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Cucumis melo
Ice Cream Melon is a bicolor melon with a netted and gently lobed rind. Its inner flesh is both green and orange-- what a striking melon to behold! This decadant delight is like a drink from a fountain of honey. Also known as “Green Machine” for the many fruits each plant produces, up to 8 per vine! To top it all off it is fairly early to bear— great for short seasons! Seeking a cooler weather melon, seed breeder Merlyn Niedens bred Ice Cream Melon in northern Illinois from a cross between the 1840 green fleshed heirloom “Jenny Lind” and vibrantly orange fleshed and large fruited “Kansas” melon. This seed lot will have the genetics of some of our other melon varieties crossed with Ice Cream as we breed new melons varieties! You can expect 75% true to type Ice Cream and 25% crosses with our other outstanding melon varieties-- all sweet, productive and delicious!
Growing Instructions:
Direct seed after last frost or start indoors in trays 3-4 weeks before last frost. Transplant out after last frost when melon plants when roots have developed enough to hold the soil around them when pulled out of the trays. Plant 18” apart in rows 5-6 feet apart.
Put a hearty helping of compost and a sprinkle of wood ash in each planting hole at time of transplant. A fall or spring leguminous cover crops would benefit the crop greatly as well.
Recommended soil pH between 6-6.8
Harvesting:
Melons are ready to harvest when they easily “slip” from the vine. You can also pick the melon up and smell them. Ripe melons with exude a deep, sweet, melon-y fragrance. Emerald Gem can also be harvested slightly early (no earlier than 5-7 days) and further ripen indoors outside of refrigeration.
