Actually Earli-Dew has a 75 day DTM and is as early as cantaloupes in general. The really sweet honey dews are usually open pollinated and 100-110 DTM. While excess water when ripening can affect the sweetness and flavor, I have found the soil to be the major factor. Some soils grow beautiful appearing fruits that are very bland. There are very few cantaloupes that I can grow here that have any flavor. When I lived in other areas of the country, exceptional flavor. Here I grow mostly Honey Dews and Galias plus a few Crenshaws. Great soil for watermelons, but poor for muskmelons.

That's very interesting. Do you have any idea about what in the soil influences flavor? Must be some nutrient that makes it happen. I would assume that honeydew farmers must know about it, if that's what it takes to make an appealing product. I will ask that question at our extension.

Because of the intense heat around here, I usually take DTMs with a big grain of salt. Most everything seems to happen faster here. But I'm looking at 8# Earli-Dew honeydews, still on the vine, with the stem still green and connected, and no softness on the bottom (but with coloration that looks entirely ripe) that are 150 days beyond seeding. The coloration certainly wasn't ripe- looking at 75 days.

Now, Earli-Dew is F1, so maybe that doesn't lead to optimal flavor? Now, the flavor of these is OK, but I was hoping for more knock-your-socks-off sweetness.

I do appreciate your original Earli-Dew recommendation, as the last few years I wasn't successful in getting almost any melons off of my plants.

OK, my extension folks tell me that what I am doing is right EXCEPT, what melons really really like is phosphorus. Now, my soil tests tell me that my P is better than OK, so maybe they just want more. I'll try that next year. Supposed to amend with P several times while maturing. Now, it isn't clear that P makes melons sweeter, but does seem to at least encourage fruit set.

Somewhat interestingly, I am pointed at this

https://www.yara.us/crop-nutrition/melon/flowering-and-fruit-set-fertilizer-program/

which suggests that sweetness of melons is a strong function of nitrate/ammonium ratio, and a ratio of lots more than one is best. So all nitrogen fertilizers aren't the same. Ammonium nitrate has the same amount of each, and that's not optimal. Of course, soil nitrification converts ammonium to nitrate, so eventually the ratio improves. Incompletely composted compost may also not be optimal, for that reason.

Well, I just harvested a 11 brix 7 pounder. So while it isn't quite knock-your-socks-off sweet, it's pretty sweet, and is considered "good" for honeydews. So I'm doing something right and Earli-Dew is capable of good sweetness.