Lofthouse-Oliverson Landrace Muskmelon

[Nicholas Locke]

An update on these melons..
Growing great as the pic shows. We have had many 38c /100f + days with strong wind heatwave conditions. Lots of flowers and fruit set. fruit growing fast, with lots of diversity of shape colour etc.. The pumpkin beetles seem to have left them alone now. really impressed so far, looking forward to the taste test!
With the pace they are maturing and stated days till harvest, should have plenty of melons in time for Xmas, which in the future will be great to have a large crop ready for the markets leading up to Xmas. I will be able to harvest this season collect seed and replant with plenty of time for a second crop, and maybe a 3rd if all go's well!

[Nicholas Locke]

I have 4 plants in this lot that are the bush type. I also have 10 or so of this original bush selection growing in another bed which I was gifted. I will continue to develop these as a separate line, they seem just as vigorous and early as the normal vines, but the nodes are extremely close together. these plants have a few half grown fruit on them but only span 2ft at the most! Would be a great variety for market gardens with 30" beds and home gardeners with not a lot of room or even container growing. The leaves are very large and seem to shade the fruit well which we need here with our scorching sun.
Does anybody know of any bush melon varieties other than what Joseph has?

[reed]

Does anybody know of any bush melon varieties other than what Joseph has?

I don't know if it would actually be considered bush but Minnesota Midget is a nicely compact vine. it is the only one I grew for a long time.

My new favorite is one that might or might not have come from Joseph's seeds. I call it Green Meeny cause it's shell is very hard and it has fuzzy spines all over it. Looks more like a squash than a melon. It's dark green and lays there for a long time then one day poof, it turns gold but it actually sweeter while still green and it keeps that way a couple weeks or more. Texture is very firm, almost like an apple which is off putting to some people but there is more sweet flavor in one piece than in a whole store full of commercial melons. It might be related or descended from one I found called Prescott Fond Blanc but it is way, way better than the reviews of that variety. It first sowed up in 2016 from a mix of Joseph's and another growers seeds. I'm not sure it would be good for market cause it is so not what most people think a muskmelon should be, appearance and texture wise. On the other hand the hard shell and the keeping quality would be quite nice. In any case I think you'll be lucky if it shows up in your patch.

[Raymondo]

Great looking melon patch Nick and that Green Meeny looks delicious reed.

[Americ]

I am gardening in Germany and am quite fascinated by this land race. The climate here in Germany is comparable to your climate Joseph in terms of the cool nights that we get during the summer. Our nights regularly get down to the 50s and sometimes even the mid forties. What we lack are the hot temperatures during the day. Our daytime highs rarely get into the eighties and more often than not hover around the low seventies. Our growing season is fairly long with the first frost often coming in late November, early December. Although the lack of sunshine in the fall and winter months tends to slow growth down to a crawl.
This year I grafted some melons and the difference in growth was astounding. The cold tolerance of the squash rootstock really contributed a lot of vigor, which leads me to believe that the most limiting factor for direct seeded melons here are the cold nightime temps.
I would be interested in trying my luck with Joseph's Landrace here in Germany to see how its cold tolerance performs in our cool summers. Is there anyone in Europe who is growing it?