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applestar
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Thinking about growing Korean Melon/chamoe next year....

Has anyone grown Korean Melon? I want to try growing them next year.

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 --
image.jpeg
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/
Image

![](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 :wink:

Oriental Melon, Hybrid Korean Star
https://www.evergreenseeds.com/melkorstar.html

Image
![](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

Image
![](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

Image
![](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

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applestar
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OK I HAD to know what "Ginsen type cross" meant in the description for Ginkaku. Ginsen is apparently an improved hybrid of the OP 甜瓜 (makuwa uri) melon that is widely distributed in Japan, so I guess the description basically means Ginkaku is "like" Ginsen or some descriptions say "improved" Ginsen and mention more disease resistance.

BTW -- these names are Japanese so pronounced With hard "Guh" sound if that makes sense --
"Gh-in Kaku" (the name means "silver pavilion")
"Gh-in Sen" (the name means "silver fountain" or "silver spring")

More Ginkaku variety descriptions translated from Japanese by Google translator --
Image https://img01.hamazo.tv/usr/taneya/20120 ... %BD%B8.jpg

(1) is a {silver fountain} type of FIN disease robust species.
(2) heat tolerance can be a strong open-field cultivation.
(3)fruit in the fruit weight 600 ~ 800g, the strength of the flesh of the thickness and the sweetness is not the type to traditional 甜瓜. Sugar content is 15 to 16 degrees.
I would correct (1) as "F1 hybrid selected for improved disease resistance"
And re-phrase (3) as "thickness of the flesh and intense sweetness does not compare with (not available with) the traditional makuwa uri"

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Lindsaylew82
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Did you get any Apple melons yet? We got our second and third this past Saturday, but I'm ripening them further! The first one was funky, sweet, but bitter on the stem end, and crunchy. Wee Kid liked them a lot.

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applestar
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I was a little late planting them, but they have started to vine -- no blossoms yet. I'm really hoping they will make it, and we still have all of August and at least until 3rd week of September before we lose the warm to hot days and nights.

If they don't make it, I'm definitely trying the Apple melons again next year -- on time. :wink:

I've been offered seeds for Thai Yellow Sweet melon seeds, so I may just try that variety next year -- description is very similar to the above melons.

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Lindsaylew82
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I'm really wanting branch out in the fruit world. I adore canteloupe. I started the petit Gris de Renne late, and it's flowering, but the Squashbugs are after them, as well as the golden midget watermelons. Pulling squash and zucchini this weekend will only increase that pressure as they will move on to whatever is available, and they are too numerous this time of year to control organically. I need Guinea Hens for this exact reason!

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applestar
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I don't know if this will work in your climate, but when I grow small melons on trellises, I sometimes use my DD's old outgrown nylon tights -- baby/toddler and ballet -- two legs and seat = 3 slings. One year, a melon had ripened and split due to heavy rains and I didn't get out to the garden for a whole day until the next day. The tights protected them from fruit flies and ants and other would-be-despoilers. Another one hanging in a netted lemon bag was also ripe but luckily had not split and was also OK, but that wouldn't have been the case if the split one had been in the net bag and not the tight weave.

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Lindsaylew82
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I guess splitting might eventually be an issue, it's not right now though. The apple melons haven't had enough rain to crack. I grow them on the trellises for now. The late batch is crawling on the ground, but I plan on string training them as I strung out the tomatoes. (God, I still need to go do that...3 more days of this class...)The Squashbugs kill the vines vs messing with the fruits. They do eventually get to the fruits, but they prefer the newbies instead of the tough skinned more mature fruits. I kill Squashbugs here from the top of the trellised Cukes all the way to the soil level under big zucchini. The ones in the top places fly much better than the ones on the soil level, but they are the same bug. And they also stink.

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applestar
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I ended up buying a packet of seeds at Hmart —

Subject: Applestar's 2017 Garden
Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:50 pm
applestar wrote:I picked the first Korean Melon/chamoe. I wasn't sure if it had yellowed enough, but when I turned it over, there were some cracks -- I think it was starting to split. So it was a good thing I harvested it. :D

Image


... Korean Melon is a HIT with the family. I served it peeled and cut into disks, then half-disks, leaving the seeds and gel attached since there is a lot of sweet flavor in the gel.

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Lindsaylew82
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WOW! Look how big and beautiful! Nice Harvest!

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applestar
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Growing this again this year. Family loves it. DH likes the seed gel and crunches up the seeds, so I have to save the seeds when he’s not looking :lol:

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