Melon 'Petit Gris de Rennes' Seeds

Petit Gris de Rennes is the melon to try if you have never grown one in a British summer: it ripens early, stays compact and repays you with small, intensely sweet fruit. The round melons have mottled grey-green skin that warms to gold as they ripen, around deep orange, juicy flesh with a rich, brown-sugar sweetness. This charentais-type heirloom from Brittany is listed in Slow Food's Ark of Taste. Cucumis melo 'Petit Gris de Rennes' makes vines of about 90 cm to 1.2 m, so it fits a greenhouse border, a growbag or a large container.

Sowing and growing

• Sow indoors mid April to May at 20 to 25°C, one seed per small pot.
• Sow about 2 cm deep, with the seed on its edge.
• Germination takes 5 to 10 days in warmth.
• Plant into a greenhouse, polytunnel or cold frame in late May, or outdoors from mid June in a warm, sheltered, sunny spot with rich soil.
• Vines reach 90 cm to 1.2 m.
• Harvest August to September, roughly 80 to 90 days from sowing.
• Tender annual: it needs warmth and will not tolerate frost.

What you receive: a packet of about 10 seeds from Piccolo Seeds, with growing instructions on the back.

Browse our full range of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds, find more unusual crops among our exotic edibles, or get it with alpine strawberry and cape gooseberry in the Unusual Fruits seed collection.