Pepinos, Cukes, & Melons

Always growing” may describe the seasonal edibles thriving in our gardens just as easily as it describes the way many of us continuously seek to learn more about gardening. For me, I’m always eager to try new techniques, trends and hot plants. Straw bale gardening? Check. Hops? Check. Goji berries? Check.

The latest “it” plant? Meet pepino dulce, a fetching egg-shaped fruit that bears cream-colored skin suffused with watercolor brush strokes of dark purple and delivers a sweet, mild flavor.

As proof of its widespread appeal, pepino dulce has transcended the gardening world and emerged on fashion pages. I recently received a clothing catalog that featured on its cover a petite pepino delicately perched on the crest of a saddlebag purse.

What’s the Fuss?

In Spanish, pepino dulce means sweet cucumber. But while its melon-like flesh offers hints of cucumber and honeydew, the new novelty is neither cucumber nor melon.

Instead, it’s an evergreen member of the solanaceae or nightshade family, which encompasses tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants and potatoes. It’s from frost-free areas in the Andes ranging from near sea level to 10,000 feet and dates back to the Incans.

Pepino dulce is not a well-known commercial crop. It bruises easily and is fragile to ship. Production is primarily limited to South America, New Zealand and Australia. Some specialty companies, such as Frieda’s, import the fruit to the United States.

Despite its relative rarity, though, pepino dulce was grown in Santa Barbara as early as 1897 by an adventurous, world-class horticulturist, Francesco Franceschi, according to California Rare Fruit Growers’ Fruit Facts. Today, the sweet fruit flourishes in the bluff-top Lifescapes Garden at Santa Barbara City College.

In the Garden

Pepino dulce likes the same conditions as eggplant and peppers: hot days, warm nights, nearly constant moisture and good drainage, which may be accomplished with a raised bed or container.

Sow the seeds now in flats, four-inch pots or similar containers with drain holes. But wait until nights begin to warm up in June before transplanting them to the garden. While they may flower earlier, the plants won’t begin setting fruit until night-time temperatures reach 65°.

Space your plants several feet apart. While they aren’t likely to set speed records, they may eventually grow about three feet tall and wide. Choose a warm, bright spot that receives at least six to eight hours of direct sun daily. All the better is a location near a south-facing, light-colored fence or wall that reflects sunlight, or next to a dark-colored patio or asphalt driveway to capture radiant heat.

Pepinos don’t like frost. If you garden in an inland valley, grow them in a large container that you can move to a warmer place over winter.

Plants also have shallow roots. Water frequently to keep the soil damp but not soggy—that’s where good drainage comes in. If the soil starts to dry out or get crusty, gently loosen the top layer and sprinkle half an inch of fine compost on top every few weeks.

Harvest in late summer or early fall when the fruit ripens. Look for the pretty purple stripes to darken up, the flesh to yield when you gently press on it and a whiff of sweet honeydew. It may take a few tries to get the timing right.

Let’s Not Forget Those Faux Relatives

If you’re still craving true cucumbers and melons, April and May are fine months to start those worthy summer edibles, too.

Growing cucumbers from seed provides a slew of possibilities, from traditional slicers to burpless, bumpy or thinskinned Oriental varieties. They may be as small as a thumb, as large as a cantaloupe, and round, pear-shaped, straight, curved, slender or gourd-like. They may be eaten fresh, cooked in a meal or pickled for the future.

In the garden, stumpy little pickling cucumbers that pack well in a pickle jar form relatively small plants that are perfect in a patio pot. Baby pickles are quick. Bush Pickle’s cute, four-inch fruits appear in just 45 days, while petite one- to two-inch-long French cornichons or gherkins take only a week longer.

Fresh cucumbers are often longer, smoother, may need staking and are later to harvest. Most bear cukes eight to 12 inches long, although the nearly white, thin-skinned Armenian Yard-Long may stretch to three feet.

Get a jump on your crop by sowing seeds in containers alongside your pepinos, then transplanting them to the garden once they develop a few sets of true leaves (cool nights shouldn’t hold you back). However, if you like your cucumbers crisp and mild, consider waiting until the weather warms up. Mild, crispy varieties are tastiest when they grow fast. Slow them down and you risk a bitter harvest.

The Sprawlers

Melons—cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and the like—take considerably more space, often sending trailing vines and giant leaves four to six feet in every direction. Rather than prepping the entire area, create a nicely amended, fertile, well-draining mound the diameter of a trash can lid, shape a watering basin around the perimeter, then sow four to five seeds on top.

Note that some melons require a longer stretch of summer heat than is typical on the coast and may stop growing when temperatures drop below 70°. In those areas, look for smaller, fast-ripening varieties that grow on shorter vines, such as Inspire cantaloupe, which bears dainty one- to two-pound fruit just 65 days after transplanting, and Mini Love watermelon, which produces seven- to nine-pound fruit in 70 days.

Inland, you should be fine growing larger varieties like the beautiful heirloom Moon and Stars watermelon, which grows to a hefty 25 pounds, but takes 100 days to get there.

Joan S. Bolton is a freelance writer, garden coach and garden designer who confesses to a lifelong love affair with plants. She and her husband, Tom, have filled their four-acre property in western Goleta with natives and other colorful, water-conserving plants. They also maintain avocado, citrus and fruit trees and grow vegetables and herbs year-round. SantaBarbaraGardens.com

By Joan S. Bolton