Dan, I've only grown Ambrosia so not much to compare with here other than maybe cuke seedings might be the best likeness in initial size. It has been a couple of years though as I've been buying the transplants when they arrive at the local nursery. Got a pic? Hope they do well for you, they are my fav and I'm sure that my blabbering about them influenced your choice ;-)

Well, when I plant big cucumis seeds, I expect big seedlings. This was a surprise. My other cucumis were planted out a week ago, so I can't offer a side-by-side comparison. I'd call them petite. Maybe they'll take off and explode in size a little later?

As long as the seedlings look good, green, and healthy (just smallish) then I suspect they'll be fine and eventually catch up with the others in growth. Ambrosia transplants sold here will not be available until May 1st and planting them outside around mid-May at the earliest works best. The soil here is usually still too cold to plant them in early May, it's the same here for all melon types.

Yes, well, most of my cucurbits are outside and growing like crazy right now. Soil temp is 60-65F. Cantaloupes would be out there too, but there wasn't enough room under my lights for seedlings. Our last frost date is formally February 15, so we have a long season. That being said, these plants tend to get tired in August, and so I often replant in July and pull the old ones in August.

Our last avg frost date here is Apr 10th so we got a waaaays to go. My loupes also peter out in early Aug and when they're pulled up that space is planted with the fall crops. I've tried to plant melons earlier when a warm April fools me but a cold snap always seems to return in early May.

I'm trying out Honeydews this year too, if you have any tips on growing those I'd welcome any suggestions.

I just grew honeydews for the first time last year. They were OK. Took a lot longer to mature than expected. They were not maximally sweet, which was a disappointment. I'm trying EarliDew this year. A big advantage of honeydews compared to cantaloupe is that honeydews can sit directly on the soil. Cantaloupes will rot if they do so. Another advantage is that honeydews are less attractive to garden pests like possums. Ripe cantaloupes smell wonderful, and the pests will seek out that smell. Ripe honeydews don't have much smell.

I tried Honeydews about 25 years ago at our old home but was disappointed with them. I prefer cantaloupes for taste but figured I'll give honeydews another shot. Picked up a pack of Ferry-Morse Honeydew seeds, no variety listed on the package (weird) so it's potluck. Just trying something different to break up the monotony of eating just cantaloupe, that's also the same reason I'll be planting Crenshaw melons in the mix.

As previously mentioned I'm planting these 3 melon types (4 hills) in a 30'x40' plot which is covered deep in pine needles to block weeds and protect their delicate bottoms from sitting on the ground. As far as I can tell these melon vines do not re-root (like watermelon vines) so the pine needles should not be a hindrance to their growth habit. Time will tell if my plan works....

Hey Dan, any update on how the Ambrosia seedlings are progressing? Did they catch up in size or vigor with the other melon varieties?

They were planted out almost two weeks ago. They are growing fine, but the plants are still only about a third the size of the honeydews near them that went out two weeks before that. Certainly not on a tear.

Wow just 1/3 the size of the dews!? I'll be growing honeydews and will compare them both when the time comes. I'll be getting the Ambrosia transplants from the local nursery around May 1st and will plant the Honeydew seeds in the garden around the same time if it's warm enough by then. This will be my first Honeydew attempt in a looong time. I'm envious that you can plant them this early compared to here. All melon plants will sulk in the ground until about mid May when both the air and soil temps are warm enough to keep them happy.

Yes, these Ambrosia canteloupes ( I have planted out four pots) are all pretty small compared to any other melon or cucurbit seedlings I've planted out. Something sort of dwarfish about them. My honeydew plants are now about a foot across. But the Ambrosias may take off, we'll see. Yes, our season is long. Our soil temps just hit 65F. We've had a few sub-40F nights in the last few weeks, but mostly our daytime temps are in the 70s and 80s. That being said, as we say here, it's all downhill until summer, when conditions will get kind of vicious.

I'd like to relay to vgkg Z-7 Va that my Ambrosia cantaloupes are still pretty miniscule. They are growing, but my Armenian cukes and Earli-Dew honeydew are four or five times larger, and have loads of flowers. Ambrosias have NONE. Maybe only a foot or so across now. Never seen a cucurbit grow this slowly. Everything else around them (onions, beets, peppers, squash) is also growing very fast, so it seems not to be a nutrient issue. Also all four Ambrosia plants look pretty much the same, so it isn't about one dud plant either. In past years, other cantaloupe varieties have grown as fast as the honeydew. All in all, pretty mysterious. This is supposed to be a trusted hybrid. I should say that it hasn't gotten very hot yet. maybe that's what's needed?

Thanks for the update Dan, sorry for the slow start. I don't like to recommend a certain variety and then it has sub par results. Ambrosia has always been a good producer here and with the best flavor, sweetness, etc. It is odd that the other plants are doing fine but the Ambrosia is a slow poke. I won't be planting them here (will be bought transplants) until early/mid May, and that's if the long range forecast is warm and the soil temp is above 60F.
I used to grow them from seed (Burpee seeds) of which I could only obtain via mail order (Ambrosia is never found on their local seed racks). Either way from seed or transplants they did just fine here as long as the weather remained warm. Locally the transplants aren't even available at the nurseries yet. Dan, what was your source of seed?

No problem. I like to try new things, and very much appreciate recommendations. You can never really tell what's going to happen, and learn something new every year. I think my seeds came from Hoss. Germination was fine. Yes, what is so mysterious is that everyone else around them are growing gangbusters. There ARE growing, and look quite healthy, but are just pokey. Interestingly, they are not vining, but seem to want to be more of a bush. You say they are now available to you as seedlings in nurseries?

Now, there ARE bush cantaloupes, which are small plants for limited space with small melons. Don't suppose ... But Hoss doesn't sell any bush cantaloupes.

The Ambrosia seedlings won't be for sale at nurseries here until around May 1st, and when I buy them I'll keep them indoors and slowly harden them off until the soil and weather stays warm (approx May 10th). Hoss is new to me so I googled them up and see the Ambrosia seed is offered there. I had always assumed that Ambrosia was a Burpee exclusive and just bought seed direct from them. I hope the Hoss seed is true to form, Ambrosia is a vining plant (~20') and typically produces 4-5 melons per vine here, the Hoss description of 6" seems a bit small as mine are generally a little bit bigger.

I think you also bought some white turnip seed? (While Lady) that I recommended so I hope that those do well for you. I buy that seed at my local feed & seed store (Southern States Coop). Thanks for keeping me posted, I hope Hoss did you right on the real Ambrosia variety.

I'm doing White Globe turnips. They are wonderful. These do have purple tops. Actually, I just looked, and one of my my Ambrosias does have a small vine, and just popped out one small flower. My honeydews have a dozen or two flowers. Ambrosia is a hybrid, and is offered by a number of seed providers, so one assumes that the hybridization recipe is well known.

A note to vgkg about the Ambrosia canteloupes. The foliage has now caught up with that of my honeydews and cukes, but I'm just now seeing barely marble-sized fruit. Now, my Armenian cukes are overflowing, giving them away left and right, and my honeydews are the size of small soccer balls. So the Ambrosias are kinda slow. As of this date, I'm past their DTMs. So much for DTMs. Not even close.

Glad they are making progress for you Dan, the transplants I bought are slow going here too but so are all of my melons this season. BTW, here'a pic of my White Lady turnips from last year...

Those turnips are lovely.

Well, this is interesting. My Ambrosia canteloupe plants are now exploding, and the volume of foliage in them is now larger than that of my Earli-Dew honeydew. Now, the honeydews are 6-7 inches across, getting close to harvest, but I do have many canteloupes. They are still green, and max out at golf-ball size. So I think the lesson here is that Ambrosia really likes warmth, and we're getting high temps near 90F these days. But they're really slow when the temps are only 70-80F.

The Earli-Dew have a somewhat smaller DTM, and they are favored for northern gardeners, so they may thrive better at lower temperatures.

That's Good to hear Dan! Hope you get a good harvest as time goes on. Typically Ambrosia will quickly turn orange and slip within 48 hours after the color change. As menioned before I'll place a cushion of pine needles under each melon to protect the bottoms from rotting. The month of May here has been cool so my plants (all melons) are slow going and barely at the start of their vining stage. Once the plants are well established I'll snap a few pics to post.

Just reporting back on Ambrosia canteloupes. Just harvested the first one today. 4.5 pounds, with a clean slip. Very nice. Brix was a little low at 10-11, but the flavor was very good. But a little strangely, the netting wasn't uniformly tan, and instead had a greenish tinge, which suggested to me that it wasn't quite ripe. But the slip was complete. I went outside to find it fully disconnected from the vine. Thanks very much to vgkg for recommending it. I'll be growing it again. Although it was a bit odd with early slow growth rate, it turned out well. DTM was not far off, especially considering it was planted out in mid March when it was still kinda cool. I have half a dozen more out there.

So far here my first Ambrosia melon is about egg size now. Hope the rest of yours Dan improve with more pickings to come. I often find that the very first picking (of anything) is generally not at it's opitmal best. Glad you like it and hopefully even more as the season progresses. It was a shaky start here but things are improving, thanks for keeping me posted.

Well, #2 was similar to the first, except the netting was perfect, as was the slip. #3 is in the fridge. Will get to that in a couple of days. I am noticing, as advertised, that the seed core in these Ambrosias is small. That's nice. My honeydews are almost done, and the plants are declining. I've just put out a second crop, which ought to mature in September or so. I've written off tomatoes for a while. Would rather have melons anyway! Tomatoes are always somewhat of a limited-time deal, because of either heat or cold, depending on where you are. Melons are a long summer long!

Dan, I picked our first Ambrosia melon yesterday and we just now ate it for lunch. It was very good, very sweet, juicy, and soft textured for easy eating. I mentioned on the Aug garden thread that I'm also growing "Sweet Cube" cantaloupe, of which is a huge disappointment, too hard when ripe, does not "slip", tends to crack, and barely sweet. Never again for that one, sticking with Ambrosia. Hope you like yours too, if not, do you have a favorite cantaloupe? I'll also be picking my first (and perhaps only) Chenshaw melon in the next day or two. A very pretty melon as it turns yellow/orange but not very productive. Will report back once we taste it in the coming days.

My Ambrosias are on a second flush, and my first melon of that second flush, which I expected to harvest in a few days, was just half-eaten (!), last night, probably by a possum. I put pails over each one, but this critter just knocked the pail over. The ripe ones smell good. I need a heavier brick on top of the pail! I stopped putting out traps last month, because I thought I got 'em all. Evidently not. Trap going back out tonight. That pest got a BIG meal, so I know for sure it's coming back. As I said, my original honeydews faded a lot, and I've emplaced a second planting, which is doing well, but no melons yet. The heat is fierce and, though I have to water almost every day, the plants are healthy.