Beginner Gardening: Plant Them or Forget Them?, 1 by bgrumbin

bgrumbin wrote:
I'm very new to having any land to plant anything. So when I see something I like, I think about whether my land could produce more of them. The photo is of a cantaloupe (Cucumis melo) that I bought at a nearby grocer, sliced off a quarter for breakfast, then when I was looking at the seeds that I removed with a spoon before eating that quarter melon, it occurred to me "hey these are seeds for a plant that I like!"

Key questions: are these likely to be *live* seeds or sterile, incapable of producing more of the same plants? If live, do they need any special kind of earth or of advance earth treatment to be planted in? Once planted in the ground, what is the best watering schedule before anything even perks its head up out of the ground? Assuming something does come up, what watering schedule thereafter? Guidance on any part of this question shall be appreciated.