All about Pepino

Pepino is a culture that is not well known among gardeners, but has significant potential. A not particularly whimsical plant, grown even on a windowsill, allows you to enjoy the sweetest fruits with a melon flavor several times a season.

Pepino, also known as melon pear or sweet cucumber, is a member of the nightshade family. The related ties of crops are especially noticeable in the first stages of the plant's growing season: the emerging leaf plates look exactly like pepper leaves, and the blossoming buds are indistinguishable from potato buds. In principle, the bush itself develops similarly to an eggplant. However, the appearance of fruits quickly puts everything in its place: it immediately becomes clear that this is a fruit, and besides, it is quite exotic. It should be immediately clear that the melon pear is not a melon tree - behind the popular name of the second is papaya.

Pepino's description contains some pretty intriguing information. For example, the taste of ripe fruits can be either sweet, reminiscent of "melon" relatives, or simply vegetable, close to the taste characteristics of pumpkin, zucchini or cucumber. However, the fruit always smells like melon with an admixture of banana, although the intensity of the aroma still depends on the variety. Fruits rarely resemble the usual pear: a rounded, elongated or cylindrical shape is much more common. Pepino's skin is yellow or orange with dark stripes: lilac, grayish or green. In the context of a melon pear, it is easy to confuse with a regular melon or pumpkin - its pulp is juicy, colored in a golden yellow or apricot hue.

Home-grown pepino weighs between 200 and 700 grams. The height of a shrub with a woody trunk can reach 1 meter, especially if it grows in greenhouse conditions. The dimensions of large oval leaf blades are sometimes 15 centimeters long. The color of the inflorescences ranges from white to bright blue.

In Russia, the most popular are two varieties of melon pear: "Consuelo" and "Ramses". "Consuelo" has a sweet taste and bright aroma, reminiscent of a melon, and is very fruitful. However, the variety that delights gardeners with heart-shaped orange fruits with longitudinal purple stripes does not tolerate temperature and humidity fluctuations well. The height of the bush, which does not undergo formation, reaches more than one and a half meters. Fruit ripening occurs 4 months after planting seedlings or cuttings.

Bushes of "Ramses" outwardly very much resemble the plantings of "Consuelo". The variety is known for its orange cone-shaped fruits. The taste of the pale yellow pulp is very pleasant, but the melon smell is almost indistinguishable. They ripen at about the same time as "Consuelo" - 110 days after "moving" to a permanent habitat. Of interest to many gardeners is "Gold", the fruits of which can weigh more than a kilogram. This variety is a vegetable, and the fruits themselves are yellowish and with purple strokes - they look like a melon. Valencia pleases with its sugar harvest - elongated fruits with yellow-orange pulp.

The germination capacity of small melon pear seeds cannot be called outstanding - for example, in "Ramses" it is only 50%. Also, seed germinates for a rather long time: from a week to a whole month. It is customary to sow at the end of the autumn season, that is, from November and, in principle, until the end of December. The grains are laid out on a napkin well-saturated with moisture or a multilayer gauze, which, in turn, is removed into a transparent container. It is not forbidden to use cotton pads, but then, when planting, the seedlings will need to be moved to the ground directly along with pieces of white material.

The container is closed with a lid, cling film or a bag, after which it is placed in a well-heated space, the temperature in which reaches 26-28 degrees. During germination, the container must be regularly opened for a few seconds for airing, as well as timely moisten the drying napkin - about once every three days. When the seed starts to peck, the box is transferred under the lamp. The first couple of days lighting should be around the clock, and then it is allowed to reduce it to 16-18 hours. By the end of February, the lamp ceases to be used at all, and the containers are rearranged on the windowsill.

The pepino is aged in container conditions until the cotyledons appear. Full disclosure of the latter signals the need to transplant sprouts into cups with soil. Usually for this purpose, a universal seedling soil is used, which is friable and lightweight. In the future, developing seedlings require regular irrigation and the introduction of weak solutions of mineral complexes every two weeks. The optimum temperature for seedlings is from +23 to +25 degrees in the daytime, and about +20 at night.

Planting seedlings in open ground or in a greenhouse is carried out at the same time as for tomatoes: in heated greenhouses - in April, in other situations - from May to early June. In any case, this should happen when the threat of the return of frost blows. It is better to arrange seedlings in accordance with the scheme of 50 by 50 centimeters, or in the amount of three pieces per square meter. Orientation of rows from north to south, observance of a checkerboard order are considered optimal. In order for them to successfully give ovaries, it will be necessary to provide the culture with a temperature regime that does not go beyond +18 - +27 degrees. The primary harvest is usually carried out at the junction of May and June, and the second wave is expected at the beginning of autumn.

It is worth mentioning that in the Moscow region, the regions of the middle zone and Siberia, it is customary to grow pepino in a greenhouse, as well as in the most illuminated areas of open ground. In the southern regions, it is possible to do without additional shelter, and the melon pear thrives in the fresh air in the shade of trees. The earthen site on which the culture will be located must be fertile and have neutral acidity. Ideally, nightshades should be planted after cucumbers, beans, or garlic and onions. In the fall, the selected bed is necessarily loosened, cleared of weeds and dug up.

In the spring, the soil has to be loosened again to retain moisture in it. The grooves prepared for the seedlings should be fertilized immediately with organic matter: decomposed manure or compost, if necessary, supplemented with ash. Direct planting is organized after soil moistening in the afternoon. Plants are immediately irrigated and covered with dry soil. It should be added that the planted sweet cucumber seedlings can be obtained not only from seeds, but also from cuttings.Young shoots on old bushes, when cut, are able to create roots even just in a glass of water. To get them, it is logical to use stepsons, who will be removed anyway.

Growing melon pears in open ground, in a greenhouse and on a windowsill in an apartment may differ slightly, but the conditions for keeping the culture will still be the same.

An exotic culture requires fertilizers every week. It is most convenient to use ready-made mineral complexes intended for nightshades: tomatoes or eggplants. When choosing a top dressing, it is important to monitor that the amount of potassium and phosphorus in the composition is twice the amount of nitrogen. In addition, once every two weeks, the bush requires iron-containing organic matter right from the moment of flowering. A home plant for digging is fed with a solution of a rotted mullein and a mineral complex. A week after planting the seedlings in a permanent pot, the ground part begins to be treated with "Elin" or "Zircon" once every 10 days.

Bushes that develop in open ground are usually formed into one stem, and those that live in a greenhouse - in 2 or 3. Immediately, the main shoots are fixed on the trellis. Since stepchildren are difficult to remove by hand, it is wiser to use pruning shears to eliminate them. At the end of summer, those ovaries and flowers that have not been transformed into fruits are also usually removed. If desired, the plant is given the shape of a low-growing bush. In this case, 2–5 stems remain the main ones, and all side stepchildren break out.

Plants planted on a balcony or in an apartment are also fixed on props and periodically freed from stepchildren. For aesthetics, it is customary to cut the crown of the pepino under the tree. Large and heavy inflorescences are promptly tied to the upper nodes of the stem, so as not to provoke the breaking of the shoots.

It is impossible to grow any crop without regular irrigation. Watering a melon pear should be moderate, avoiding both drying out and moisture stagnation. For young seedlings, it is especially important that the flow of liquid is accompanied by loosening and mulching procedures. A sweet cucumber reacts positively to high humidity of the air and root system, and therefore it will take drip irrigation very well. Mature plants are able to survive a short period of drought, but are likely to respond with reduced yields.

Basic pepino treatment in a greenhouse or outdoors involves the application of insecticides that protect against the Colorado potato beetle, spider mite, whitefly or aphid. It is most convenient to take complex preparations designed for tomatoes or eggplants. Decoctions based on herbs, onion peels and garlic are considered a good alternative, safe for the inhabitants of the apartment.

If the leaves of a plant turn yellow, then this may indicate both a lack of nutrition and natural aging. The plates dry and curl usually when infected with nightshade viruses that require the use of fungicides.

Pepino fruits can ripen at home, therefore, it is allowed to remove only poured and only slightly colored fruits from the branches. It is possible to determine the ripeness of melon pears by their appearance: the size, reaching a goose egg, and the color, ranging from cream to yellowish. It is important to remember that the taste characteristics of overripe fruits deteriorate, and they must not be allowed to stay on the branches excessively.