Pepino melon seed
LATIN NAME: Solanum muricatum
COMMON NAME: Pepino Melon
The pepino melon is the fruit that tastes like a melon and grows on a bush. The low, spreading, short-lived perennial carries the grey-green, softly hairy leaves and the clusters of the small, blue-violet flowers with the yellow centres, to be followed by the round to oval, cream to yellow fruits striped with the purple, with the fine, sweet, melon-like, fragrant flesh. The plant is one of the fine, easy fruits of the warm garden and the pot, giving its sweet fruits through the warm season. It is a plant of the open, sunny, well-drained ground.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The pepino melon is a quiet, fruitful subject of the plant science, studied for the sweet, striped fruits and the way the bush fruits so freely. The breeding of the pepino for the sweetness and the size has been studied at length, and it keeps showing up in the work on the Andean crops, the warm-season fruits and the members of the nightshade family. The grey-green leaves and the low, spreading habit have also made it a fine garden plant, and the pepino melon is a regular subject of the studies of the little-known fruits of the warm world.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The pepino melon is a fine, easy fruit of the warm garden and the pot. The round, striped fruits carry the fine, sweet, melon-like flesh, eaten fresh, sliced into the fruit salads or chilled with a squeeze of lime, and the bush gives its fruits through the warm season. The plant is one of the fine choices for the container and the small garden, and the blue-violet flowers with the yellow centres are a pretty sight along the way. It has been written about in the horticultural and the culinary papers for the sweet fruits and the easy pot ways, and it is a fine, generous plant of the open, sunny, well-drained garden.
The pepino melon is one of the easy fruits of the Andean gardens, and the round, striped fruits carry the fine, sweet, melon-like flesh. The bush fruits well in the container and the warm border, and the blue-violet flowers are a pretty sight along the way.
To grow the pepino melon from seed, sow the small, flat seeds a little under the surface of a tray of moist, free-draining soil, keep the tray in a warm, bright spot and water gently, then set the young plants out after the frosts. The seedlings are up within a couple of weeks and grow on steadily. With the sun, the warmth and the well-drained ground, the striped fruits will come through the warm season.
Pepino Melon/Solanum muricatum
Pepino is a variety of melon that produces small round fruits that resemble a melon but is more closely related to the aubergine or tomato. The seed will produce an evergreen perennial shrub usually grown as an annual but can be grown quite easily in pots. You grow it as you would a tomato quite happy being either supported or grown in hanging baskets.
SOW: March – April direct into plot or under cover QUANTITY: n/a TRANSPLANT: 3-4 weeks DISTANCE: about 1-meters between rows and 0.6-meters between plants. HARVEST: July – October