A true cantaloupe gets its name from the town of Cantalupo, in Italy. It does not have surface netting, the flesh can be orange or green and the rind is usually hard and can be warty. Other popular melons include the Casaba, Crenshaw, Honeydew, Persian and Honeyloupe, he adds. Most summers along the Wasatch Front are hot and have enough frost-free days to grow and mature almost any melon. Some take a little longer, so they may need to be started indoors a month or so before the last frost date.
Muskmelons have an interesting flowering habit.
They see the vines blooming, but no fruit forms. The blossoms that have appeared are just the male flowers checking out the weather and finding out if the neighborhood is friendly. Once they have established that all is well, the flowers with the female parts appear and the fruit begins. Because they are melons, the vines have a tendency to sprawl and crawl all over the garden, he says. Each plant requires about 15 to 20 square feet of space, so plant them every four feet in a row, and leave four to five feet between rows.