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some managed to grow lovely pepino plants last year.  I accidently sat on mine which didn't do it much good.  What size pits did you grow them in please?

Is pepino melon pear, i am interested in this as i am growing it for the first time this year and would like to also know what size pot to grow it in (an also how high does it get as am growing in the greenhouse)

:)

It will grow to 2 m in a greenhouse in a year. I grew 2 plants to a growbag. You may find this page interesting http://www.growyourown.info/page145a.html

Great article but it doesn't mention that (like many Andean plants) it is sensitive effect of day length on fruiting. It needs long days to mature and short days to fruit.

It will fruit quite readily outdoors in years when we have a long hot September (which used to happen quite regularly). Also the fruit will stand a mild frost that blackens the leaves but no more than that. However even in a good year plants outside will only ripen half their fruits.

I once tried to grow it in a greenhouse that got only 60% of the hours of sun - it wasn't successful and the plants outside in open ground did better.

If you haven't got a properly sunny greenhouse you would probably be better off growing them outdoors if you lay down the plants in late August and put a cold frame over them.

Cheers.

I find I get the best results by growing them in a large pot, 28cm, which I move outside early summer and bring back inside in September/October.

First fruit was setting in June last year (we had a naff summer in south Wales, little sunshine and loads of rain!)
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This was taken in July, still a long way to go before ripe!

I don't find they grow higher than 3' and that's including the pot, although I don't train or tie mine in, they look a bid messy and flop all over the place. When I bring them in in the Autumn I place them on upturned pots to keep the fruit off the ground.

Vinlander, interesting what you say about needing short days to fruit. In the greenhouse it started flowering about July, but refused to set fruit till August, despite my best efforts on hand pollination. The daylight hours in Glasgow during the Summer are particularly long, and may account for the difficulty of setting fruit.

I am hoping that the plant that I sat on and broke will regrow this year

I am growing them for the first time this year  :)

Great link Realfood - thank you

After reading the comments above I think I will grow some outside and some in my greenhouse and compare which do better.

I grew some last year - and yes, they did dominate the greenhouse! The fruit took ages to ripen for me - it sat on the windowsill until December /January... 

I was not impressed with it after all that time, which was a shame, but still have a few seeds left in the packet if anyone wants to try it themselves?  pm me if you are interested.

Thanks.

I've got a few of these this year.... Given then slightly wacky day-length thing I reckon if I put covers over them that come off when I leave for work in the morning and go back on when I get home then I can restrict them to a 12 hour day or so for a couple of weeks at least in July......

chrisc

I

Quote from: chriscross1966 on March 24, 2010, 08:30:18
I've got a few of these this year.... Given then slightly wacky day-length thing I reckon if I put covers over them that come off when I leave for work in the morning and go back on when I get home then I can restrict them to a 12 hour day or so for a couple of weeks at least in July......

chrisc

I don't see the need, they do set fruit in summer. I think too high a temperature impacts more on fruit set.

Some sources suggest that a nighttime temperature minimum of 16 C is required to get a fruit set.  High temperatures above 30 C, which you will easily reach in a greenhouse with ventilation, can also apparently prevent fruit forming.

Quote from: realfood on March 24, 2010, 19:40:25
Some sources suggest that a nighttime temperature minimum of 16 C is required to get a fruit set.  High temperatures above 30 C, which you will easily reach in a greenhouse with ventilation, can also apparently prevent fruit forming.

That was my understanding, although I now think it is the high tempreture which hampers fruit setting. More by process of elimination over several lousy summers.  Since I've been growing them outside during the summer I've seen a much better set of fruit starting much earlier (opposed to those in a polytunnel). Which in turn allows for earlier ripening fruit starting in late summer/autumn through to Jan-Feb, as long as they are kept somewhere just warm enough to keep them going. Personally I'm more than happy to grow them outside during the summer.

Just a reminder that although they are frost tender they will overwinter extremely well.

Best to use potted plants for this - no point in digging them up when the cuttings root even better than toms - cuttings taken by Sep at the very latest will still overwinter in a minimum temp of 4C.

Incidentally it used to be possible to get named clones - I kept 'Otavalo' going for about 8 years (lost it when I got a bit complacent and my citrus room went below 4C in the winter of '08).

Well worth doing with such a barely-bred fruit - seed are still relatively unstable.

Some of your experiences of less-than-terrific flavour might be down to pot luck of genetics rather than poor conditions - though in the last 3 summers even Otavalo would taste like marrow.

If we do get a good summer then bear all this in mind, take cuttings of all your seedlings in July and later when you find out the best flavoured one, keep it going over winter.

Cheers.

Oh well it seems i will have to find a space outside for it.......anyone got a shoehorn!!!!!!!!!!  ;)