How to Grow Melons UK
On this page
In the UK, melons go in the ground mid April to mid May.
Timing is the decision that matters most in the UK: sowing mid April, and that same window applies across all 4 regions covered here.
The short answer
- Plant
- Mid April to mid May
- Site
- 6+ hours of sun, soil pH 6–7.5
- Biggest risk
- Powdery mildew
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
Melon (Cucumis melo)
10 sources cited · Verified
When to Plant Melons in the UK
When to plant melons in the UK: in Southern England, sow mid April to mid May. Find your area in the table below.
Quick Facts
At a Glance
Soil & Growing Conditions
Growth Stages
Harvest & Storage
Diseases
Pests
Melon, Trailing or Trained Vertically
Plan your Melons planting
When to sow and plant Melons depends on your own frost dates. Check the UK vegetable planting calendar. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.
Growing Melon in another region
Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.
References
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Warm-season annual that scrambles and climbs by tendrils to 6-9ft, spreading 1-3ft. Full sun (6+ hours). Wants moist, well-drained, acidic to neutral soil enriched with organic matter; tolerates loam or clay. Sow outdoors after the last frost, or start indoors 4-6 weeks before the average last frost date. Space 12in-3ft. Monoecious, carrying male, female and some bisexual flowers on the same plant, and attractive to bees -- pollinators are needed to set fruit. Fruit ripens through August and September. Pests and diseases: cucumber beetles, powdery mildew, downy mildew, gummy stem blight, anthracnose and wilt.
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RHS explicitly does not recommend pesticide use against aphids; recommends tolerance, manual squashing, and encouraging/purchasing natural predators (ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings, parasitoid wasps, earwigs) as biological control, especially under glass.
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RHS factsheet on glasshouse red spider mite (two-spotted spider mite), naming tomato and strawberry among the host plants affected under glass or in a polytunnel.
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RHS explicitly advises against slug pellets (even organic) due to wildlife harm, and cites RHS's own controlled trial finding no damage reduction from physical barriers (copper tape, bark mulch, eggshell, grit, wool) -- while also noting some other studies have shown copper barriers to repel slugs, a preserved disagreement rather than a silently resolved one. Details Nemaslug (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) biological control including application temperature range and its lack of effect on snails specifically.
10 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I sow melons in the UK?
In Southern England, from mid April. In Scotland, wait until mid April. Treat these as a guide rather than a fixed date — the governing rule is to sow only once frost risk has passed and temperatures are reliably warm enough.
When do I sow melons?
Sow mid April to mid May, at around 19°C for germination.
What soil pH do melons need?
A pH of about 6–7.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.
What problems affect melons?
Our data links 3 diseases and 5 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
Most of the advice on this page comes down to timing and spacing — sowing at the right moment, rotating beds, and giving plants enough airflow. The UK Garden Planner lays your plot out month by month so those decisions are already made before the season starts.
Get the UK Garden Planner →Instant PDF download · Written for UK growing conditions
How this guide is put together
The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against RHS and Met Office guidance. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.
Related Problem Guides
Last verified 2026-09-02
Plan Melons by month
The months this guide gives for sowing or planting, each with the full list of jobs for that month in the UK:
More from the same group (squashes & cucumbers):
Growing advice for your part of the UK
Timing and conditions change a lot inside one country. These guides cover frost dates and growing seasons region by region.
Where To Go From Here
Take this crop from reading into a written plan for your own beds.
Keep going
Plan the next step
Use the printable SoilCommander planner for your region to turn this guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and weekly garden tasks.