ROCKY FORD, Colo. — With all of the rain eastern Colorado has gotten this summer, Scripps News Colorado Springs wanted to get a pulse check on the progress growing the state's famous Rocky Ford melons.
“It takes a while to get to harvest, you know, three and a half months,” Michael Hirakata, a longtime melon farmer, said. “Hopefully we pick a lot the next few days.”
Hirakata said when he sees brown stems, he knows the melons are ready to be picked. Hirakata’s team uses a tracker, conveyor belt and other machines when picking the ripe melons.
“They're picking the ripe cantaloupe, we pick everything ripe. So they're picking it, putting it on that belt, and then the conveyor belt will take the cantaloupes into the trailer,” Hirakata said.
From there, the cantaloupes are cleaned, packaged and sent to stores.
“This season's going pretty well compared to the last three,” said Hirakata.
Two years ago, hail storms damaged many of Hirakata watermelon fields, but this summer is going a lot smoother, Hirakata said. “We've been very fortunate, and we've missed most of the storms. We've had a little bit of hail, but nothing that hurt the fruit. Everything looks pretty good out here so far.”
Gail Knapp, the owner of Knapp Farms in Rocky Ford, said the best weather for growing melons is hot and dry. Knapp said temperatures between 95 and 100 degrees is the perfect recipe for sweet and juicy.
“It helps with the sugar in the melons,” Knapp said.
She said they try to control how much moisture the melons are exposed to by running their own drip irrigation system.
“Not have them absorb rainwater or water running down the furrows,” Knapp said.
Too much rain or water changes the taste.
“The melons tend to absorb the water, and with the water, they just tend to be maybe not quite as sweet,” Knapp said.
A rain storm Tuesday night delayed the next day's harvesting. Knapp said the farm's team will have to wait for the branches to dry out to pick more melons.
“We would rather that the rain stayed in Colorado Springs and came down the river to us, as opposed to actually raining,” Knapp said.
The farmers said the hot summer sun has given them plenty of melons.
“The juice will be running down your face,” Knapp said.
Hirakata said you can buy Rocky Ford melons right now at your grocery store. His team will continue to pick melons through Labor Day.
