Saving melon seed
Same method as cucumber, with the added requirement that the fruit must be fully ripe — under-ripe melon gives seed that simply will not germinate.
- Life cycle
- Annual
- Pollination
- Insect-pollinated
- Isolation
- 500 m–1 km, or bagging
- Seed life
- 5–8 years
- Yield
- 1 fruit gives 200–500 seed
Melon seed saving is mechanically identical to cucumber: scoop, ferment, rinse, dry. The difference is ripeness. A melon picked at peak eating quality is not necessarily mature enough for viable seed.
All Cucumis melo — cantaloupe, honeydew, charentais, galia — cross with each other. Watermelon is a different genus and does not cross.
The protocol
- 1
Leave the fruit past ripe
Until it is fully coloured, aromatic and beginning to soften at the blossom end. Slightly over-ripe is right.
- 2
Scoop seed and gel
Into a jar with a little water.
- 3
Ferment two days
Stir daily until the pulp floats and the seed sinks.
- 4
Rinse and dry
Sieve, rinse, spread on paper for a week.
- 5
Store
Sealed jar, fridge. Five to eight years.
What goes wrong
Under-ripe fruit. The most common failure. Seed from a perfectly ripe melon often will not germinate; it needs longer on the vine.
Crossing between melon types. Cantaloupe and honeydew are the same species and will interbreed.
Saved seed from this crop?
Germination rates, what came true and what crossed — post it and let other growers learn from it.
All 14 protocols
Annual, biennial and vegetative crops all save differently. The index compares them side by side.