Growing melons in the Willamette Valley is tricky business
But those who seek out appropriate varieties are likely to experience success.
Cliff notes:
47/110 or 43% of gardeners report failure in growing melons in my notes of grower reports in the Willamette Valley and SW Washington. About half of those report that their melons just don’t grow very big - several of them report the size of ping pong balls.
The vast majority of gardeners reporting failure don’t recall what variety they tried.
The highest success rate, by far, is Sugar Baby Watermelon, with 14/110 gardeners reporting success specifically with this variety.
Other high rated varieties: Kajari, Tigger, Blacktail Mountain, Minnesota Midget, Eel River, Divergent and Lilly.
Word is, most melons *really* like warm nights and warm soil in order to grow well. Because our nights cool off quite a bit compared to the east coast, my understanding is that melons are quite difficult to grow without greenhouse, poly tunnel, black plastic - any kind of heat sink that the gardener can come up with.
In my garden, I’ve always assumed that I don’t have enough sun to make melons grow well enough. As I’ve cleared some areas of invasive weeds, I’ve gotten some sunnier spaces and have given a few a shot.
My garden conditions: I grow melons in the sunniest area of my yard, but it still gets shaded by 5pm, which definitely limits heating potential. I do not (yet) use black plastic. I may repurpose a sheet of plastic for this purpose, but otherwise very unlikely to introduce more plastic into the environment.
The first melon I tried was a Korean melon from Johnny’s, noted as the earliest ripening melon in their catalog. It grew very well, but the flavor was more cucumber like, just a hint of sweet melon flavor. Probably would be good for pickling or salads. Definitely not my thing as I have plenty of plants that do well in salads.
That same year my mom gifted me two OP cantaloupe types. One I don’t recall ever ripening and I’ve forgotten the variety. The other was Jenny Lind. It did ripen, very late, and it was *super* small. Like enough for maybe 3 bites? My mom also grew these in her garden, and had an experience identical to mine. Good flavor, but certainly not worth the space.
The following year, on recommendation from a fellow Beavercreek gardener, I grew Lilly melons from Johnny’s. They grew excellently. Big, super juicy, meaty and aromatic melons
Their ripening was great - one every few days slipped from the vine. Not too much for a family to eat at once. The plant grew four fat melons, and then in September it tried to grow a bumper crop. I let these grow. They did ok, but their flavor wasn’t nearly as good as that of the earlier harvested ones. I should have pulled the plants and put something else in that spot sooner.
Flavor is quite similar to cantaloupe… I’ll be honest, cantaloupe isn’t my favorite flavor for melons, and so I’m on the hunt for other melons that may do well here.
Experience has taught me that it is best to find other gardeners in your region who have been successful, and find out what variety did well for them.
In order to accomplish this on a larger scale, I turned once again to polling about 20 Facebook groups up and down the valley. I also scoured past threads on growing melons. In the end, I have notes from 110 gardeners on what varieties appear to be tried and true. The document where I collected all this information can be found here.
43% of gardeners report no success with melons. Almost all of the gardeners who have no luck aren’t keeping track of what they have tried.
Most gardeners who are paying attention to the kinds that they are growing are having success. Perhaps that means these gardeners are also the kinds of gardeners who are paying closer attention to the unique fertilizer and heat requirements for melons in general.
It pays to do some homework here. Melons like a lot of heat, and they like *rich* soil and lots of fertilizer to grow fast. A good guide for our region would be Steve Solomon’s Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades.
Successful varieties:
For fun, check out these Instagram reels by a gardener in NW Portland growing Yellow Doll and Sugar Baby and an Sugar Cube Cantaloupe variety.
And check out this grower’s setup:
Sugar Baby Watermelon: 14 reports of success, no report of failure. It is a ice-box size, seedy (not in a bad way unless you hate seeds), reportedly very flavorful variety. Bonnie Plants, a major supplier of seed starts to big box stores in our area, sells this variety, which is likely why so many people have tried it.
Kajari melons: 6 reports of success, no reports of failures. This one surprised me, as it is a variety from India, which is considerably warmer than what we get here. Check out the video of The Millenial Gardener on the coast of North Carolina talking about this variety extensively. The flavor is reportedly like Honeydew mixed with a bit of Cantaloupe. There are a multitude of other videos on Kajari melons on YouTube.
Blacktail Mountain Watermelon: 6 reports of success, one of those was a gardener who felt a little iffy about the flavor. Another one of those gardeners complained how long it took to ripen. These supposedly take a little less time to ripen than the above Sugar Baby. I wonder if anyone has done a side-by-side trial. They sound awfully similar. I believe Lee Reich raves about this variety in his books, and he lives in upstate New York.
Tigger: 3 reports of success, no reports of failures. One gardener complained they were a little seedy and not much flesh - that was the only variety they were growing, so I couldn’t get a sense of whether the complaint was due to their cultural factors. Flavor reportedly like Honeydew.
Minnesota Midget: 3 reports of success, no reports of failures. I note this is one that Charles Dowding, a famous no-dig gardener from the UK (a little further north than us) has profiled in his video on growing melons. My understanding is that his climate is milder than ours, necessitating the use of a greenhouse.
Divergent: 3 glowing reports, no reports of failure. One of these comes from an experienced farmer/orchardist who has tried many melon varieties over the years and now grows this variety exclusively.
Eel River: 3 reports of success. One gardener complained that it took up a ton of space, another said it took until the end of September to harvest. One interesting note about this variety is that it has been selected as a good candidate for dry farming in Oregon, and one of the folks that responded to my poll said they are growing it as such.
Korean: 2 gardeners beside myself had luck with this one, however, it isn’t really what one would think of as a melon. It’s more for salads.
Christmas Watermelon: 2 growers are dry-farming their Christmas Watermelons and having excellent results.
Lilly: 2 reports of success. One is my own (pictured above), the other my friend and neighbor who recommended Lilly to me. Seed available through Johnny’s.
Yellow Sugar Baby: 2 reports of success with this variety, no reports of failures.
Hales Best Cantaloupe: 2 reports of gardeners doing well with this variety in our region. No failures reported.
Misc success stories: gardeners are trying all kinds of varieties, but none have demonstrated reliability the way the above have. The following are the varieties that have one success story within the Willamette Valley:
-Alvaro
-Ambrosia
-Banana
-Bodacious Honeydew
-Cassaba
-Chantreal
-Chantarais (unknown specific variety)
-Early Moonbeam
-Farthest North Galia
-Georgia Rattlesnake
-Green Flesh Honeydew
-Ha’Ogen
-Honeycomb F1 Honeydew
-Janosik
-Jubilee
-Orange Tendercrisp
-Orange Silver Wave
-Rich Sweetness 132
-Skata
-Sugar Cube
-Yamato Cream
-Yellow Doll
-Yellow Midget
Failures: most folks who were not successful with melons were unable to report on variety, in part because it’s been a long time since they’ve tried growing them. Here are the reports I could find.
Asian: not sure if this is a type of melon or what. The other melons this gardener grew did not work out either, so it may have been user error.
Crenshaw: the gardener that reported failure with this variety had success with other varieties grown that same year, so it sounds as though the issue was with this variety, not gardeners practices.
Jenny Lind, as I’ve mentioned previously, grew fine but very small for both my mother and I. I consider this 2 reports of failures.
Moon and Stars watermelon: the grower said they were super bland and a waste of space.
Sarah’s Jumbo: was not jumbo at all, incredibly small, and suffered terribly from powdery mildew.
“Expert” recommendations:
OSU has a publication that discusses melon growing in our region and recommends varieties that have performed well in their research gardens: Superstar, Dutchess, Ariel, Earli-champ, Sarah’s Choice and Sugar Cube . Interesting that not one of these has been trialed by the above 100+ gardeners (except one positive report for Sugar Cube). I looked up all the varieties, they appear to be cantaloupe types.
In Steve Solomon’s book, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (which should already be on your shelf) he recommends going only with seed suppliers located in our region. His recommendation is Diplomat for Honeydew, and Yellow Doll for watermelon hybrids. OP recommendations: Minnesota Midget, Sugar Baby, Moon and Stars. He also recommends checking out Adaptive Seeds’ varieties, as they clearly must ripen for them in Sweet Home.
Good luck and please keep me posted about your trials.
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