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I had a heck of a time getting my Cantaloupe seeds to germinate and in the process bought new seeds and was just dumping seeds randomly.
Now I am confused as to what is what.
From What my little brain will allow me to remember, I recall planting Hale's Best and Hearts of Gold.

The plant on the hill, first pics is coming along nicely.









The plant under the deck has me confused. The leaves and flowers are huge! I also believe it has been a SVB vacation spot, so I'm just letting it go to see what\t happens,






I want to save seeds from the one on the hill if its an Heirloom, is there a rule of thumb or procedure for seed saving from cantaloupe

There might be other methods, but here’s my method for saving cucurbit seeds —

- I wash in colander or strainer depending on seed size, rubbing off the gel and placenta, then dump in deep bowl/bucket of soapy water to rinse and pour off floaters. I don’t try to ferment - they sprout too easily.

- I only save seeds that sink and stay sunk. — immediately strain, rinse well, shake and wipe off excess moisture from outside of the strainer/colander, (dab seeds with towel or paper towel if necessary — I sometimes crumple paper towel balls and bury in the seeds to soak up some water) and then spread the seeds out in single layer to dry, preferably in front of a fan.

- Once thoroughly dry, pack away — I add some hort/ag grade DE (diatomaceous earth) in case some bug decides to sneak in.

applestar wrote:There might be other methods, but here’s my method for saving cucurbit seeds —

- I wash in colander or strainer depending on seed size, rubbing off the gel and placenta, then dump in deep bowl/bucket of soapy water to rinse and pour off floaters. I don’t try to ferment - they sprout too easily.

- I only save seeds that sink and stay sunk. — immediately strain, rinse well, shake and wipe off excess moisture from outside of the strainer/colander, (dab seeds with towel or paper towel if necessary — I sometimes crumple paper towel balls and bury in the seeds to soak up some water) and then spread the seeds out in single layer to dry, preferably in front of a fan.

- Once thoroughly dry, pack away — I add some hort/ag grade DE (diatomaceous earth) in case some bug decides to sneak in.

Do you have to let the fruit get over ripe like eggplants for harvesting seeds?

No no because you eat melons when fully ripened. Eggplants are eaten when seeds are immature, like okra.

Among cucurbits, it’s cucumbers and zucchini/summer squash that you would have to intentionally ripen fully beyond the immature eating stage.

OK So when I harvest the cantaloupe and cut open to eat, I can just save the seeds and I'm good.
Remove seeds, clean seeds in collander, dry seeds and store?

For the butternut squash can I do the same or should I leave one squash on the vine until the plants dead?

Butternut squash (and seeds) is ripe when skin is hard to the thumbnail test. Even not quite ripe harvested and cured indoors will ripen with viable seeds.