Winter melon · Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
When to plant winter melons in Halifax
Main outdoor window
7-28 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 April
In Halifax, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 30 Nov
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Halifax
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
19 Mar - 9 Apr
Five weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
7-28 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 30 Nov
Winter melons through the year
Against the frost risk in Halifax
Why these dates
Start indoors five weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after it. It needs a longer warm run than a pumpkin, so it is marginal in cool summers.
Killed at 0C. The wax bloom that makes it store so well only develops on fully mature fruit, which needs the whole season.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Winter melons are timed from 5 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Halifax.
The median frost-free season here is 204 days, against 110 to 140 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Halifax
Other vegetables to time
Growing winter melons in Halifax
When should I plant winter melons in Halifax?
Aim for 7-28 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 May - 5 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will winter melons be ready to harvest in Halifax?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 30 Nov, based on 110 to 140 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will winter melons tolerate?
Killed at 0C. The wax bloom that makes it store so well only develops on fully mature fruit, which needs the whole season.