Lidl have Pepinos....

[sarah_h]

Hi all,

Just popped over to Lidl and saw they had some lovely Solanum plants. About 10in tall. These are Solanum (Golden Pepino) plants and I bought 4. They don't grow too tall, about 50cm it says and the fruit tastes a bit like melon. They were excellent value at only £1.68 each!! I'm growing mine in the conservatory but they're quite hardy (down to 5 degrees C) so I'm trying one outside against a sunny wall and see how it goes.

Anyway, thought some of you may be interested.

Sarah

[Alice]

I grew mine from seed this year Sarah H and they're doing well in the conservatory.
I've got 6 on the go so I'm planning to keep 1 indoors and put 1 outdoors and see how they do.
I'll give the rest away or put them into a plant sale.
Hope we're both successful with them.

[realfood]

Check that the ones in Lidl do not have white fly before you bring it into contact with other plants. The ones in Glasgow had a lot of white fly.

[WelshGirl]

Sarah_h - You're in Swansea? Do you mind me asking which Lidl you went to? I'm in the Neath area - I was in Neath Lidl yesterday and they didn't have any, and I would so love to have a try at growing them!

[poly]

I'm growing them again this year, they have been fairly trouble free so far and produce an fair amount of fruit. The fruit take ages to ripen though (but so nice to have fresh fruit in winter!) and I found for me its best to bring them inside for autumn/winter protection. I'm going to grow mine in pots again so I can move them about, as although they need protection from frost they prefer cooler growing temps in summer.

Good luck finding your plants WG, if you do get stuck I can send some home saved seed (I think they would catch up as they grow rapidly so may crop in the autumn)

[WelshGirl]

Awww, thank you for the offer of seed! There's no need though, as I ordered some yesterday! I was a bit worried that it's too late to sow now, but I guess it can't hurt to try!
I would love to get a couple of plants from Lidl though... Hopefully will find some soon!

[Alice]

Poly, good to hear someone was successful with them as they are my challenge for this year. I've got them up and growing from seed and looking good in the conservatory. My plan is
keep them in the conservatory until May then start hardening off, bringing indoors at night.
Put them outdoors in pot against a south facing wall - it gets very hot there.
Bring the pot back indoors September and overwinter in the conservatory.
Does that sound right ?

[poly]

I love growing something new too. Sounds like you have them sussed, just watch its not too hot for them.

Hope the following is more of a help than hinderence,
I find they need a large pot, they make quite a bit of root and although they don't grow very tall they do bush out and are a bit straggly. The flowers are beautiful similar to a potato but prettier, don't worry too much if they don't initially set fruit until the autumn when the weather is cooler, which they prefer.

I feed and water pretty much as tomatoes. Like you’ve said bring them in before the frosts, (they can take a very light frost, well mature plant can, but do tend to loose some leaves)the fruit carries on growing and ripening for quite a while, seems bizarre thing in mid winter! They are also very attractive fruit, imho.

This year I’ve grown a couple from cuttings and also grown a few from seed. Plants from seed can apparently be variable in fruit quality so if you have a good one it might be worth taking cuttings (roots really easily either in water or compost) I’ve noticed one of my seed raised plant has slightly different leaves from the other so it will be interesting to see how the fruit tastes.

Pepino’s can suffer the same problems potatoes do, although up until now I’ve had no trouble with blight but I have grown them away from other solaniums and this may have helped.

If you hadn't guessed I like them! Not earth shattering but quite pleasant

[realfood]

If you have a look at my website under soft fruit, I have a page with lots of photos on growing pepinos.

[sarah_h]

Yes I went to the one in Gorseinon and the one at Ravenhill. Nice plants, no whitefly, healthy looking...

Where are you based?

Sarah_h - You're in Swansea? Do you mind me asking which Lidl you went to? I'm in the Neath area - I was in Neath Lidl yesterday and they didn't have any, and I would so love to have a try at growing them!

[WelshGirl]

I'm near Glynneath. Hopefully I'll get down to Swansea this weekend, hope Lidl will still have some left!

[poly]

Great site realfood, so much information, will be going back for a proper read.