Honeydew and Rockmelons

Production
Ground preparation starts in February after the crop has finished bearing fruit. The old plastic mulch and T- Tape trickle line is lifted and the ground ripped and cultivated. New plastic mulch and trickle tape is laid in the winter months, generally in August. The plastic mulch helps to retain soil temperature and moisture, which in turn conserves water and controls weed growth. Planting occurs over a three month window, from late August to the middle of November.

The climate at St George is well suited to melon production. The warm, dry conditions ensure a firm textured melon with a bright flesh colour, and high sugar levels. Our climate, coupled with the fact that we are the only horticulture enterprise in the area, also greatly reduces the presence of pests and disease in our crops, leading to minimal chemical usage.
Our seeds are bought from a variety of companies and germinated by Withcott Seedlings. The seedlings are planted by a team of people who sit on a machine called a transplanter. Seedlings are used instead of seed to ensure the crop establishes quickly despite the cool weather.

The crop takes about 8-12 weeks to mature, depending on the time of year. Bees are used to pollinate the crop, in order to bear fruit.

Irrigation is computer controlled, ensuring watering occurs at optimum times and efficiency. Plant samples are sent to a laboratory regularly to determine crop nutrient levels. Any deficiencies are rectified by applying specialised fertilisers through the irrigation system.

Harvesting
Harvesting commences in November each year and finishes at the end of January. Honeydews & rockmelons are hand picked from the vine when they are naturally ripe. A team of about 20 pickers walk behind a machine called a harvest-aid, which is a purpose built truck. The pickers place each melon on an elevator in front of them, which transports melons into the harvest-aid. Melons are then transferred into plastic bins, each with a capacity of half a tonne. Tractors take these bins to the receivals area of the packing shed.

Packing
These bins are stacked in an undercover area where cool, fresh water is continuously sprayed over them to start the cooling process. They are then tipped into a chlorinated water vat to begin the washing and sorting process. This water vat helps to reduce the core temperature of the melons, and ensures the melons are free from bacteria.
The melons are then brushed and dried. They pass over a sorting table where any non-conforming melons are removed by a team of sorters.

The rockmelons then pass by a camera, which takes a photo of each melon and records its size. A conveyor of plastic ‘fingers’ transports the melons and drops them into packing bins according to size. One or two packers stand at each bin and place fruit into cartons. There are two sizes of cartons to accommodate the 10 melon sizes. Full cartons are then carried by a powered conveyor to the pallet stacking area. Here, boxes of the same sized melon are stacked on a pallet.

All pallets are barcoded so that product can be traced back to the particular field and date of packing. Full pallets are transferred to a cold room and forced air cooled to between 4 and 8°C to preserve product quality and shelf life.

Dispatch

On average, three to four trucks leave the melon shed each day bound for the major cities in Australia. These trucks are refrigerated and hold about 20 tonnes of rockmelons.