Cantaloupe melon variety Charentais Magenta F1 (Cucumis melo)
Magenta F1 is a hand-pollinated hydride of the French heirloom variety Charentais. The fruits look more like the netted skin melons and the flesh is even sweeter! due to the thicker skin, you can store this one better than the traditional Charentais. The only downside is that the plants need a bit more time to start flowering, approximately 90 days compared to 75. But if you don’t grow too many fruits on one plant they will ripen in time.

Sowing and harvesting

• Start seeds around mid-March to mid-April indoors.
• Germinate seeds in a smaller cell-size tray and transplant them to a larger pot
• Plant out after the frost has passed!
• When ripe, the skin starts to crack around the stalk and you will notice the sweet aroma in your greenhouse. It should taste sweet and the flesh should be orange.

Advice and tips

• Provide support once plants are established or
• Plant the rootball on top of a nylon rope and string it up (don’t use natural material because it will decay after a few weeks)
• Space 50 cm apart
• Try to ripen 2 to 4 melons per plant
• The more fruits, the longer it takes to ripen
• Melons prefer a slightly moist soil

Seed characteristics

package contains: 6 seeds
Hand-pollinated seeds (F1) are grown in greenhouses and are more labor intensive, hence the difference in price.