What season do Hami melons ripen and hit the market?

The Hami melon is a summer fruit, ripening naturally from July to September. But through the control of modern cultivation techniques, its ripening period can be controlled to May through October.

Several common types of Hami melon on the market:

Xizhou Mi: light mottled green with green stripes, fine dense netting covering the whole fruit, orange-red flesh, fine and crisp texture, good flavor, sugar content 20%, best when grown in eastern Xinjiang.

Donghu melon: attractive netting, flavor like a fragrant pear, fresh, sweet and crisp, giving off an inviting scent of milk, fruit and wine.

Black Eyebrow: oval in shape, with more than a dozen dark green longitudinal stripes on the skin, like a beauty's slender eyebrows; the flesh is emerald green, fine-textured and juicy, with high sugar content, sticky to the mouth and hands; eaten after the onset of winter, it is even more fragrant, sweet and refreshing;

Red Heart Crisp: orange-red in color, crisp and juicy, with a creamy taste, rich aroma overflowing, leaving a lingering fragrance in the mouth long after eating.

Yellow Egg: golden yellow, round and small, flesh like suet, soft and sweet; a single melon placed indoors fills the whole room with fragrance.

Xuelihong: a thick-skinned melon bred by the Xinjiang Hami Melon Research Center, an early-to-mid-season variety, with a fruit development period of about 40 days; the fruit is oval, the skin white with occasional sparse netting, turning red through the white when ripe; the flesh is light red, fine and tender, crisp and refreshing, melting in the mouth, with a taste like a fragrant pear; the central refractive sugar content is above 15%, and a single melon weighs about 2.5 kg.

Jiashi melon: Jiashi melon is named after its place of origin, Jiashi County, and has a cultivation history of more than 1,500 years; it has many varieties, divided into early, mid and late types with more than thirty kinds available in all four seasons. Jiashi melon has a long cultivation history; its form is well-proportioned and full, and it is characterized by thick flesh and fine texture, sweet fragrance and crispness, rich juice, thin skin and high sugar content, ranking first among all the melons of Xinjiang and becoming outstanding among the various melons and fruits in China.

Although the Hami melon helps with bowel movements, boosts qi and clears the lungs to stop coughing, its sugar content is relatively high, so people with diabetes should not eat it.