Harvesting Cantaloupe Professionally

Harvesting cantaloupe is big business, and nowhere is it bigger business than in the state of California. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California produces almost to thirds of the cantaloupe grown in the country. Cantaloupe is harvested by hand, and, luckily, the melons are kind enough to let workers know when they're ripe-by falling off the vine!

Harvesting Cantaloupe For Fun And Profit

• Playing in the dirt. Commercial cantaloupes are grown in raised beds. Tractors are used to loosen the soil and form it into beds that are from six to seven feet wide. Bed preparation is completed in fall, prior to spring planting.
• Planting a seed. Cantaloupes are grown from seeds, which are planted in staggered sections to increase the harvest period. Seeds are planted using a tractor mounted with a device that makes a hole and drops seeds into it at regular intervals.
• Thin is in. After several weeks, the cantaloupe seedlings are thinned by hand. The spacing of plants changes over the growing season to control the size of the melons. Plants are spaced farther apart early in the season and closer together for later plantings.
• Water water everywhere. Cantaloupe plants are irrigated by flooding furrows or with drip irrigation. Sprinklers aren't used because they interfere with pollination.
• Come out, come out, wherever you are! Workers called scouts check cantaloupe plants twice a week for insect infestation. A good scout can cover 150 acres an hour.
• Come to Papa. Harvesting crews, consisting of 20 to 36 workers, will work a field once a day for 10 to 14 days. Cantaloupe are picked by hand and packed using a tractor pulled packing machine. Ripe melons are placed on belts that feed them to packers who place them in boxes that hold about 40 pounds of fruit.
• Full slip. When a cantaloupe is fully ripe, it separates from the vine easily when picked up. The ripe cantaloupe has a smooth, round area where the vine detached, called a full-slip. Cantaloupe pulled too early will have part of the vine still attached and are called half-slip or quarter-slip depending on how much material remains.
• Chill out. After harvesting, cantaloupes are moved to a facility where they are cooled for several hours to lower their internal temperature. Cooled melons are then loaded on a refrigerated truck and shipped to market.