East Malling Research (EMR) has grown what is thought to be the world’s first commercial crop of table-top melons.
Horticulturists have been trialling the production system on a commercial scale as part of a wider project to help UK growers respond to climate change. Nearly 1,000 melons of four varieties – Canteloupe, Piel de Sapo, Galia and Charentais are being grown in table-top grow bags and some of these have now been harvested. Seeds left over from commercial ground-level trials last year at EMR have been used and the best performing variety so far is a Charentais type using Gandalf seed.
If the experiment is deemed a success, EMR scientists and farm staff will set about further testing, analysing and identifying melon varieties suitable for growing on table-top production in UK conditions. Early results from the work indicate that melons may be suitable as a catch-crop – before or after main crops of strawberry.
Peter Gregory, chief executive of EMR, said: “As our climate continues to warm, so growers will be presented with significant crop production challenges. One option, as we seek to address the increasing issue of long-term food security, will be for growers to adapt their growing systems – including the development of novel crops.”
EMR already knew that melons could be grown successfully in Kent after producing more than 9,000 in a trial last year.
Graham Caspell, commercial farm manager at East Malling, stresses that there is still a long way to go with the project. He said: “What we don’t yet know is if we can grow the crop more intensively using the table-top, grow bag method, which makes for easier picking and eliminates the possible damage caused to crops by soil-borne pests and diseases. It would be important to integrate melons within a wider fruit production system rather than consider them as being the maincrop in an annual cycle.”
Caspell is now hoping that EMR scientists will get private sponsorship to be able to investigate nutrition and water use to achieve successful commercial production in the UK. The melons are being grown in 150 metres of polytunnels as part of wider novel-crops trials funded by the East Malling Trust.
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