Flowers

Melon-choly

05.10.11

Master gardener: I planted cantaloupe this year and had flowers on the plants, but only have one tiny melon. Why didn’t I get any fruit?  

Melons are in the cucurbit family, or vine crop family, which includes cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini and squash. A true cantaloupe, Cucumis melo var. cantaloupensis, does not exist in the United States. True cantaloupes grow in Europe and have a rind that is smooth and lumpy, whereas the muskmelon grown here has a webbed rind. The melon many of us call “cantaloupe” and grow in our gardens is actually muskmelon, cucumis nelo L. 

The type of flower arrangement on the muskmelon is called monoecious, meaning it has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. You can tell the female flower from the male flower by the small, immature melon fruit found below the bright yellow petals. Typically (although it depends on the species), when you look at the base of the plant, the first few leaves have male flowers, then moving along the vine there will be a mixture of male and female flowers, and at the end there will be mostly female flowers. The interesting fact about muskmelon flowers is that they have a pollination window of only one day. The pollen must be transferred from the male flower to the female flower on that one day for seed to set and fruit to develop.

Source: Brainerd Daily Dispatch