Any Taiwan rock melons as sweet as Hokkaido Rock Melons?

If they are in fact different, i must say i am actually quite interested in knowing more and sampling some :slight_smile:

As noted in my previous post. I’d say they are identical to what I’ve always known as a cantaloupe, based on the photos. I don’t find much rock-like about them. It’s a shame their rock potential has been overlooked for so long.

Perhaps the real test would be to give a cantaloupe to an elderly person of rock-melon descent and see if they can notice any differences.

Growing on schedule (Rock Melon/ spanspek). I also saw this in markets:
kiwano melon 刺角瓜

Nice. Hope the typhoon plays nice. We have pretty strong winds now. Couple trees down.

From a taiwanese book.

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Nice book

, maybe I can try get them, not sure what they look like. edit found it (Orange=Yellow) https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/香瓜`

Lots of flowers and I saw it fruiting (tiny).

Nice! If you notice lots of premature fruit drop, try hand pollinating. Some varieties are a bit of a pain this way it seems.

Seems no drop. I read more male than female flowers so most do not fruit, but maybe still will need reduce the fruit to avoiding overloading the vine.

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Yup, basically just like that. im sure you are aware, but cor anyone else, can google pictures of flowers. Male flowers create the pollen, female flowers do not. So its easy to hand pollinate. Attached is random google pic. Note that female flower in pic has already given up before opening and the fruit will drop, but anyway.

Fruit load also depends a lot on your root and leaf quantity/quality. I would presume nost nedium plus fruits (like cantaloupe/rock melons) in apot you would want to keep 2 for a short bit and once pollination is confirmed, just choose one to keep. If its in ground (or a huge pot) and trellised well, maybe keep a few.

Certain varieties are actually quite expensive cuisine and sold to high end restaraunts. Zuccini flowers we have sold time to time for 100nt each to restaraunts. When w lived in new zealand it ranged 1 to 3 NZD, japan about 250 yen. All to restaraunts due to short shelf life. But if you are growing them, give them a go. Unlimited recipe ideas online :slight_smile:

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So even on plants the female is the innie and the male is the outie.

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Haha. Well, i have something to tell you. Sit down for this, even have a brew first.

In the plant world, the only ones with an innie and an outie are the bi sexuals, but they never must be compared to the asexuals in a strict sense…

Many melons differentiate their sexes (genders?) With their flowers which are normally on the same plant. In this case they have an innie AND and outie. I suppose the plant can be called hermie, but the flowers certainly are not. They demand their own pronouns regardless of their dna being the same.

Edit. Most plants, the females part is a WAY bigger outie, less so an innie. But the males normaly outnumber the females gigantic member…

thanks for the info !, and yes many more male flowers. And where did live in New Zealand? (I miss the feijoa (pine-Guava) )

There are the odd few feijoa grown in taiwan. If you have the space, im sure you can find potted palnts are more exotic fruit oriented nurseries here. I dont grow them, and cant think of any friends off the top of my head. But i have seen them around. Just not commercially grown here, that i am aware of.

We were studying varing AG industries in NZ as well as douglas fir plantations there. so we were all over both islands. It was only a few months and the mission was study and networking with seed companies. And to enjoy NZ of course. I was quite interested in their hop industry as a side hobby as well :slight_smile: lots of testing haha.

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So do hops grow in Pingtung? My melons had some rot, still flowering though so need figure out get the small fruit not to stop growing? Did you have any suggestions here in the tropics? The vine itself is growing well.

What kind of rot? Leaf fubgus is normal ifthe leaves get wet all the time. Such a rain, sprinklers or dew. Fruit rot is often caused by animal bites then get infected. Cut and discard when that happens. Snails and rodents are real issues with this.

Presumably yours are trellised/climbing? Once a few (2 to 4) vecome obviously fertilized, could start clippingnew fruit if you are confident those will set.

But show you pic of the rot, that will tell the bigger story.

I have grown hops in Pingtung, they dont do well. Hops are better in higher elevations with colder winters. they do alright at 2000m plus in pingtung. They would do better in the east, nantou, taichung etc. Labor costs are too high in taiwan to be a viable commercial crop. And demand too low to justify the land size and machinerybneeded to bring costs into an efficient range.

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After a search, this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=melon+black+spots&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6lY2JnJz0AhVGVs0KHbdsDMUQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw#imgrc=mGiuWt0YibhjkM

Great. But note causes can be a fe things. Understand if you dont want otake pics of your place, but close up pics of your plants i can probably at least steer you in.the right direction. That picture is almost certainly animal caused which led to infection. But seeing you specific plant we can also tell if its fettilized, worth saving nutrient deficient etc which could save some time :slight_smile:

That was photo from google search. Here my photo yesterday, is another melon (not rock) has same black spots, fruit will fall off soon, plants itself doing fine. Other fruits, Chile fruits doing well, so thinking why. Hope to fix it organically, thought after got fruit with the help of Bees was ok, but.

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