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Post by jairus on Feb 24, 2012 14:28:18 GMT -5
LONG time lurker here who finally registered....and now finally posting Well, here we go, I'm wondering if anyone here in this great pool of knowledge and experience has any advice on growing Pepino Dulce? There also seems to be some conflicting information as to whether they'd be able to produce fruit in my SE Minnesota 4b/5a growing season without dragging the whole plant inside for the winter (instead of just the cuttings)...any personal experiences out there from the colder regions of the world? And speaking of cuttings, is there anywhere that has cuttings for sale? Or even decent seeds from somewhere else besides rareseeds.com or tmseeds.com? How about all these great NZ and South American varieties...any place or anyone selling cuttings or seeds of these? And lastly: I've never tasted one and for the life of me I can't find them in any grocery store, health food store, etc (it might have something to with being out of season maybe....more likely it's just the fact that I live on the Minnesota/Iowa border....LOTS of Norwegians [Ja, sure, ya betcha...Uffda! ;D ] and Germans and Amish settled here, but very few to none from South America though)...so, what exactly do they taste like? Lots of questions here....and lots more rambling around my brain about all the other stuff I'm growing this year......Uffda!!!
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Post by Hristo on Feb 25, 2012 4:47:26 GMT -5
The biggest problem I face with the Pepino is that it flowers profusely, but rarely sets fruit(s). One of the reasons seems to be high temperature (over 27-28 C), but I wonder if self incompatibility plays role too?! The best one I have tasted was like mediocre melon, but I suppose my "variety" is not high quality.
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Post by turtleheart on Feb 25, 2012 9:44:43 GMT -5
the fresh ones taste much better warm with the sun. they are like a banana melon tomato. i have some seeds, but just a few. if someone has a year round greenhouse or inside grow i will send the seeds because they really only start to fruit the 2nd and 3rd years. they are perennial. perhaps that was your flower issue Hristo.
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Post by Hristo on Feb 25, 2012 12:43:43 GMT -5
There are different varieties. I have mine since 7-8 years. Initially I grew it from seed and it gives ripe fruit the first year grown in the garden as tomato. But since it sets so few fruits and they produce not much seeds now I maintain it only vegetatively. Last 2-3 years no fruits at all.
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Post by orflo on Feb 25, 2012 13:51:27 GMT -5
There are indeed different varieties, I've got one that refuses to flower, not in short day circumstances or otherwise....So that's not the variety you want. Another one fruits consistently over the years, and gives nice edible fruits, I think it has been doing that for ten years or more. I try to survive one whole plant on the windowsill, and some cuttings in case the plant dies (which it only did once). The temperatures do indeed need to be quite low for pollination, around 25°C is a maximum, pepino prefers humid conditions, 20-25°, and can stand some semi-shade in sunnier climates. Over here it does want full sun. One plant grown in a 10 liter tub gives me about 10-15 fruits, they do take a long time to ripen off. The longer they can ripen on the plant, the tastier they become. Don't pick the fruits before they are fully ripe, after some weeks they taste somewhat old and fungi-like. There are two fruits still hanging on the plant right now, and they have ripened during our quite dark winter, which is a bonus! Seed production is low, probably becuse they have not been selected to be propagated by seeds, but by cuttings. Ancesters are solanum tabanoense (which I never have grown) and solanum caripense, this one gives small fruits that don't have the true pepino taste, but they're ot bad, and seed production is definitely higher here. So by creating the sol muricatum the production of seeds was outselected...However it does produce some seeds, which are easy to grow. I have found that the varieties seem to be quite fixed, but I never obtained more than five varieties. There seem to be some very nice varieties grown in New Zealand, especially in the North. I love them , especially fully ripe, orange from the skin to the middle of the plant... ;D
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Post by richardw on Feb 25, 2012 14:43:20 GMT -5
Ive grown Pepino's ( Incredible Blush ) before but that was some years ago before i built my tunnelhouse,it was a battle in those days to grow them to the fruiting stage outside in my 3 month frost free climate,but i did manage to get ripe fruit. Frank you say we have some great varieties here in NZ,the three different types in link would i imagine be the best available varieties we have here. www.edible.co.nz/varieties.php?fruitid=43#El%20Camino OK now that i have tunnelhouse in which i'm able to keep a few bushes alive in winter i WILL get a couple of plants and start growing them again,i could then send seed to those who would like some also.
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