Reading up on it in Louis Glowinski's it sounds like a really interesting fruit.

Is it easy to grow? Where did you all get your plants from? Any other information you'd like to share with us? Which variety would you recommend?

It was interesting to read Len's description of its taste a while back.

I had to laugh Spatz. There are different varieties but I have only ever seen one. They are very easy to grow. They are similar to a tomato, but can easily be kept as a perennial. They like full sun and no frost. They like the water in summer to fill the fruit too. The fruit is like a small melon with a thin, smooth skin. The flesh is a golden yellow and is similar to honey-dew melon but sweeter if well-ripened.

Growth habit: bush-like, but can be pruned and trained up a stake. It's best to grow them in the ground as they have heaps of fine roots that don't do too well in a pot. The weight of the fruit will cause the branch to hang if unsupported. It wont break it though. You do need to ensure the fruit doesn't come in contact with the ground as it will attract grubs to eat it.

I think I have a couple spare if you like. Send me an email and I'll see what I can organise.

mine are still doing ok or i should say some of mine even though partially frosted they are still growing and producing, if these die i won't be growing them again also can be very susceptable to fruit fly.

anyhow that's how i see it.

len

Grows like weed? Even in SA? That's good to hear.

*quickly types mail to Pepino*

One day, though, it'd be great to see your jungle. Oasis. Whatever you may call it. :)

I must admit I love the taste of these fellas when they get fully ripe and sweet! Sounds like I'm the odd one out though...

The one's I've had here in Oz don't compare at all to the ones I had in South America (their homeland). I can easily recall buying one at a street side stall up in the highland regions of the Atacama Desert in Peru and it was super sweet and tasty. Addicted me to try to replicate this flavour in my little backyard!

looks like i may have to update my taste test on the pepino's. a few days ago i picked 3 about mans fist sized fruits that looked ripe (i can never tell when they are optimum) so this morning my young grand son (4) ate the 3 of them i had a little taste and these taste sweet and where very juicy (all down the front of his shirt juicy).

so tomorrow morning i'm going to try some more as i picked more for him. these where very sweet and a bit paw pawish in flavour along with the honey dew aroma and taste. so may just maybe it was because they had some frosts on them? that made them more palatable?? so i may just get converted hey?

len

I dried some in a dehydrator last year and they were fantastic! Just like lollies.

Cheers,

Manuel.

Regards, Mal

Perhaps the problem with taste is that they are not being picked when perfectly ripe? The unripe ones taste like a bland honeydew, but when they are golden they get almost a banana-passionfruit aroma to them and the flesh is very sweet.

I think it's also possibly due to the soil they are grown in, some of my reading suggested that you need to have trace rock minerals in the soil. I planted mine in a rockery (purely by coincidence, but it means the trace minerals were there), fed it up with compost and a slow-release fertiliser and then ignored it except for regular watering and slug control. The fruit has a great flavour in this environment, and I'm thrilled. I'm planning on planting more later in the year.

They do best if trussed, so that the fruit doesn't come in to contact with the ground. I did lose a couple to snails and rot that way.