I bought a 'Korean Melon' at H-mart the other day, just to try it. I couldn't resist the pretty yellow striped exterior and picked out one that smelled lovely and had a slight give when pressed. Left it in the produce bag on the counter for a couple of days to mature completely. When I looked it up though, there were varying negative reviews -- mostly that they are like slightly sweet cucumber. One tip I garnered was that the gel around the seeds is the sweetest part, so do NOT scrape off the seeds before serving.
When I checked on the melon yesterday, there was a slightly darker discoloration evident inside the stripe on one side -- a very small spot. DEFINITELY time to cut it open! I sliced legthwise so every slice had full portion of the gel and seeds.
DD's absolutely loved these. We found them to be very sweet as well as crisp like cucumber as described. Some descriptions said the rind is bitter, so we avoided biting into it, but we all scraped our slices as close to the rind as we could and the flesh remain sweet all the way to the edge.
I saved seeds, but felt this is most likely to be a hybrid variety, so started looking around. Here are what I found out so far:
H-mart website was advertising the melon for this week -- When I plugged the Korean 황금 싸라기 in the google translator app, it translated it as "Golden Ssaragi", which led me to this article:
MG_Produce – Korean Melon
https://www.mgproduce.com/portfolio-item ... rpis-eget/
![](https://www.mgproduce.com/wp-content/upl ... melon1.jpg)
Item Description
The Korean melon, golden on the outside, has white crispy flesh that is sweet and aromatic. The Hwangum Ssaragi brand by JH Farm is the most famous and widely distributed of the Korean melon brands in the U.S. and boasts superb quality and taste achieved by decades of research on growth techniques. It is MG’s core product and has become synonymous with MG’s name.
Hwangum Ssaragi melons are widely enjoyed by Korean-Americans and becoming increasingly more popular with other members of the Asian-American community. They are grown on farms in San Diego, Bakersfield and Fresno, and cultivated year round, allowing our customers to enjoy them all year long.
JH Farm’s Hwangum Ssaragi melons are distributed exclusively by MG Produce and the yearly distribution amount equals approximately 600,000 boxes, about 3,000 tons in weight.
For seed source, I found these -- so now I'm trying to decide which variety to try first. Hoping some members here have grown them before and could point me in the right direction with some reviews and experiences
Oriental Melon, Hybrid Korean Star
https://www.evergreenseeds.com/melkorstar.html
![](https://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/evergreenseeds_2267_5770281)
This outstanding hybrid is developed for greenhouse and open field growing. Long oval shaped fruits are very delicious and sweet, with 13-16% sugar content. White flesh is very crisp and tasty. The plant grows vigorously with excellent fruit setting. An ideal melon for home gardening and fresh markets.
Melon, Hybrid Korean Star
Size: Small Packet
39201$3.00
Ginkaku, Hybrid
Cucumis melo var makuwa
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_377-90.html
![](https://www.kitazawaseed.com/graphics/pl ... akulow.jpg)
Ginkaku, Hybrid
Seed #377
This Korean melon is oval shaped and matures to a deep golden color with white stripes. Inside, the white flesh is quite thick, crisp, smooth, and remarkably sweet with a 15-16 brix degree in sugar content. They weigh about 1 1/2 lbs. An F1 Ginsen type cross, this hybrid is vigorous and highly productive with a strong resistance to disease.
45-50 seeds $3.69
Korean Melon, Hybrid Golden Liner
https://www.evergreenseeds.com/kormelgollin.html
![](https://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/evergreenseeds_2267_14737870)
This hybrid Korean melon produces fruit with golden color skin that has silver lines running end-to-end. The white flesh is very crisp and sweet. Fruits are oblong in shape and about 300-450 grams in weight. The plant grows very well in greenhouse and open field. Excellent fruit settings. Strongly recommended for home gardening and fresh markets.
Size : Small Packet
38101$3.00