How to Grow Cantaloupe

Days to germination: 5 to 10 days
Days to harvest: 80 to 100 days
Light requirements: Full sun
Water requirements: Regularly until fruit sets
Soil: Loose and well-drained
Container: Shorter varieties work best

Introduction

You’ll need a long and sunny growing season for a successful cantaloupe harvest but the flavor of your fruit crop is worth taking a chance. Some varieties mature faster than others, so even shorter growing seasons can accommodate some cantaloupes (try EarliChamp or EarliGold). Cantaloupes are also known as “muskmelons” or “rockmelons”.

After the seeds are scooped out, the orange flesh is very sweet and high in vitamins A and C, as well as potassium. It’s almost always eaten raw.

Starting from Seed

Start your cantaloupe seeds around 3 to 4 weeks before your last frost date. Sow your seeds about an inch deep in your potting soil. Cantaloupe plants are very sensitive to transplanting, so you should start your seeds in paper or peat cups that can be planted all in one piece rather than try to dislodge the seedling from a plastic pot.

When planting, tear the bottom of the cup out so the growing roots will have no obstructions at all.

Transplanting

Because of its vining nature, cantaloupes can be trained to grow up a trellis. It saves space and helps keep the fruit off the ground. The challenge is keeping the fruit secure while it’s hanging in the air. Cantaloupe plants can’t naturally support their own heavy fruit if grown this way.

With a little ingenuity, the home gardener can still make it work. People who trellis their cantaloupe usually make little bags or hammocks out of fabric or even old pantyhose to help support the growing fruit. Attach the slings to your trellis or stake, not to the vines.

If you are going to grow your cantaloupes upwards, then you can plant your seedlings closer together in a row. Seedlings should be spaced about 12 inches apart. For cantaloupes that are going to spread their vines along the ground, keep the plants around 3 feet apart. Though in that case, you can plant 2 or 3 seedlings together in a small hill.

Your seedlings should go out in the garden two to three weeks after your frost date. Dig the soil deeply so that it’s quite loose more than 6 inches down, and add fertilizer.

Growing Instructions

When you water your cantaloupes, keep the water down at the roots and soil. Adding water over the leaves can increase the chances of disease and fungus infection. Keep your seedlings well watered, especially when they start to develop their melons.

Unlike most other plants, after the fruit begins to grow, you should actually cut back on the water. This helps to concentrate the sugars in the fruit, making for sweeter melons. Let your plants dry out just until you can detect a bit of wilt, or when the soil is dry to the touch. Fertilize regularly, with monthly applications of standard fertilizer mix.

Fruit that is growing down on the ground can be protected from early rot or other pests if you place something solid under them to keep them off the soil. Coffee can lids work well, and it keeps your fruit cleaner too.

If you have a short growing season, you can help your plants focus on just a few fruit by picking off the flowers after your plants have started 3 or 4 melons. They will grow quicker if the vines aren’t also busy trying to make more.

Containers

Pretty much any variety of cantaloupe can be grown in a container, and you can either let the vines spill over the sides or use a support. To make it easier, smaller plants (with smaller melons) will do better for container gardening.

Minnesota Midget has 4″ fruits and is one of the better choices for pots. The bush is compact and the smaller melons won’t need as much support. Use a pot that’s at least 12″ across, or even a big 5 gallon pail.

Pests and Diseases

Various forms of wilt can harm your plants, and these diseases can live in the soil from one year to the next. So rotate your crops and don’t keep planting cantaloupes in the same place. You can’t treat for wilt, but many melon varieties have been developed that are resistant to it.

Cantaloupes are related to the cucumber, and can be targeted by several of the same insect pests. Cucumber beetles have black with yellow stripes and can really devastate your plants by chewing the leaves. Pick them off when you see them, and treat your plants with a vegetable-safe insecticide. Same goes for squash vine borers, another insect that will eat the vine’s leaves and stalks.

Powdery mildew is a common problem in any vegetable garden, and looks like a dusting of white powder on the leaves. Don’t let the leaves get wet when you water your plants, and treat them with fungicide as soon as you detect the problem.

Harvest and Storage

You can’t pick cantaloupes early, so you need to wait until the fruit is mature before you harvest anything. It can be a bit tricky knowing exactly when your melons are ready, and there are a few ways to tell.

The net-like texture on the outside will be quite rough and pronounced, and the melon should come away from the stem very easily. There should also be a very sweet smell to the melons, right where they join the stem. Some people tap their melons and listen for the right kind of thump. That’s not the most accurate way of telling anything and its usually grocery shoppers who do this, not gardeners.

For those last few melons at the end of the season, they can tolerate some light frost if you cover your plant with plastic at night. You may be able to keep the plants going long enough to ripen the last of the harvest.

You will get the best flavor if you let your fruit sit for a day or two after picking, in a warm place. This last bit of ripening will bring out all the sweetness. That doesn’t mean you can pick your fruit before they are ready and have them ripen on the windowsill. They still need to be fully mature before you pick them.

If you aren’t going to use them in 3 to 4 days, then they can be stored in the refrigerator.

23 Responses to “How to Grow Cantaloupe”

Dawn Says:
June 9th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Will one cantaloupe plant produce cantaloupes? What about one pumpkin plant?

Thank you!
Sue Says:
June 27th, 2012 at 4:32 am
I have lots of blooms but no melons setting on. someone suggest I try to polinate them with a q tip in each blossom, I tried that and still don’t see any melons setting on. Beautiful vine and leaves. NO melons!
Kevin Tasker Says:
July 6th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Hi Sue, Cantaloupes have a long growing time of between 90 and 110 days. They have male and female flowers and initially, in my experience, males dominate early on. Females have a small cantaloupe behind the petals and males just a short stem. Once you have female flowers in bloom transfer pollen from a male flower to the female. I use a small sable water colour brush to do this. Don’t forget to support your cantaloupes if using trellis or lift them of the soil if grown in open land. Enjoy your crop.
Kev
James Andrews Says:
July 15th, 2012 at 11:09 am
I successfully get a full crop of cucumbers using a wooden skewer for shish que bob. These have a pointed end and I gather a yellow particle from a male flower and carefully jam it down into the center of the female flower since I can’t always rely on bees. After a day or two I usually notice that the female flower has a growing fruit behind the flower. I use this procedure whenever I find a female flower that appears small. Good luck.
Linda Says:
July 22nd, 2012 at 7:50 am
Thanks…we have a bunch growing from our compost and are enjoying watching the growth.
Robert Says:
August 4th, 2012 at 7:46 am
Dawn, you can get cantaloupes with just one plant. I have just one cantaloupe plant ant I have 5 cantaloupes on it…cheers!
David Says:
August 14th, 2012 at 6:25 am
can I trim back the runners on the cantaloupe vine and not kill the plant and still have many good melons?
tonya Says:
June 2nd, 2013 at 1:59 pm
I planted several seeds and I believe everyone came up so now I have to many can I transfer some of them to a different spot in the garden?
anne berry Says:
June 8th, 2013 at 6:27 am
my melons were planted frm plants and about 3 wks later begin to turn brown,yellow and slowly die,, what is wrong?
anne berry Says:
June 8th, 2013 at 6:29 am
why are my melon plants dying after 3-4 weeks in the ground, the leaves turn brown yellow an wilt then gone.
michael Says:
June 23rd, 2013 at 10:26 pm
once a cantaloupes fruit grows how long does it take before i can eat it?
Wilbsd Says:
July 7th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
I have something that eats my cantaloupes just before they get ripe. Someone told me it’s turtles?? Any thing to spay on them to keep the critters away?
Jorge Arredondo Says:
July 19th, 2013 at 3:55 am
I have 6plants of cantaloupes and only 4 lopes. The vine has grown to a big size. I did not know that you should hang the fruits, but will this make them grow bigger or not? I also have watermelon plants growing and it seems as if the lopes are taken over. As far as cucumbers they will wrap themselves on anything.
tree nursery Says:
September 16th, 2013 at 11:21 pm
Cantaloupes are related to the cucumber, and can be targeted by several of the same insect pests.
linda Says:
October 9th, 2013 at 7:42 pm
It is the 9th of October and I just noticed 5 new baby cantaloupe. I thought the season was over but low and behold new ones. This was my first year growing them, I grew them from seeds of a cantaloupe I’d bought in February. No fertilizer or pesticides were used, the same with the rest of my vegetable garden. Every seed planted produced a plant, ended up giving some plants to neighbors.
AnneMarie Bloom Says:
June 3rd, 2014 at 9:27 am
I mixed my honeydew melon with cantaloupe seeds how do I tell which iis which now that they are blooming.
Antoinette Says:
February 7th, 2015 at 1:51 am
We grew some melons from the compost we thought they were cucumbers so we climbed them together, we got about 6 melons but they were spongy and tastless. what did we do wrong.
Sarge Says:
March 17th, 2015 at 7:14 am
I use the hill method and let them grow on the ground. I’ve had good luck with a device I built to set the cantaloupe on. A 2 x 2 frame covered with window screen works great and you can use them over and over. You still need to turn them each week or so but I get really good melons.
Lolita Says:
April 12th, 2015 at 9:55 am
I planted cantaloupe and watermelon in a raised garden and i ran the vines on a fence and I got
10 of each cantaloupe as late as october. It was the first year that i grew them.
Amy Says:
June 29th, 2016 at 8:30 am
Didn’t plant a cantalope this year because my son’s dog ate all the fruit from my last year’s plant! This year I have a beautiful 3 ft. volunteer, but no flowers. Do you think it will eventually bloom?
Administrator Says:
September 29th, 2016 at 2:38 pm
If it gets enough sun and nutrients. Volunteers often sprout in less than ideal spots though. I had a pumpkin volunteer in my front yard this year, but it wasn’t going to get that big fighting it out with the sod.
Dennis Says:
November 21st, 2016 at 12:27 am
I live in the Philippines and planted seeds from the USA. The weather here is the same all year long. Sunny days and lots of rain. The temp here never gets below 70. Will my cantaloupe plants keep growing all the time?
Frank Wingard Says:
March 19th, 2017 at 5:07 am
I have very limited gardening area. I am growing cantaloupes for the first time this year and using hybrid seeds. Someone on Pinterest suggested buying a net shower scrubbee from the dollar store, take it apart, cut into about 3 foot lengths, tie one end, put the baby cantaloupe in the net, tie the top to the trellis, and let it grow to maturity. Sounds easy enough to me!