Farm workers harvesting honeydew melons

Honeydew melons (Cucumis melo spp.) belong to the family of winter melons, along with Persian, Crenshaw, casaba and charental melons. Although they need warm weather in which to thrive, winter melons are so named because they take longer to ripen than summer types such as watermelon. Knowing when to harvest a honeydew melon is a matter of calculating dates based on the days to maturity of the cultivar, along with such sensory cues as texture, color and size.