When a Pepino melon begins to bear fruit, that's a special moment. It's not always easy for this exotic animal to get the heat we're hoping for. The growing fruits are eyed with curiosity. When can they finally be tasted?

A ripe pepino melon is usually yellowish with purple stripes and smells of fruit

Warm nights bring fruit

A pepino melon can bloom wonderfully in spring. Nevertheless, the flowers are no guarantee for delicious fruit. This is not due to a lack of pollination, because the plant can pollinate itself. Wind and insects also play an active role.

Fruit set only when the melon plant is warm enough at night. It has to be warmer than 18 degrees Celsius for several nights in a row.

It is also important to give the plant the sunniest part of the garden. If it grows in a pot, it just needs to get a sunny corner of the balcony.

Long ripening period, late harvest

After fertilization, the pear melon, as this plant is also called, takes a full 90 days to form fruits that are about 20 cm long and weigh about 300 grams. Accordingly, the harvest time does not fall until late summer.

The harvest can also extend into early autumn. And if the outside temperature is below 10 degrees early in autumn and the plant is already in its winter quarters, the harvest will continue there.

recognize maturity

If the Pepino melon has been cultivated for several years, recognizing the ripeness is certainly child's play. At the beginning, however, the degree of maturity is still a closed book. We reveal the secret:

  • the fruit must smell sweet
  • the coloring should have changed
  • sometimes yellow, sometimes light green with violet vertical stripes, depending on the variety
  • the fruit should be soft and give slightly when pressed

tips

If the fruit enchants you with aromas of a pear and a melon at the same time, you have timed the optimal degree of ripeness.

Leave Pepinos to ripen

Pepino melons harvested green are not grown in vain. You can ripen later. Leave the fruit at room temperature for a few days. If you want it to go even faster, add an apple. It produces the ripening gas ethylene, which also has an effect on the Pepino.

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