Pepino (Melonpear)

Indoor sowing: february - march

Outdoor sowing: april - may

Germination: 7- 16 days

Germination temp.: 20 - 26°C

Sowing depth: ½ - 1 cm

Plant distance: 60 - 75 cm

Plant position: sunny and sheltered

Days till harvest: 120 - 130

Sow indoors from february in seperate pots filled with moist potting soil. Sow 1 seed per pot and cover the seed with a thin layer of soil. Keep the pots warm and light and keep the temperature as even as possible in a heated propagator. Cover the pots with some clingfilm to retain the moisture. Remove the clingfilm when the seedlings emerge. Harden the seedlings of, in the beginning of may, when there's no longer any danger of nightsfrosts during the day for about 10-14 days. After this period You can plant the seedlings on a very sunny plot with some shelter and free draining soil.

Sow outdoors from the middle of april, when there's no longer any danger of nightsfrosts. Sow on a very sunny plot with some shelter and free draining soil. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil. Keep moist and weedfree. Water during germination and with drought. Harvest the fruits by cutting them of the plants with sisscors.

GERMINATION OF SEEDS:

In the meantime we've some experience with the sowing of the Pepino also known as Melonpear. This means that we've sown succesfully. First we've sown about 12 seeds in seperate pots in the end of march in our unheated greenhouse. After about 4 weeks, there were no results. So we've put 6 of the 12 pots in our pepper germination chamber. This chamber is a room indoors where during the day the temperatures are about 25 °C, during the night the temperatures are about 20 - 22°C.

After about a couple of days, after transplanting the pepino's, the first pepino's emerged. In the unheated greenhouse still nothing happened. After about 2-3 days were 4 of the 6 pepino's emerged and this was all folks. After wayting for a couple of weeks, there was no result of the pepino's in the unheated greenhouse. Our conclusion is that the nights are to cold in the unheated greenhouse for the seeds to germinate.

Our conclusion is that the germination of pepino seeds needs a constant temperature of about 22 - 26 °C. The germination of pepino seeds in a window-sill isn't recommended, because the changes in temperature are to high. Also a window-sill propagator isn't suited for the germination of pepino seeds. Because the temperatures in full sun during the day are way to high.

This is a photograph of a pepino seedling sown this year and about 2 weeks old.

THE SETTING OF THE FRUITS:

An important tip with the growing of pepino's is to keep the ideal temperature for the setting of the fruits is about 18 - 27°C. To manage the temperature in Your greenhouse, is ventilation by opening the greenhouse doors and windows very important. Even than it can happen that the setting of the fruits isn't so much as wished.

This extra information shall be supplemented when we've something new to add from our own experience. Information and pictures.