Fruit Warehouse

Fruit Warehouse | Melon pear ( Solanum muricatum ) | The pepino dulce fruit resembles a melon (Cucumis melo) in color, and its flavor recalls a Succulent mixture of honeydew and cucumber, and Thus Spake Sometimes it is also called pepino melon or melon pear, but only very distantly pepinos are related to melons and pears . Solanum muricatum is a species of evergreen shrub native to South America and grown for its edible sweet fruit. Attempts to Produce commercial cultivars and to export the fruit have been made in New Zealand, Turkey and Chile.


The pepino dulce is Relatively hardy. The crop also adapts well to greenhouse cultivation, training the plants up to 2 m tall, and obtaining yields are 2-3 times larger That Those obtained than outdoors. It has a fast growth rate and bears fruit within 4 to 6 months after planting. Seedlings are intolerant of weeds, but it can later easily Compete with low-growing weeds. Their relatives like tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillos and tamarillos, pepinos are extremely attractive to beetles, Aphids, white flies and spider mites. Pepinos are tolerant of most soil types, but require constant moisture for good fruit production. The plants are parthenocarpic, meaning it needs no pollination to set fruit, though pollination will Encourage fruiting.


The plant is grown primarily in Chile, New Zealand and Western Australia. Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador also grow the plant, but on a more local scale. In the United States Several hundred hectares of the fruit are grown on a small scale in Hawaii and California. As a result, the fruit has been introduced into the up-scale markets in Japan, Europe and North America and it is SLOWLY Becoming less obscure outside of South America. 

 

Delicate and mild-flavored, pepinos are Often eaten as a fresh fruit snack, though They combine very well with a number of other fruits as well. Although the seeds of pepino plants are fertile and Produce vigorous offspring, this crop is primarily propagated by cuttings (Heiser, 1964; Anderson, 1979; Morley-Bunker, 1983), and as a consequence, its genetic structure Could be different from That of seed-propagated crops.