Cantaloupe Starter Plant — photo: Scott Bauer, USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Cantaloupe Starter Plant — photo: Scott Bauer, USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fruit Starters

Cantaloupe Starter Plant

Live Plant
$7.00
$9.00
$7.00
(-22%)

Grow the melon a grocery store cannot sell you: vine-ripened cantaloupe cut at full slip, dripping, perfumed, and sweet all the way to the rind.
Cantaloupe Starter Plant

Pot Size: 4" Pot
Quantity
Cantaloupe Starter Plant — photo: Scott Bauer, USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fruit Starters

Cantaloupe Starter Plant

$9.00 $7.00
Cantaloupe Starter Plant — photo: Scott Bauer, USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fruit Starters

Cantaloupe Starter Plant

$9.00 $7.00
Pot Size: 4" Pot
Description

Cantaloupe is a heat-loving sprawling annual vine that wants long hot days, which Alabama supplies generously from June onward. The single biggest quality factor is picking at full slip, when the stem separates from the fruit under light thumb pressure; picked early, a melon never gets sweeter. Give each plant real room and keep water steady until the fruit sizes, then ease off as it ripens to concentrate the sugars. Shipped in a 4" Pot, well-rooted from our Lineville, Alabama nursery.

Specifications
  • Mature size: Vines 6-8 ft long, 1-2 ft tall; fruit 3-5 lb
  • Grows best: Outdoors - Grown as a warm-season annual in zones 3-11; direct results in 8a from an April-June planting
  • Pet safety: The flesh is non-toxic to dogs and cats and the vines are not considered poisonous. Rind and seeds can cause vomiting or a blockage, so do not let a pet clean up the trimmings.
  • Sourcing: Nursery-grown by Wade Greens; ships healthy from our Lineville, Alabama nursery to the lower 48 states.
Care Instructions
  • Light: Full sun, 8+ hours
  • Water: Deep and consistent, tapering as fruit ripens
  • Soil: Wants warm, fertile, well-drained soil high in compost with a pH around 6.0 to 6.8.
  • Feeding: Feed with a balanced fertilizer at planting and shift to lower nitrogen once vines start setting fruit.
Growing Zone

No hardiness rating for this one. It's grown as an indoor plant, so the room it lives in matters more than the zone outside. Keep it above 50°F and out of a cold draft.

Questions & Answers

How big does it get?
Vines 6-8 ft long, 1-2 ft tall; fruit 3-5 lb

How much light does it need?
Full sun, 8+ hours

Is it safe for pets?
The flesh is non-toxic to dogs and cats and the vines are not considered poisonous. Rind and seeds can cause vomiting or a blockage, so do not let a pet clean up the trimmings.

How is it shipped?
Packed to arrive healthy and shipped from our Alabama nursery to the lower 48 states.

Shipping & Returns

Ships to all 48 contiguous states from our farm in Lineville, Alabama.

What it costs

Based on your order total: $12.95 under $35 · $16.95 to $75 · $21.95 to $125 · free over $125.

Ship days

Mondays and Tuesdays only — see below.

Getting it ready

1–3 business days to pot up, water back and pack.

Where we can't go

Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories, P.O. boxes, and outside the United States.

Why we only ship Mondays and Tuesdays

A plant in a dark box is on a clock. Shipping early in the week means it reaches you before the weekend instead of sitting in a warehouse from Friday to Monday. It costs us a day or two of lead time and saves a lot of plants.

Practically: an order placed Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or over the weekend goes out the following Monday. We'd rather tell you that now than let you find it in a tracking number.

How long it takes once it leaves

Typical ground transit from Lineville, Alabama after the ship day. Estimates, not guarantees — weather and carrier backlogs happen.

  • 1–2 days Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky
  • 2–3 days The rest of the Southeast and Midwest, Texas, the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast
  • 3–5 days The Plains, the Mountain West and the West Coast

Tracking is emailed the moment your box is scanned.

If something arrives unhappy

A little leaf drop or travel stress is normal and usually sorts itself out within a week or two of settling in. If a plant arrives genuinely damaged, email support@wadegreens.com within 48 hours of delivery with a photo of the plant and the box, and we'll make it right.

Plant Traits

The facts that decide whether it takes root, in the order that matters.

Sunlight

Full Sun (6+ hrs)

Six or more hours of direct sun. With less it stretches toward the light and flowering thins out.

Water

Moderate

Water when the top inch of soil is dry. Evenly damp, never standing wet.

Mature Size

3-6 ft

Where it settles once established. Plan the spacing for this, not for the size it arrives at.

Foliage

Deciduous

Drops its leaves in fall and leafs back out in spring. Bare in winter is dormant, not dead.

Works As

Edible Garden

Traits

  • EdibleSome part of it is grown to be eaten. We grow without pesticides, so it needs nothing more than a rinse.

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