Joseph Lofthouse's Muskmelons

Howdy folks!  In going "down the rabbit hole" of old posts, I read somewhere that Joseph bred a landrace of cantaloupe/muskmelons that were something special.  If I remember right, this post was 7 years ago, and in the post he mentioned that he was on the 7th generation of melons.  So, if it was grown every year, that makes the mix about 14 years old or so.  Does anyone know where I can read more about this, what melons went into the mix, where it currently stands in development, and where to find seeds to try some myself?  TIA

I'm growing some of the Lofthouse-Oliverson landrace muskmelons this year. I got seed from The Buffalo Seed Company. I planted them in my melon patch next to the landrace I've been creating for the last few years here in the Ozarks than had a number of different varieties put into it. Most of the lofthouse ones ripened earlier than any of the ones from my seed. The plants from my own seed tend to be more resilient to the pests and diseases in my environment. The lofthouse seed should make a good addition to my own landrace to extend my muskmelon season a week or so earlier.

That's good to know!  I'm just across the river from you in IL, so we should have very similar growing conditions.  Thanks for the localized feedback!

Thanks for the link to Buffalo seed, I'll be ordering some for next season.  How do the melon sizes compare between your mix & the Lofthouse-Oliverson landrace?

I have saved seed from a few exceptional cantaloupes of 6 or 7 varieties & some perfect honeydew over the years, and have contemplated taking some seeds from each of these, mixing them up, and planting them close enough together to have a high likelihood of crossing.  I'm curious to see what comes of the mix, since I think good melons will give good melons, albeit unique in some ways.  There are an assortment of sizes, rinds, and flesh colors, but so long as it is reasonably sweet, good textured, and has a pleasant smell, I'll be happy.  I need to try some more melon varieties first before I do this, but I have had honeydew & cantaloupe crossed.  The unique yet familiar flavor surprised me.

Will other melon types like casaba or canary cross with cantaloupe & honeydew?  Just trying to broaden my understanding...Thanks.

You can track down more melon landrace seed sources in his list here:  
https://lofthouse.com/seed-list.phtml

The size of my Lofthouse melons varied, but mostly pretty normal size for muskmelons. There was one plant that produced very small melons that didn't ripen any earlier than the larger ones. I didn't save any seeds from that one, as I prefer medium to large size.

My own landrace is only muskmelons. I've tried growing honeydew and a few asian melons here in the days before I started saving melon seeds, and didn't have much luck with them, Even with muskmelons, I always had heavy losses of plants before the fruit ripened before I started creating a landrace. A few years of seed saving with the landrace method have given me much more reliability with my melon patch. I prefer muskmelons/cantaloupes to any other cucumis melo variety that I've had, so I haven't ventured into crossing with honeydew, casaba or anything else, but I'd be interested in hearing if others have had luck with a cucumis melo landrace of greater diversity.

Richard,

Thanks for the info!  That's good to know.  In my research, there are vastly more muskmelon/cantaloupe varieties from around the word than there are honeydew or other rare varieties combined.

I just went through and organized my seed collection yesterday.  I found many more varieties of cucumis melo seed that I forgot I had (mostly cantaloupe types).  After researching a bit more, I found that all of those varieties will cross readily.  There's enough seed varieties to separate the focus on a honeydew strain and a much larger genetic based cantaloupe strain.  Although, I've had melons that were crossed between cantaloupe and honeydew, and found them especially delicious.  One strain was mostly cantaloupe and one strain was mostly honeydew, but both were very complimentary flavors.  I kind of like the idea of blending lines for the randomness in flavor results, but haven't really decided how I want to move forward yet.  I will be checking the viability of the older seed before planting season next year, as I will try to grow out a few varieties for fresher seed.

I do have some seeds I saved from a Santa Clause melon which is white fleshed, and more like a honeydew inside with just a hint of sweetness.  It is supposed to be a very good storage melon that will keep until Christmas, hence the name.  I'm not sure if it's the harder rind type protecting it from insects, or the lack of high sugars that makes it have a long shelf life.  I'm curious though about trying to make crosses onto it to increase sweetness with the long keeping storage qualities.  

I've not yet tried casaba or canary (can't find any now), but they are in the same family and will cross.  If availability is any indication of quality or consumer preferences, then the lack of those rare melons might mean they are not as strongly desired by the consumer.

I wish you good luck with your landrace ventures!