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All-America Selections
Cucurbitaceae
CUCUMIS melo 'Lambkin'
Christmas Melon, Piel de Sapo
This 2009 All-America Selections Winner has juicy, pale green, sweet flesh and a compact seed cavity. The 2 to 4 pound fruits are oval with thin skin that is mottled with dark green and greenish yellow blotches. It takes approximately 65 to 75 days to produce harvestable fruits, and summer warmth needs to last at least ten weeks for fruit production.
Melons are tropical annual vines with long, spreading stems that cling via springy tendrils. Their big lobed leaves are coarse, fuzzy and medium to deep green. Bright yellow, funnel-shaped flowers are produced when the vines reach maturity. The flowers are monoecious, meaning separate male and female yellow flowers appear on each vine. The pollen producing male flowers open first, followed by the female flowers, which have distinctive bulbous ovaries at their bases. Only the female flowers produce melons and each must be pollinated by bees for fruit set, so be sure to encourage these productive garden insects.
For best performance, plant melons in full sun and friable, fertile, deep soil with good drainage. Vines should be planted after the danger of frost has passed. It is common practice to create mounds of soil to grow melons in. The seed can be directly sown in ground. Melons need space to grow and should be surrounded by a layer of straw to protect the fruits from rot and keep weeds at bay. If space is limited, they can be grown on a trellis and fruits supported with cloth slings. Heavy rains can cause ripe fruits on the vine to split and lose sweetness.
Christmas melons should be harvested when the skin on the fruit’s underside changes from white and green to yellow and green. 'Lambkin' stores fairly well but is still best eaten shortly after harvest.
12 - 4
2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Fruit
Full Sun
8"-14" / 20.3cm - 35.6cm
5'-12' / 1.5m - 3.7m
Indeterminate
Africa
Neutral
Well Drained
Loam
Fast
Average Water
Vining/Climbing
Summer, Fall
Showy
Yellow
Yellow, Green, Yellow Green, Light Green
Spotted/Mottled
Green, Light Green
Green
Yes
No
Single
Coarse
Matte
Edible, Fruit / Fruit Tree, Herb / Vegetable, Vine
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