicious, some boring and a few with an unpleasant taste. The idea is that every grower of this melon mix select an original variety suited to the microclimate of the garden. It can be done very quickly, saving seeds from the very best melon every year. I intend to do it slowly, as it gives me the possibility to select for more of the traits I find desirable. I probaly don’t even want to create a new variety, but a race with desired variation. I find it very charming, when there’s a differences between melons from different plants, I just want them all to taste gorgous and grow on a well behaved robust plant, even in a less than perfect summer in open ground in my north west european climate.

Introduced in November 2007, the SHARP Motorcycle Helmet Safety Rating Scheme aims to save lives of riders involved in motorbike accidents.  The first scheme of it’s kind worldwide, the SHARP (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme) aims to give a totally independent rating on the levels of protection crash helmets will provide in the event of an impact.

The helmets are rated on a scale of 1-5 depending on their performance in a series of laboratory tests.  While all crash helmets on sale in the UK must offer a minimum standard of protection, it has been found that there are real differences in how well the various helmets perform in the tests.  The rating shows how much over the minimum required standard the helmets perform.

The scheme is designed to give riders an easy to understand guide to which helmets will offer them the best protection.

One thing which has become apparent, looking at the tables below, is that the more expensive helmets are not necessarily the best performing ones.  There are quite a few helmets costing under £100 which score either a 4 or a 5 in the tests.

These are the Sharp safety ratings released to date.  As and when new ratings are released, I will update this information so it is kept up to date.

9th April 2009

Following an update email this morning I have amended the following list to include the ratings published on an additional 28 helmets.

Also take a look at the following entry

Choosing The Correct Size Motorcycle Helmet

Melon no.17

Today we will enjoy the largest melon yet, weight 510g. Not a big melon, but a giant in this garden. I start to doubt, if this big, something must be wrong. It will probably taste horrible. Better try it out at once.

Melon no.17

It is nettet with orange flesh. To my surprise taste is gorgous! Probably 2 or 3 have tasted better, but out of 17 melons, that’s still a top rate. Seeds looks mature, it will probably breed well in future generations.
This grex, Farthest North Melon Mix, has really impressed me, and pushed the limits for melon growing. Yet another thank you to SeedAmbassadors !

Fourth melon in 2008

Today I harvested 4 melons in one day. Two complete ripe, two had slippe from the plant, but still ned a day or two to reach perfect ripeness.

The fourth melon is typical for the larger (still small) outdoor melons, weight 262 gram. Surface nettet, flesh orange, sweet and aromatic. Excellent size for two persons.

Fifth melon in 2008

The fifth melon is suitable for a single person. Weight 130 gram, nettet surface, flesh orange, sweet and aromatic. Most of the seeds have not developed, but there are a few that looks excellent.

I clean the seeds in a glas of water overnight, a tiny pinch of enzyme washing powder added. Next day the good seeds have sunk to the bottom, and the floating bad seeds and debris can be discarded. After a last washing in a strainer, they dry on a little plate.

Melon Cucumis melo Farthest North Melon Mix

Yesterday, when admiring all the developing melons, I noticed the oldest had detached from its stem. I dare say it comes off easy when ripe. It smells wonderfull, but I will not eat it yet. Most important is to ensure good seeds for next year. If I leave it to ripen even further, there’s a chance the seeds will grow stronger and collect energy for the next seasons fight for life.

It is early, a month earlier than first melon last year. Weather has been warm and sunny, contrary to last years rainy cold summer. Black plastic mulch probably helped too.

I’m excited to read Meretes blog (in danish, but lots of great pictures) Vild med have, when she will harvest the first melon – can’t be long, as she’s an experienced gardener. She grow the same melon mix – we intend to stabilise a new hardy early variety for our northern gardens. To do that, it’s imperative to harvest vigorous seeds, even at the expense of enjoying the first and best melon in the process.

Melon transplanted

Today I have transplanted the melons. We are past 5. june, past the risk of frosts at night. It is Farthest Norht Melon Mix, same as I tried last year. I transplanted 31 melonplants to get a great variation to intercross freely by insects and recombine in new combinations.
My job will be to take care of their need for water, and certainly to inspect them regularly and note which plants give the first, best, largest melon on healthy plants – am I an optimist? Ohh yeah, and I did get away with it last year.

One of the melon beds

To get room for so many melonplants I have spaced them closely, 20-30cm (less than a foot). They didn’t grow very large last year, so I guess it will be room enough for them. But I still had to prepare an extra bed for some of the melons between the flowers in the front garden.
I have thoughts about using plastic covering, but I believe it’s needed to give the extra warmth that could make a better seed quality for next generation. The plastic looks ugly, but I comfort my self with the thought of the leaves soon covering it.

Columbines comes in many beautiful colors and single, double or tightly packed flowers.

I can’t resist them. I need to take a little control of their seed shedding, or they all end being red. By picking flowers of all the more common colors, and letting the more rare colors and shapes shed their seeds, I keep an interesting mix continue year after year.

Lección UNO. El feliz despistado jamás estará estresado.

(20:27:59) grex: (podrías rehacer paquetes para la versión actual del labo)
(20:28:39) yo: (escuchas el silencio?, qué lindo verdad?)
…

Melon bed under construction

Today I dug the melon bed. I dig a trench, fill it with fresh horsemanure, cover again with the soil and top with the plasticbags in which I got the manure (recycle).
To the right the trench, partly with horsemanure and the far end covered with soil. The left is covered with cut plasticbags and wood and string, to prevent it blowing away on windy days.
This bed will warm considerably, and supply the melons with plenty of food. I will leave it to set, until it’s time to plant out during days with warm weather in the middle of june.

Melonplants Cucumis melo Farthest North melon mix

The small melon plants patiently waits in the greenhouse. It’s time to repot, I better do that tomorrow.

It is not a variety, but a mix of varieties intercrossed. The idea is to select for hardiness. Melons are not normally transplanted outside in Denmark.

Melon harvest last year

I have now harvested the last melons, and the are ripening and smelling delicious.
The box is one of those use for mandarins. To be honest I’m very surprised by the
productivity of this grex. The taste varies between acceptable and superb,
hard to buy better in the supermarkets.

Now I plan to grow out more of the original seeds next year, and then in two years grow out the best of the two years. I also consider reserving more space in the garden to be able to grow out more melonplants, giving more material to select between. This melon project is not about saving all seeds but selecting from the better part. It seems to me, that several of the ripe melons have unripe seeds. This is not a bad thing, as it is a natural selection for ability to ripe succesfully in this environment.

I wonder, if a mixed planting of melon and sweet pepper could be succesfull. Three or four melonplants for every sweet pepper. This might stress the melon a bit more, but also resulting in a more robust melon strain, if the stress from shadow and roots from peppers doesn’t completely prevent melon seed ripening.

Now there are surpricingly many melons, but most of the leaves have died from disease/cold (no frost). I’m not sure how to continue, but if nobody tells me, I will leaved them for one or two weeks more,
inspecting them every day, looking for ripeness. Later I will bring them indoor. One plant didn’t set any fruits. I’ll pack seed seperately and number continously, to remember order of ripeness.

A very good thing is, that they didn’t all suceed, now a first selection have taken place, without much decision taking.

Aromatic, sweet and juicy, just as a melon should be. But size is miniature (its only a lunch plate) , and seed are extremely tiny, but seems to be ripe.
Could it be influenced by genes from Queen Ann’s Pocket Melon ?

Weather is cold and rainy, yesterday I was pessimistic about ever getting a ripe melon from my patch this year. Today I noticed the small cracks suggesting it to be ripe. Need I say I’m satisfied with this melon grex ? Hopefully more melons will follow in a week or two.

Today I also found the first ripe fig, mmm….

A grex donated by SeedAmbassadors is my ground material in my attempt to develop a new melon variety. It consist of an interbreeding of different early and cold tolerant melon varieties, breed in Oregon for a few years. The idea is to select over a series of years for best performance in your own garden, in northern gardens. Last year I grew a Minnesota Midget direct seed in open ground, it ripened fairly well, but the seeds was not ripe. This year I try the Northern Melon Mix, starting it early may indoor, planting out in june on a trench with horsemanure and black plastic mulch. This is not a warm summer, and if some of them manage to ripe seeds, it is definitely a succes.