Melon ‘Honey Dew Green Flesh’, Cucumis melo Inodorus Group, is a wonderfully sweet and refreshing melon producing smooth, pale-skinned fruit filled with juicy, pale green flesh. Honeydew melons are loved for their delicate sweetness, cooling flavour and succulent texture, making them one of the most popular dessert melons in the world. Picked at the right stage of ripeness, a home-grown honeydew can be exceptionally sweet and fragrant.

Melons have a very long history of cultivation, with Cucumis melo believed to have originated in Africa and parts of western and southern Asia before being domesticated and developed into the many different melon types we know today. Honeydew-type melons belong to an ancient group of winter or storage melons that became particularly important around the Mediterranean, Middle East and western Asia. The familiar green-fleshed Honey Dew became especially popular internationally during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Honeydew melon is both delicious and nutritious. Its juicy flesh is an excellent source of vitamin C and also provides potassium, folate, vitamin B6 and small amounts of magnesium, along with dietary fibre. With its very high water content, it is also wonderfully refreshing during hot Australian summers.

The sweet green flesh is delicious eaten chilled and freshly sliced, but it can be used in many other ways. Add it to fruit salads, smoothies, yoghurt, desserts and chilled drinks, or serve it with savoury ingredients such as cucumber, mint and cheese. Frozen pieces are also lovely blended into icy summer drinks and desserts.

Honey Dew Green Flesh is a warm-season trailing vine belonging to the same family as cucumbers, pumpkins and squash. The vines spread enthusiastically across the ground and develop broad green leaves followed by yellow flowers. Once successfully pollinated, the female flowers begin developing into round to oval melons.

The plants need plenty of warmth and sunshine to develop really sweet fruit. Choose a position receiving full sun and provide fertile, well-drained soil enriched with compost or well-rotted organic matter. Regular watering is particularly important while the vines are growing and the fruit is developing, although excessive watering as the melons approach maturity can dilute their sweetness and may encourage splitting.

Melon flowers rely heavily on bees and other pollinating insects for successful fruit production. If plenty of flowers appear but very few melons develop, poor pollination can sometimes be the reason. Encouraging bees into the vegetable garden can make an enormous difference.

Depending on conditions, Honey Dew Green Flesh generally requires around 90–110 days to mature. Unlike many rockmelons, honeydew melons do not necessarily detach easily from the vine when ripe. Look for the skin changing from greenish to a creamy or yellowish-white colour, a pleasant sweet aroma and a slight softness at the blossom end. The fruit should feel heavy for its size.

How to Grow From Seed:

Sow Honey Dew Green Flesh in spring to early summer, once the weather and soil are reliably warm and all danger of frost has passed. In tropical and subtropical areas, melons can be grown over a much longer warm season.

Sow seeds approximately 1–2 cm deep, either directly where they are to grow or into individual pots for later transplanting. Keep the soil warm and evenly moist but never waterlogged.

Germination is generally quick in warm conditions, usually taking approximately 5–10 days. Melon seedlings dislike cold soil, so waiting for genuinely warm conditions will usually produce stronger and faster growth.

Space plants approximately 60–100 cm apart, allowing plenty of room for the vines to spread. They can also be trained onto a strong trellis to save space, although developing melons may need to be supported with a sling as they become heavier.

Water regularly at the base of the plants and mulch around them to conserve moisture. Once fruit begins approaching maturity, reduce watering slightly to help concentrate the sugars and develop the wonderfully sweet flavour honeydew melons are known for.

Harvest when the fruit has developed its mature creamy skin colour and a sweet fragrance. Allowing the melon to ripen properly before picking is well worth the wait, because there are few things quite as lovely as cutting open your own home-grown honeydew to reveal that cool, sweet green flesh inside.