The shape and smell of bananas give the banana melon their name.
Banana melons are a creamy yellow, elongated muskmelon variety, grown on vines in much the same manner as other muskmelons. The seeds will sprout in four to 10 days and the plants will mature fully, with fruit ready for harvest in 90 to 100 days. The fast-growing vines need plenty of space and love the sun. Six to eight hours a day of sunlight, particularly gentle morning sunlight, is best for your banana melon plants. A little TLC in a sunny, weed-free environment will give you all of the semi-sweet, salmon-colored flesh you can eat. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Fill biodegradable peat pots with potting soil. Plant three banana melon seeds in each pot, approximately 25 days before you plant to set them out. Water the soil gently each day with a watering can filled with water that has been allowed to reach room temperature. Keep your melon seed pots indoors near a window that provides morning sun.
2. Test the pH of the soil in your melon plot. Muskmelons, like banana melons grow best in soil with a pH from 6.4 to 6.7. Apply lime only if necessary to raise your soil's pH.
3. Transplant your seedlings after three to four weeks, once all danger of frost has passed and temperatures are consistently between 65 and 75 F. Dig holes 24 inches apart with your small, gardener's shovel. Make the holes twice as large as the flower pots where the seedlings are growing.
4. Add a couple inches of potting soil in the bottom of each hole. Gently tear the organic flower pot off off the soil surrounding the roots of the seedlings. Lower a pot of seedlings into each hole. Fill the hole around the soil holding the seedlings with fresh, loose potting soil.
5. Avoid mulching your banana melon plants. Mulch will hold moisture next to the plants that will promote rot. Rot will promote the growth of mold that can kill your banana melon plants.
6. Side-dress plants with a balanced fertilizer when vines begin to run. For best fruit production, avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers.
7. Lay each of the fruits on top of a brick as it forms. Move the fruits into different positions every few days to help prevent rot.
8. Harvest the fruit as it ripens. The banana melons will suddenly turn yellow in a few days as it becomes ripe. The smell of the fruits will intensify. A ripe banana melon will pull easily off of its vine by hand.
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