~ MELON Seed ~
Deseeding melons has to be one of the best jobs for
us. Why? Well, because you get lots and lots of melon to eat!
We are always searching for the ultimate early melon for the UK
climate, and we think we are doing really well
now with the collection
that we have here.
Small screen: Turn your device sideways to view sowing calendar.
= normal sowing & harvest time = also possible depending on conditions
Minnesota Midget
First seen in 1948, this fantastic variety was bred for short summers - it swaps size for earliness - but without any sacrifice of sweetness or flavour. Compact vines grow about 4' and quickly set several small (cricketball-sized) melons with sweet orange flesh, edible right to the rind.
The scent and flavour are incredible. Ripe melons can be located in the garden by smell alone! Fusarium-resistant, and the female flowers are formed even while it is young, thus outperforming many other varieties.
Very, very early melon. It's going to be hard to improve on this one.
12 seed £
Sweet Passion NEW
An excellent heirloom melon from the 1920s, with lovely sweet orange flesh and netted skin. According to legend "it will cause a state of passion if a ripe fruit is picked and eaten straight from the plant on a moon-lit night"!
Beautiful, multi-coloured melon, makes big fruit.
14 seed £
Prescott Fond Blanc DELICIOUS
This is an amzing, unique French heirloom from the early 1800s. It is pumkin shaped, with a gently ribbed surface and beautiful marbled skin that starts green and ripens with an orange blush.
It has been well maintained over the years and has an exquisite fragrance.
It does not come off the vine when ripe, but you can tell when it's ready by the sweet scent, from a distance of several feet!
Beautiful, multi-coloured melon, makes big fruit.
14 seed £
"Bateekh Samarra" - Pointy & Lime-green!
An ancient variety of melon with a very long pedigree, this one is from the Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate, an empire that spanned from North Africa to Pakistan , and at the time was the centre of world knowledge, science and culture.
This traditional melon was grown there in the city of Samarra, northern Iraq, a thousand years ago. It is still found there now; seed was collected by Nael Aziz & introduced by the Baker Creek Seed Co.
The large melons are an unusual shape - pointed at one end, and with bright lime-green flesh.
12 seed £
Five Desserts Melon
A new discovery for us, this traditional melon we recently got from Bulgaria was a real success in our 2013 trials. The plants were really happy and gew well in our polytunnel.
It is very early and sweet, and makes lots of larger slightly oval fruit, green with pale yellow stripes. They are indeed big enough to get 5 portions out of each one!
They are at their best when they have turned yellow, but still have a distinct green stripe between ribs. We got so many seed we are offering them at a very reduced price
Larger early melon for short seasons, with a good flavour. Particularly good chilled in the fridge before serving.
12 seed £
Petit Gris de Rennes
This 400-year old variety , originally from the garden of the Bishop of Rennes, was originally sent to us by melon enthusiast Frank Keirsblick of Belgium. We were discussing early melons and he said:
" . . . and I think this is the best outdoors melon, together with De Belegarde. Not as early as Minnesota Midget but very tasty. Watch the watering though as they can split just before harvest. It is even better of course in a greenhouse - more productive. . ."
This view is shared by Amy Goldman (author of "Melons for the Passionate Grower"), who writes "this is the champagne of melons . ..you'll blink in disbelief when you taste its sweetness . . . it inspires devotion".
The melons are round, and smooth-skinned with slight ribbing, and very sweet, with a really good flavour and texture. Serve as it comes off the plant, or try it chilled with slivers of ham.
Can maybe try it outdoors in warm areas, but really needs a greenhouse or polytunnel. Particularly good flavour.
14 seed £
'Collective Farm Woman' Melon EARLY MELON FROM UKRAINE
This incredible Ukrainian variety is really early with sweet flesh,a good flavour and nice crisp texture. Said to be grown in central Russia and
even to ripen in Moscow - we can believe it. Most unusually, it keeps
for several weeks after picking.
It is always very reliable in the UK ,and so delicious we always grow extra just to make sure we have plenty to eat. (We passed on a few plants to a friend in spring this year -her family liked it so much she had to measure the fruits when cutting them up to make sure everyone got exactly the same size helping!)
Fantastic Ukrainian melon. Seed supply very limited, consider saving your own.
10 seed, organic £
~ WATERMELON Seed ~
Watermelons come from a really hot climate, so you do need to grow them under cover in the UK
'Blacktail Mountain' Watermelon
If you've had no luck with watermelons in the past, here's your chance to try again with a better strain. This variety is very tolerant of cool weather conditions, and the best choice we have found for a UK crop.
'Blacktail Mountain' was developed by plant breeder Glenn Drowns of Iowa when he was a teenager in 1977, and time after time it beats all the other early watermelons in trials - it is widely acknowledged as one of the earliest varieties available.
It has nice sweet red flesh, and is one of the the few we have found to grow well in the UK.
Sweet and tasty red fleshed fruit - look at that , watermelon grown in Wales! Yay!
'Siberian Lights' Watermelon
We're pleased to offer this early dark green watermelon with very sweet red flesh from our trial last year. Ben got the seed from Andrei Baranovski in the Ukraine , and it is adapted to northern lattitudes, doing well in our polytunnel here in Wales. Just a few packets from our trial plants for now.
The fruit are particularly pretty with paler green stripes and good sweet flavour.
10 seed, organic £
'Sugar Baby' Watermelon
A new and very early watermelon with sweet red flesh that was bred for smaller fruit, to allow a harvest in shorter summers. The skin gets quite dark as its ripens, helping absorb more heat from the sun.
14 seed, £
'Sweet Siberian' Watermelon LIMITED GUEST VARIETY FOR TRIAL
This was first sold by Peter Henderson & Co in 1898 from seeds obtained from Russia. The large green oblong fruits weigh 6-8 pounds, with apricot-colored flesh.
Join in with our research! Guest varieties are promising new ones we have found, but haven't tested fully yet. We're got a limited number of packets for a crowd-sourced trial, so let us know what you think of them! We'll use all your feedback to decide to keep offering them or not.
1o seed, £