Cucumis melo ‘Honey Dew Green Flesh’ Seeds | Honey Dew Melon
LATIN NAME: Cucumis melo ‘Honey Dew Green Flesh’
COMMON NAME: Honey Dew Melon
Plant Profile
The surest ripeness cue is the rind colour. A mature Honey Dew shifts from grass-green to a waxy creamy yellow, and the blossom end softens under thumb pressure. The flesh inside is a pale green, faintly translucent, and so sweet when fully ripe that it needs no sugar. Because the fruit keeps ripening after it leaves the vine, pick it a touch early and let it finish on a warm shelf.
The smooth rind of the inodorus group is thicker and tighter than the netted muskmelon’s, which slows water loss and lets the fruit sit for weeks in a cool room. Growers in dry climates value this group precisely because the harvest does not have to be eaten at once. The trade-off is the faint aroma, since the ester pathway that scents a cantaloupe runs at low levels here.
The mild sweetness suits courses where a strong melon would overwhelm. It is the melon of the fruit platter and the chilled soup, and it pairs with herbs and salt better than the perfume types do.
Wrap chilled wedges in prosciutto, or cube the flesh with lime and mint for a salad that stays crisp. Blend it with a little yogurt and cucumber into a cold soup, or freeze the sieved flesh into a sorbet that shows off the clean sugar. The rind, though thick, is edible when young; in some cuisines the green flesh is scooped and the rest composted.
Because the Honey Dew ripens in storage, harvest it when the stem slips with a light twist and the rind has lost its green. Keep the fruits at room temperature to soften and sweeten, then move them to a cool spot. A fruit picked too green stays hard and tasteless, so wait for the colour change before you cut.
Science & Biotechnology
The Honey Dew is not flavourless, only subtle. Its appeal is sugar and a clean mouthfeel from pectin, with a light load of the compounds that colour other melons.
Sugar builds in the flesh as the fruit matures, and a ripe Honey Dew reads high on the Brix scale, often above the level of many red-fleshed melons. The pale colour means low beta-carotene compared with salmon cantaloupe, but the flesh still carries vitamin C and a little folate. The seeds sit in a central cavity and, like other melon seeds, hold edible oil and protein when cleaned and dried.
Breeding for the sweet dessert type pushed the bitter cucurbitacins down to trace levels, which is what makes the flesh pleasant. The firm pectin in the ripe flesh is why Honey Dew holds its cube shape in fruit salad long after a softer melon has turned to mush, a practical trait for the kitchen rather than a chemical one.
Uses & Benefits
Where a cantaloupe shouts its ripeness with net and scent, the Honey Dew stays quiet: a waxy, pale rind with no net and almost no smell. The trick is that this is an inodorus winter melon, a type bred to ripen in storage and to travel, which is why the green-fleshed Honey Dew became a supermarket staple while losing the perfume of its muskmelon cousins.
This is a heat-loving annual that resents cold soil, so start it under cover and move it out only once the bed holds steady warmth. The vine is long and needs room or a tall support.
Move seedlings to the garden when they carry two or three true leaves and stand about ten centimetres tall, setting them on a low mound of composted, free-draining ground and never deeper than the pot level. The stem rots where buried, so keep the crown at the surface. A warm mulch and a wind break help the vine establish in cool districts.
Growing from Seed
Give each plant a metre and a half of clear ground, or train the runners up a trellis and tie the swelling fruit in cloth slings. Water deeply at the base and ease off as the rind loses its green, since a dry spell near maturity concentrates the sugar. Watch for powdery mildew on the leaves and thin the canopy for air flow.
Our Take
The Honey Dew rewards the patient grower who waits for the rind to turn cream. For more from the climbing gourd family, sow the Cucumber seed Cucumis sativus, the spiky Cucumis metuliferus seed, or the tangy Pepino melon seed.
Related Reading
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