Pepino?

[marches]

Anyone grown them? Thinking of cultivating them and breeding earlier strains.
Any poisons to watch out for?
Never actually eaten one so will grow some this next year instead of tomatoes and see what they're like and maybe breed some.
Sound promising, described as tasting like a Melon, but should be easier to grow in the UK than Melons, although they ripen just before winter in November which is why I'd breed for earliness.

[marches]

Starting from seed, in my Glasgow cool greenhouse the
fruits had not ripened by the time of the first frosts in
October. When the plants were transferred to an indoor
sunny windowsill, the fruits eventually ripened in December.
Rather surprisingly, the plants continued to grow vigorously,
producing numerous flower buds, even in the very poor
daylight in December. In other words, the plants are not
daylight sensitive.

Saw this on a UK website. I came to a different conclusion - that they're perhaps short day plants considering their origin and they wait for the days to shorten in the UK before flowering.

[marches]

Another thing I need to find out is whether they can ripen off the plant like tomatoes.

[jayb]

Good luck breeding earlier strains. I found with the ones I've grown, taste and production can vary a fair bit between plants, if you get a good one it's great, otherwise so so. I read there has been some work with commercial lines (I think in New Zealand) and improving fruit quality, but I've not come across seed for them although I'd love to try them.

The fruits are slow to ripen and they do set fruit in a UK summer, although not many if temperatures get hot. Why not grow and enjoy melons in the summer and grow Pepino to enjoy autumn and winter when few other fresh homegrown fruit is available?

I found, to avoid them being frosted, they can be picked before fully ripe and ripened for a couple of weeks inside, though how much this impacts on flavour?

[marches]

Sept 11, 2014 6:09:21 GMT -8 jayb said:

Good luck breeding earlier strains. I found with the ones I've grown, taste and production can vary a fair bit between plants, if you get a good one it's great, otherwise so so. I read there has been some work with commercial lines (I think in New Zealand) and improving fruit quality, but I've not come across seed for them although I'd love to try them.

The fruits are slow to ripen and they do set fruit in a UK summer, although not many if temperatures get hot. Why not grow and enjoy melons in the summer and grow Pepino to enjoy autumn and winter when few other fresh homegrown fruit is available?

I found, to avoid them being frosted, they can be picked before fully ripe and ripened for a couple of weeks inside, though how much this impacts on flavour?

Yeah, that'd be a good idea. Charentais and Charleston Grey are two Melons that should grow here.
I think Pepinos might be short day plants and I've heard they grow and fruit well in a window during winter, so I may try to find long day strains for the summer. I'll grow some, publish the findings and it might turn out that they could be a useful winter crop indoors, but I still want strains that will ripen earlier outside in summer and autumn.