Re: Pepino Melon

 


Jimgentracer;898342 Wrote:

these?have watered it and its

flowers with a small acorn

fruit turns yellow and

Pepino "melons", Solanum muricatum (so actually a member of the
tomato/potato/chilli family) that I have bought in shops in Chile are
about
6-8"/15-20cm long, and oval in end-to-end cross-section.  So a bit
bigger than
an aubergine, but rather smaller than most melons.  But
there is a picture of
one on the Wikipedia page, described as ripe, not
much larger than a hen's egg,
so they can be rather smaller than that.

Their origin is, like many of the cultivated solanums, in the Andes. The
original wild plant has not been found.  They are cultivated at around
2000m to
3000m in the tropical Andes, and in the mediterranean climate
area of Chile. I
came across them being grown at around 1500m in the
Cameron Highlands of
Malaysia, but they weren't very good, perhaps too
warm. I believe they are also
grown in the northern parts of New
Zealand.

They are known to be trickier than chillis to grow.  But in general, I
would say
that if you have the conditions right to grow aubergines
without any trouble, or
tamarillos (tree tomatoes), then you should have
the conditions about right for
these.




--
echinosum