Don't muskmelons slip like cantaloupe? That is, when it's ripe, the stem will simply fall off the melon. That's for vines that are still alive, though.

Actually, cantaloupes are a variety of muskmelon. They slip. Honeydews are too, and they don't. So it would help to know what you have. But they sound like cantaloupes.

I read here on the good ol' www that if a melon falls off the vine by itself, then it is past its best-by date and won't taste all that good. I believe that. Someone gave me a few muskmelons bragging about how they slipped off by themselves and the taste was borderline ghastly.

So much for the good 'ol www. Cantaloupe are maximally ripe when they "slip". That is, they disconnect from the vine. They know that sugars won't continue to increase. Lots of reasons why cantaloupes can taste ghastly, but that isn't one.

Some melons continue to get sweeter for a week or two after they come off the vine. Not true for cantaloupes.

Thanks for all your info. - Blue Skink.

Well, I will let the poor things sit there til frost.

If the melons are still green (haven't turned orange on the outside) and the vines are dying then they may not fully ripen. Here mine are planted in early May and ripen by late July so they are long gone by now. Generally as they turn from green to orange (a rapid process of 2-3 days) they will easily slip from the vine. Ambrosia is the variety I grow.

You might think about why the vines are dying before the melons are ripe. Lack of water? Melon plants do sort of lapse after melons get ripe (as in, I'm done, did what I needed to do), but they're not supposed to do it before. If these plants have already ripened many melons, that could be what's going on.

Powdery mildew? I got wiped out one year by mildew. My muskmelons were doing great then got mildew early September. Tried a copper spray which slowed it down but in 14 days my vines were almost entirely defoliated. The melons were close to being fully developed but not quite. I let them stay until they ripened but the flavor and flesh color was poor and not worth harvesting.

I have sincere doubts your melons will develop decent flavor if the vines have few to no leaves. I do hope I am wrong. I vowed never again to grow any older varieties on melons that have no disease resistance. Ditto on cucumbers which are having real issues in my area with a nasty leaf spot. As much as I like heirloom tomatoes and beans, they are the only heirlooms I grow. Give me disease resistant varieties when it comes to vine crop like pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers.

Howdy. I made sure that my muskmelons got adequate water during our hot summer. The fruit were growing well and the foliage was healthy. All my melons are underripe, not just a few, and I am growing 2 different varieties. One an old variety whose name I can't recall, and the other a hybrid, Halona.

Feh. My brother grew some, too, and they ripened. What the hey...

No powdery mildew here.

Well, thanks for your good wishes, Spartanapples, but I too doubt that my melons will ripen. So I am going to peel them, chop 'em up and cook them into a compote with lemon rind, lemon jce & sugar. Eaten cool, this is a most wonderful dessert. I am sure that my unripe melons will taste no more insipid than, say, marrows or citron melons prepared the same way.

Thank you to both of you for helping me out. - Skink.

Pics are always best for us to see how bad it really is ... is the netting well established with some tan and some green and are they decent size ? We grow Ambrosia vgkg posted and we often snip the melons when they are starting to look "mostly ripe" ... then let them finish on the counter and cut them open once they turn that definitive tannish' orange color and are really aromatic ... although I have eaten them fresh picked at the same stage and they are pretty darn good that way too, plenty sweet. Did you practice any thinning ? Once a plant kicks out 4-5 fruits, I diligently prune any and all future attempts to spawn additional fruits. Lack of thinning can leave alot of unripend fruits. Zone 5b here and we plant early June to mid-June and have harvested many, with a few still on the vines, which are in steep decline now ... although mildew free thanks to a couple of neem applications throughout the season. Our experience with letting them become fully ripe and slipping off the vine is that slugs and pill bugs and other boring bugs will damage them towards the very end when they are fully ripe ... believe the smell becomes a major attractant and the rind softens and becomes more vulnerable ... probably could ward off some of that with sprays ... use some sluggo plus to control, but not 100% effective ... we put fruits on top of small square boards once they are formed. Worst case, enjoy your compote ;-)

Our experience with letting them become fully ripe and slipping off the vine is that slugs and pill bugs and other boring bugs will damage them towards the very end when they are fully ripe .

John B, yes that's been a problem here too. If you have access to pine trees I found that placing a hand full of pine needles under each melon helps keep the bottoms off the ground which helps prevent rotting due to soil pest infestation as they fully ripen. I do this when the melons are about the size of a baseball.