Best time to plant rockmelon in Newcastle
Cucumis melo var. cantalupo
Also called Cantaloupe, Cantaloup, Muskmelon, Spanspek
Sow rockmelon in Newcastle in Sep to Dec.
Rockmelon is the Australian name for the netted melon North Americans know as cantaloupe, prized for sweet, fragrant, usually orange flesh, and weighing from half a kilogram to 5 kilograms. Seed lines filed here can also include smooth or mottled relatives from the same species, such as honeydew, whose flesh is green or pale.
When to sow in Newcastle
Newcastle, NSW is in the temperate zone. Its months for rockmelon apply here without a frost adjustment.
Matches local guides.
Your local conditions can shift any months shown here, so treat them as a guide.
Frost in Newcastle
Frost usually arrives in Newcastle around early July and finishes by mid August. In about 1 year in 10 it comes as early as mid June or as late as late August, so frost-tender crops are planned around those dates.
From its Bureau of Meteorology station, 1991 to 2020, counting a night at 2°C or lower as a frost. Frost hollows and hillsides can shift these dates by weeks, so ask the growers at your garden too.
On a shared plot: needs a lot of room
Vines wander, so train them back into your plot or up a frame.
Growing details
- How to start
- Raise seedlings, then transplant
- Sowing depth
- 2.5cm
- Plant spacing
- 40-60cm
- Row spacing
- 120cm
- Height
- 40cm
- Germination
- 3-14 days, in soil of at least 15°C
- Time to harvest
- 85 days
- Frost
- Frost tender
- Sun
- Full sun
- Life cycle
- annual
These are typical figures, and varieties differ. Your seed packet takes priority.