Lofthouse-Oliverson Landrace Muskmelon

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Lofthouse-Oliverson Muskmelon


My first breeding project, and still my favorite was cantaloupes. I gathered seeds from perhaps 60 varieties of cantaloupes and planted them together in a field. Many varieties died young. Many grew poorly and didn't produce fruits. A few did marginal and produced seeds. I saved the seeds and replanted. About the third year, I was harvesting a hundred pounds per picking.

The first couple years, the only selection criteria for the cantaloupes was, "Must produce viable seeds, no matter how immature". Once the cantaloupes were reliably producing mature seeds and ripe fruits, then the selection criteria changed to must taste and smell great. For years I have been tasting every fruit before saving seeds. The fruits must be sweet as can be, and smelly as anything. I realized after a few years, that I was calling my cantaloupes by the wrong name. They should be called muskmelons! They bear little resemblance the hard, bland "cantaloupe" sold by stores. So these days i only take muskmelons to the farmer's market. They have a loyal following of people who crave the glorious taste and wonderful smell. One day, I put a couple baskets of muskmelons in the cab of the truck with me. That was a fragrant ride!

And, they actually grow in my cold mountain valley. One lady told me that she's been trying for years to grow muskmelons here in the valley, and mine was the first ripe fruit she ever harvested. If I accomplished anything with my farming, that's about as nice a compliment as I can imagine getting.

While developing this variety, I collaborated closely with another grower in my valley. We each grew muskmelons, and swapped seeds with each other for a number of years.  Each of us contributed our last name to the variety.

This is what a typical variety of cantaloupe looks like when grown in my garden, if it even survives this long.


This is what my variety looks like when planted and photographed on the same day, growing a few feet away.


100 pounds of melons per week!


Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

[rowan]

True cantaloupes should never be bland. Come to think of it I doubt that your local stores are selling cantaloupes unless you live in France, or maybe England.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Language is so fickle, and so variable from place to place. What the grocery stores here are selling with the name of "cantaloupe" perhaps shouldn't even be called food. They are too hard and too bland to even be palatable. But the local prosecutor isn't interested in enforcing anti-fraud laws.

[Doro]

What a great breeding project! It's a joy to see that you succeeded with hardier melons. Mountain weather can be so evil.
I tried melons for so many years, but eventually gave up. It's just not meant to be here. They survive, but don't even make female flowers in my weather. Sigh. But then I can't even grow ordinary cucumbers out of a greenhouse lol why should melons be different.

[Raymondo]

Joseph's melon project was the first landrace project I had ever read about. Until then, I had been trying melons one after the other hoping to find one that would do well in my area and with my style of growing. I realised I had been going about it the wrong way. Now that I am (almost) setlled in my new place I'm looking forward to breeding a melon mix that does well here. Thanks for the inspiration Joseph.

[reed]

... Until then, I had been trying melons one after the other hoping to find one that would do well in my area and with my style of growing. I realised I had been going about it the wrong way...

My sentiment exactly. I wasted a lot of garden seasons trialing one thing or another, keeping track, keeping them separated and so on. The landrace style is a way faster and easier way to find what works in any particular garden. A big share of genetics in my melons came from the Lofthouse-Oliverson Landrace.

A stable variety is about the last thing I will plant now days except maybe to add it in my mix. I wish there were a lot more breeders offering high diversity landrace seeds.

[AndrewB]

This is the project that inspired me to work so hard on my watermelons. I had already been trying to grow watermelons here for 4, 5, or maybe 6 years all failing miserably, but i was already determined to succeed. My area is not known for watermelons to be able to be grown,  and in fact is slightly infamous for watermelons doing terrible or being impossible to grow here.

The key thing i learned from this project is how valuable vast genetic diversity is as a resource and how mixing hybrids can and are a much faster way to pick the metaphorical lock of various difficult conditions. Often it is a much better method to plant breeding because of the speed it can achieve.

I can now grow watermelons reliably thanks to Joseph's inspiring project and i even get decent sized ones compared to what i got before. And they mostly ripen well within my growing season too. I'm still putting selection pressures on it for fruit size,  lack of blossom rot, and other factors,  but it has been a successful project.

Colorado Rocky Ford cantalopes are world famous from what I'm told,  and occasionally i guess you can get a decent one from them, but they too suffer from the grocery store problem of picking before ripe to ship somewhere on a truck and probably growing from the industry standard seed which are probably far from what muskmelons or french heirloom melons smell and taste like. Rocky Ford is in the south so they get much more heat than i do.

[Richard Watson]

Well done Joseph. The genetic diversity in that landrace is clearly obvious in those photos. 

Shame we cant bring in cantaloupe's into NZ nowadays, would be interesting to see how it would handle our fickle climate.   

[Nicholas Locke]

This story of Josephs melons is what got me into landraces and this style of gardening/farming/breeding.
I think you have inspired many people around the globe with this!
I was able to acquire some seeds of the landrace, which I am growing at the moment. very vigorous so far.
Out of about 30 plants I have about 4 with the bush trait show up. is that the normal percentage? I am really pleased with this as I want to breed a variety that will behave in 30'' beds for market gardeners.
We actually have a great climate here for growing melons, hot, dry, 7mths frost free, and I farm on a fertile river flat. It will be interesting to see how they go with favorable conditions.
One thing I have noticed is the pumpkin beetles have had a fare nibble on them. Do you have this pest where you are Joseph? I have noticed with my melons and other cucurbits I have saved seed from for a few years the beetles leave alone. 1 because I think the plant isnt as stressed as it is alot more adapted to the farm and farmer. and 2 because I sow thickly and cull any seedlings that are attacked by the beetle.
I have noticed they are very selective with what plants they atack. 

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Nicholas:  Thanks for the comments and grow report.

4 plants in 30 might be about typical of the bush trait.

As far as I have paid attention, I don't have any insect predators on muskmelons. Deer and mice do plenty of predation. There is a bug that lives on the squash, but it coexists with them, so I don't pay much mind to it. However, when collaborators bring new varieties into my garden, they get decimated by the bug. Seems like locally-adapted plants get along better with local bugs.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Richard: I bet that you have old landrace varieties in New Zealand. It's just a matter of scrounging around to find them.

Oh, and the grocery stores are bringing in tons of melons, intended for eating, but they have viable seeds in them. You might try collecting those, and growing them out, and selecting for a variety that does great for you.

[Nicholas Locke]

However, when collaborators bring new varieties into my garden, they get decimated by the bug. Seems like locally-adapted plants get along better with local bugs.

With virtually none of the commercial farmers using their own seed or even regionally produced seed any more, you can see then why so many "crop protection" chemicals must be used to keep them from being decimated..

Joseph , how many plants/fruits would you save from on average with this landrace?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Joseph , how many plants/fruits would you save from on average with this landrace?

50-ish.

To help maintain diversity, I also plant seeds from several previous years. And I incorporate pollen from new-to-my-garden varieties.

When I first started the landrace, I planted some varieties that were supposed to produce monster fruits. I didn't get any fruits like that, until about 5 years in, when larger fruits (12 pounds) started showing up. I've been culling them, cause earliness remains a high priority to me, and larger fruits take a few weeks longer to ripen.

[Richard Watson]

Richard: I bet that you have old landrace varieties in New Zealand. It's just a matter of scrounging around to find them.

Oh, and the grocery stores are bringing in tons of melons, intended for eating, but they have viable seeds in them. You might try collecting those, and growing them out, and selecting for a variety that does great for you.

Rick Ginders who is one our growers in Sentinels group who is a retired international airline pilot back 80's 90's, he bought an melon back from the US and has been growing and selecting it in his coastal climate, he reckons it has a slight musky smell to it which has interested me. My garden is not big enough, there are so many more things i want to try growing   

[reed]

My gardens are very small, all together only about 1/4 of an acre but I still find room for a few musk and watermelons each season. Used too they were about always a disappointment but now I have much better genes in the mix. I plant maybe 100 seeds, whittle them down to ten or so plants and save seed from just 2 or 3 best fruits.

I keep a 12 oz plastic pop bottle of seed all mixed up from all generations. Each season, I dump the seeds out and discard 10% or so and replace the volume with current years best, assuming the current year yielded something worthy of making that trade.

Only been at it three or four years but very pleased with the results. Success is due to how it started. A mix of seeds from Lofthouse, some from an HG member in Canada and a few of my own is all it took.

I do select for bushy habit, early maturity and smaller fruit but a great flavor trumps all of those. I don't worry about disease, drought or bugs cause those things cull out on their own.