Another Small Seed Order

The problem with gardening and the Internet is that you get to looking at seeds and find new and exciting plants that you just have to try. Yesterday I came across the pepino melon.

The pepino melon is likely a domesticated melon originating in the Andes although there are no wild members of family still there today. They are known because Spanish chroniclers described them as being cultivated. The Moche valley in Peru was famous for them. They were also popular in Moche art.

Pepino melons are closely related to tomatoes and eggplant. They taste like a rather bland melon and like a melon the peels should not be eaten.They grow naturally in an upright pattern so are easily grown in pots and can be propagated but cuttings just like a tomato plant. They like a warm climate and will bear fruit 4-6 months after planting. They are a perennial and can possibly be over wintered in a warm greenhouse. They will grow in most soils but need to be kept moist. Beetles, aphids, white flies and spider mites are attracted to them just as they are to tomatoes, eggplant, and tomatillos. The plants are self pollinating, or parthenocarptic, though pollination will encourage fruiting.
I have not had much luck growing melons here so thought I would give this plant a try in the garden and in pots and see how it does.

I also bought Parsley Giant of Italy in the hopes that this is the same large parsley that grew so well for me several years ago. Parsley Giant of Italy is a flat leaved parsley which should grow 10-12 inches tall and produce lots and lots of leaves. I would like to end up with enough to have dried parsley throughout the winter as we like to add dried parsley to lots of things.

The last thing I bought was Garden Huckleberry. I have grown Huckleberry Wonderberry before which is quite like it only Wonderberry can be eaten fresh and Garden Huckleberry must be cooked. I was not real impressed with the Wonderberry. For one thing it reseeded all over my garden for years after the year I planted it. It was rather seedy and tasteless and flea beetles absolutely loved the plants (and I had never been bothered by flea beetles in my garden before I grew it). I don't know that the Garden Huckleberry will be much different as I hear the flea beetles love it as well.
Garden Huckleberry is not a true huckleberry but related to the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potato and tobacco). The fruits,small blackish berries, must be allowed to ripen and then must be cooked. They are toxic when not ripe and the raw fruit are extremely bitter. They are usually combined with other fruits in pies and jams.

I bought these three from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I don't usually buy from them ( I have my reasons) but they had the pepino melon and I really wanted it. Hopefully I will get the greenhouse (see link to the post on the greenhouse redo which everyone seems to have missed)done and can try overwintering those pepino melons.