We're trying to decide between cantaloupes and watermelon for next year. . .Although GDW loves watermelon, and minis would be perfect, he thinks he likes cantaloupe more--which is the easiest to grow? I know that depends on many things. . . . Is there an overall easier one, though?

Watermelons don't get diseased as easily but they both are pretty easy to grow. You just have to control cucumber beetles or they'll spread disease, more so to the cantaloupes than to the watermelons.

I find watermelon easier to grow simply because they don't seem to attract raccoons and possums like cantaloupe do in my garden. I'm sure it is the aroma of a nearly ripe cantaloupe that attracts them and watermelons don't really have much smell because they have thicker rinds. Cantaloupe are much faster to grow though.

Coyotes love watermelons and won't even wait until they are ripe to get them, so if your garden is open to the wildlife, that might be a consideration. I've never had coyotes breach the 8' garden fence to get watermelons or cantaloupes....and neither have possums or coons. They all used to regularly breach the 4' tall fence. Farmers I know who grow melons in open fields without a tall fence have lots of trouble with all kinds of varmints getting all kinds of melons. They simply plant so many acres of the melons that the varmints cannot get them all.

As Jack said, the incredible aroma ofcantaloupes and muskmelons can draw critters to your garden, but if your fence keeps the creatures out, it doesn't matter. They sit outside the fence and stare into the garden. I never expected the 8' fence would keep out anything that climbs. I only thought it would keep out the deer. So, I've been pleasantly surprised to never have varmints in our garden unless some fool (that would be me) has left the gate open overnight. Even the squirrels don't climb the 8' fence---and it would be easy for the to do it as they could easily climb from nearby trees down low-hanging limbs to the wooden fence posts and descend the posts into the garden. They simply don't.

I like to grow Queen Anne's Pocket melon on the fence just because it smells so great (the melons aren't worth eating as they are bland). The scent will perfume the whole garden and yard. That's all well and good, but anything hanging low enough on the fence for varmints to eat them will get stolen and eaten. Apparently coons, squirrels, possums or whatever don't mind the blandness.

Dawn! Now you made me go and order some of those gold watermelons. I didn't have any luck with my watermelons this year. I did grow a few delicious Israel melons. My banana melons were ok on flavor on the first couple that got ripe first then they were pretty bland. I think it was the hot dry period that stressed the plants and sunburned quite a few of them.

Haha, OB!

That would make me happy, to know that I really did have a yellow meated watermelon, I prefer them over the red. Of course, I'm referring to purchasing and not knowing.

Kim, That's true! I am fascinated by their outer color.

Robert, I apologize for making you go order the seeds.

I'm sorry you had a bad melon year. This year's weather has been all over the place and our gardens have paid the price for it.

dbarron, It is hard to find yellow-meated melons except at farmer's markets, or if you are lucky enough to have a small, local grocery store that carries yellow-meated and orange-meated ones. We have a grocery store like that in a small Texas town across the river from the western end of our county. They also have a meat market/butcher counter featuring locally raised meat that they'll custom cut for you on the spot. Going there has spoiled us for standard grocery stores. Sometimes (not every week), that store will have melons like Desert King or the yellow meated version of Black Diamond or maybe Orange Tendersweet. I always buy one of their yellow or orange fleshed melons when we go there (about once a month) just so they will continue carrying them and selling them----even if we have melons stacked up on the counter at home. We still have some truck farmers who park alongside the state highways here and sell their melons right out of the back of their old pickup trucks, but it is hit and miss and you never know when you'll see one of them out there.

When I was a kid growing up in Fort Worth, there were two brothers who had about a 3- or 4-acre market garden and they sold produce from a tiny farmstand there on the corner across the street from the bank. My dad would seek out the orange and yellow meated melons there, and now I am the same way. Of course, that little farmstand and market garden have been gone for probably 30 years now---the ground now is occupied by a bunch of fast food places and such. I miss it.

I do grow some of the yellow-meated and orange-meated icebox melons. They are the perfect size for the two of us, but I'm going to grow this new one next year too.

Dawn

Those are beautiful!! I need to bulldoze my entire backyard.. so I can grow everything!!!

Yikes a gardener in nesting mode!!!

Well, I had officially given up on trying to grow watermelon next year. This year's was doing great, even had about 5 melons on the vine. Then the stupid squash bugs migrated over to it and I lost them all. Not ONE single watermelon!! :(

Dawn, thank you for your enabling!! I love, love, love watermelon. Although, I have to watch my consumption because it is full of arganine which can cause cold sore outbreaks for many people.......me being one of them. But, if I take my Lysine when I eat it I find I am usually ok. That being said, I think I am going to order some of the Mini-Love watermelon. Woohoo!!

Alexis, Your back yard is beautiful....don't bulldoze the whole thing!

Melissa, I hope the Mini-Love grows well for you. Be sure to report back on how it does next year.

Dawn