How Do You Know When It Is Time to Cantaloupe Ripe
Is there annihilation tastier than a juicy, soft-notwithstanding-firm piece of cantaloupe unfurling its delightful flavor on your tongue?
Of course not!
And at that place'southward no better reward for the work involved in planting and growing this tasty melon.
Perhaps your melons are looking more than and more mature every twenty-four hours, and yous're not certain when to harvest them.
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If that'south the case, you've come to the correct place, because today nosotros're going to talk about when and how to harvest this succulent melon (Cucumis melo var. reticulatus).
Here's what I'll cover:
What You'll Acquire
- When to Harvest Cantaloupe
- How to Harvest
- Recipes and Cooking Ideas
When to Harvest Cantaloupe
This sun-loving fruit takes near 65-90 days from germination to reach maturity – depending on the diversity – and when y'all consider the size and complication of a melon, that's impressive.
And then depending on your USDA Hardiness Zone and the cultivar you lot are growing, you might be harvesting melons as early on equally June, while others may have to wait until tardily Baronial.
Yous don't want to harvest your cantaloupes besides early or they won't be sweet enough (this is how I always experience most the seemingly inexplicably named honeydew – sorry, honeydew lovers out there!). And if you wait too long, they'll get mealy and squishy. Yuck.
If you do harvest a slightly unripe melon, it will continue to soften, but the sugar content of the fruit will non increment. It won't be quite as sweetness as it would be if information technology had ripened on the vine.
Unripe cantaloupes will still be green, and yous'll exist able to come across this through the spider web of "netting" that develops over the rind.
Check your seed packet or your garden planner to decide when they're about a week away from their due date, and at that point, reduce irrigation. You want to water just enough to prevent the vines from wilting.
This will permit the sugars to concentrate in the flesh of the fruit, and helps to prevent the fruit from splitting.
Now is as well the fourth dimension to sentry the melons closely. As before long as the netting turns creamy-yellow and the rind below information technology turns gold, it's time to sniff the cease of the fruit that's connected to the vine.
If it smells musky and sweet, information technology's fourth dimension to pick!
Just if you don't olfactory property anything, give it another mean solar day or two.
While you're downwards there sniffing, check the connection between the vine and the melon. Does the melon announced to be detaching from the vine, or is there a crevice in the stem? If so, it'south prepare for picking.
According to the experts at the Virginia Cooperative Extension, for the all-time flavor, muskmelons like cantaloupe should be harvested at a stage known as "total slip."
This is when the stem separates easily from the fruit, without twisting or pulling.
For a longer shelf life, they tin can exist harvested at the "one-half slip" stage, which is noted when you can encounter a slight depression at the stalk finish. But the flavor may be compromised.
This is oftentimes done in commercial growing, but in that location's no need to compromise flavor when you're growing your own, if a longer shelf life isn't a business for you lot!
How to Harvest
It's unbelievably easy to harvest a ripe cantaloupe.
If you alive in a colder growing zone and have to work hard to keep the melon warm plenty all summertime like I practise, this is the cantaloupe's crowning souvenir – aside from its sweet mankind, of class.
All you have to do is gently pull it off the vine, and it will practically leap into your arms.
That's literally all there is to it.
Accept it to the kitchen, and if you are going to eat it straight away, scrub the rind with a soapy vegetable brush under running water, rinse it well, and cutting it up.
For skilful tips on how to exercise that, cheque out this cantaloupe-cutting guide from our sister site, Foodal.
And don't experience ashamed for not knowing how to cut upward a bulky melon!
Dorsum when I was in college, I bought an onion for a dish I was cooking in my illicit dorm-room kitchen. (Okay, I had a mini Crock-Pot, which I used often to avoid the greasy cafeteria food). I got a pocketknife out, looked at the onion, and balked.
Even though I'd grown upwardly helping my parents cook, I'd somehow never peeled and cut an onion myself.
Go ahead, express joy at me. But those of you who are hesitant about slicing into your beautiful garden-grown melons tin remainder bodacious that you're non alone.
If you lot're non going to eat the cantaloupe correct away, store it whole and unwashed in the refrigerator. Information technology'll keep there for a whole week.
Just call up to wash it before you lot cut it, to avoid letting whatever bacteria on the rind transfer to the sweet flesh inside.
Cantaloupe that's already been cut will stay fresh in an airtight container in the refrigerator for upwardly to iii days. Or, you can freeze the cubes on a cookie sail layered with wax paper.
After several hours, transfer them to airtight plastic containers and shop in the freezer for upward to a month.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
Nigh of us probably dear eating cantaloupe all by itself, fresh off the rind. And there'south cipher wrong with that!
But information technology also makes a perfect substitute for mango in this recipe for a strawberry mango smoothie, from our sis site, Foodal (does that non sound admittedly refreshing and astonishing?).
For something really different, you can even make cantaloupe bread past substituting freshly grated melon for the zucchini that's called for in this garden-fresh breadstuff recipe, also from Foodal.
I will well-nigh definitely exist making cantaloupe bread when these little guys mature at the end of the summertime:
Or what nearly a no-churn cantaloupe, lime, and cream cheese sherbet?
Switch out the mango pieces called for in this frozen dessert recipe for your frozen chunks of melon and gear up for an irresistible gustation sensation. Information technology's perfect for cooling you down on a hot summer'south day. Y'all can notice the recipe over at Foodal.
If you want to get adventurous with a sweet and tangy salsa but don't intendance for mangoes (guilty!), chop some cantaloupe upward into small pieces and toss it into your favorite fruit salsa equally a tasty substitute.
With a pinch of creative thinking, there'due south so much you tin do with this juicy and succulent fruit.
A Happily Harvested Melon
Now that you know how piece of cake it is to harvest your cantaloupes, you can sit back, relax, and watch them mature.
I recommend heading to the garden to check on them daily as they arroyo their maturation date. Now that you know how to spot the signs of harvest readiness, you'll know exactly when to pluck them from the vine.
Have you e'er grown, harvested, and enjoyed fresh cantaloupe from your garden? Allow united states know in the comments below!
Are y'all looking for more cantaloupe growing and care tips? Then check out some of our other expert guides:
- How to Abound Cantaloupe in the Garden
- Train Those Melons on a Trellis: How to Grow Cantaloupe Vertically
- How to Abound Cantaloupe in Containers
Photos by Laura Melchor and Raquel Smith © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock.
Source: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/fruit/harvest-cantaloupe/
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