This yr we are growing African jelly melon for the first time in our garden .
Wendy partake her experience with develop African jelly melon vine in a late comment :
I saw on recent video that you were try the Kiwano AKA African tusk cucumber AKA jelly melon vine in your garden this class .
I essay Kiwano for the first metre about 4 arise seasons ago . I have found that they do not need their own growing spot and are fantastic to grow under other plants if you are pressed for infinite in your garden area . For me , they have happily uprise under and in competition with myCurcubita moschatamixed variety / landrace for 3 age now .
The first year I gave them their own blank . It was the 2d year that a couple of ego seed plants came up under my butternut / mixed cross pumpkin plants , and I noticed that the kiwano plant bring forth prolifically in spite of the competitor .
I deliberately planted them near the pumpkin the third year and again , the kiwano successfully farm many fruit without being leave any circumstance of space or nutriment .
About 3 weeks ago I harvested time of year 4 – a span of plant had got under the mandarine tree diagram and I had yield grow up in the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree amongst the mandarines ( as well as under the Cucurbita pepo where I had designedly planted them ) . I have more fruit now than I think I can possibly eat in the next 6 months and all without pass them their own distance or any attention at all .
to boot , I find the kiwano to be amazing for storage , which is why I first rise them . I had read , I think Carol Deppe was the writer , that they kept perhaps 8 month ( if I recall correctly ) without particular sweat at storage . I have found that to be dependable . I can , without any special preservation method but only split the fruit in prostrate boxes so they do n’t thrust each other , keep the kiwano for eating over winter and springtime until only a twosome of week before the next regular cucumber is expected from the summer garden . I do find that most of the kiwano yield is produced in fall , so continue to contrive to wipe out regular cucumber from early summer through to early fall .
To wipe out , I discase the younger unripe one with a paring tongue and gash to put in salads . They smack very interchangeable to unconstipated cucumber vine eaten that way . When they get a bit old and the flesh starts to get a scandalmongering chromaticity , I ascertain that at that phase I do n’t enjoy rust the flesh around the seeds , so at that degree I scoop the anatomy out with a spoonful and avoid the firmer yellowing parts .
I trust you will supply them to your selection plant profiles . I can safely say that they are now a keeper in my garden .
I am in a somewhat drier climate I think than you , with wet cool winters and hot dry summers . However the Kiwanos have done well even in the late surface-active agent than intermediate years for me . I desire you have exchangeable success .
Ours are already running like crazy . I implant 5 - 8 or so , here and there . A yoke of them are in compost piles with pumpkins , and others are on their own in either mulch or correct in the ground in the food for thought woods .
Papa Pepper on YouTuber warns that they are exceedingly vigorous and shares how his look in the garden :
Whelp , I did n’t plan for all that , so it ’s gon na be fun to watch them eat trees , shrub and the grass in the intellectual nourishment forest .
One has already almost totally covered my sole goumi berry bush in the food timber , so I think I ’m going to have to prune the vine back so it does n’t kill the poor thing .
Another one is becoming a quite strong-growing dry land cover beneath a mulberry .
If they hunt down 100′ and grow a hundred melons each , we ’re going to be swimming in them by crepuscle ! I hope we like wipe out them . If not , I ’ll tip them to a pig and turn them into bacon .
Perhaps we can use some of them too soon to make pickles when our cucumbers run out in a month or two .
They may also make an coming into court in Daisy ’s cum store if they work well in this clime and seem to be useful enough to keep .
It ’s playfulness testing new crops . We ’ve found some very interesting novel improver to our “ comfortable to raise ” tilt via assay plants and seeing how they do in our climate . add together a few unexampled thing every yr and see how they do . You might discover something amazing you could contribute to your regular growing rotation!Minimalist Gardeningfor the profits .
Also , if you need the inside track on creating food forests and would like to enquire questions and learn from other gardeners , pleasejoin us at the new Skool Survival Gardening group .
- Image of jelly melon via Tijana Drndarski(Pexels ) / ( Instagram ) .
