Pepinos - do I need to polinate them?

[sarah_h]

Hi

I have 4 pepino plants from Lidl and one of them is in flower, only about 6 flowers, but I was wandering whether I need to hand polinate them or are they like tomatoes where a few taps of the stem is enough?

[realfood]

An exert from my website:-
While the plants start to flower quite readily, it is a difficult to get the flowers to set fruit. Some sources suggest that a nighttime temperature minimum of 16 C is required to get a fruit set, rather difficult even in a greenhouse. The plants are self-fertile but require pollination by insects in the wild. In the Greenhouse, hand pollinate with your finger or a fine artist’s brush. High temperatures above 30 C, can also apparently prevent fruit forming.

[sarah_h]

Umm, I've just noticed that a couple of the flowers have dropped off! Not polinated? I'll brush around the rest of them and see if I can get them to set.

[eye1der]

pepinos? are these melon pears?

[sarah_h]

Melon Pear, Yes, that's right!

Well latest news is that ALL the flowers have dropped off. I was unsucsessful with polinating them! Oh well. I have 4 plants and the others have no flowers yet so there's always hope...

[eye1der]

i have just one plant in a 7 ltr pot it is quite bushy but short at about 6", its in the poly tunnel no sign of flowers yet. after reading realfoods post ive put my mini greenhouse over the plant for the nights im confident i can maintain 16 degrees over night. pollination shouldnt be a problem as my bees are frequent visitors
its a new plant for me, i would love to get fruit from it as ive never tasted them or even seen them for sale

[Woofster]

I grew a melon pear the summer of 2007 - not the best summer. I grew it from seed and started a bit late. It grew into a substantial bush and produced 5-6 fruits which ripened fine. I have had melon fruits before as a child in Peru so I am acquainted with them. I was quite pleased with my results, bearing in mind the poor weather (they did spend the beginning and end of the season in the greenhouse). I got quite a lot of flowers but they polinated themselves. I am growing it again and have a 4-5inch plant that is doing well. I am hoping that if we get the good summer we are being promised I might be more successful.
By the way, they have a pleasant if somewhat bland taste. They look lovely - yellow with a purple stripe. They do not travel well which is why we do not see them in English shops.

[frias]

I bought a Melon Pear a couple of years ago from T&M I think. I was very disappointed with the fruit as found them a bit tastless.
I grow Pepino (cucumbers) every year though as find they are ready before any other variety as they are picked when still small.

[eye1der]

unusual tropical fruit have always interested me since seeing the exotic fruit in bowls on star trek!!! and wondering'what do's that taste like!'
i hope i get some fruit im also doing chinese goosberrys, anyone know about these???

[eye1der]

got small fruits developing now, this is the plant in a 15 ltr pot

[bluemoon]

I'm afraid I just stuck them in the greenhouse and let them get on with it, just as I do tomatoes. We did get fruit, but the greenhouse door and ventilation is open all day, so I suppose insects will have got in to do the job for me. This was a couple of years ago and no-one was keen on the resultant fruit, so I haven't grown them since.

[gojiberry]

I grew them last year from seed and got about six fruit bet they didn't grow very big and never ripened. This year I bought a couple of plants, which are in flower but no sign of fruits yet. Last year they were in the greenhouse but this year I have put them outside as we are supposed to be having a dry hot summer???

[eye1der]

well mine have now set fruit, heres a pic as of this morning (1st aug)

and heres a close up of one of the unripe fruit

hope they ripen!

[Alice]

Well done Eye1der. The plants look great.
I'm trying Pepino for the first time this year. I have 4 plants grown from seed - I gave the rest away.
They are making flowers but they just fall off and there's no fruit. I was hand pollinating them.
They were living in the conservatory and taking up a lot of space so I've put them outside to take their chances. I'm not expecting them to do much - but we'll see.