Solanum muricatum seed

LATIN NAME: SOLANUM MURICATUM

COMMON NAME: Pepino

The pepino stripes the small, oval fruits with the purple and the gold, the soft, velvety leaves along the low, branching stems, and the whole plant carrying the easy, generous look of the warm-season fruit garden. The flowers are the neat, starry blooms of the potato family, pale with the purple veins, and the fruits ripen to the sweet, melon-like flesh with the gentle perfume. The plant grows into the compact, spreading bush, and the fruits hang on the short stalks through the late summer. It is one of the most agreeable of the South American fruit plants, at home in the sunny, sheltered, well-drained ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The pepino carries the fingerprints of the Andean domestication, and the crop scientists have studied it as an example of the fruits that the old civilisations selected over the centuries. The research covers the fruit quality, the germination and the performance in the new climates, and the breeders have worked on the sweeter, firmer selections. The growers in the mild regions have taken up the crop, and the students of the remarkable potato family keep the species in their notes.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm, sheltered garden, the pepino is the fruit plant that rewards with the little effort. The sweet, perfumed fruits are eaten fresh, juiced and added to the fruit salads, and the compact bush fits the sunny corner neatly. The starry flowers draw the bees, and the crop comes in through the late summer. For the gardener who wants something fresh and unusual, it is one of the most agreeable plants of the mild ground.

The pepino seeds germinate easily in a light, gritty mix kept warm and moist. The seedlings are quick and vigorous, and they grow on with the soft, velvety leaves. Move them into the rich, well-drained ground once the frosts are done, and give them the sun and the shelter from the cold wind. They like the warmth and the steady moisture, and the bush spreads into the neat, productive plant. The first striped fruits come within the few months.

To grow the pepino from seed, sow the small, flat seeds evenly into the cell tray of light, gritty mix, keep the tray in the warm, bright spot and water gently. The seedlings push through within a couple of weeks, and they grow on steadily. Grow the young plants on in the sunny, sheltered spot, and the striped fruits will colour the bushes through the summer.