Have you ever heard of mini watermelons? It is a plant native to Central America. Its name is cucamelons, this plant is characterized by its appearance of mini watermelon and taste of cucumber and lime.
The plant is a vine grown for its edible fruit. The fruit is the size of a grape and tastes like cucumbers with a tinge of acidity. It is believed to have been a domestic culture before the western colonization of America began.
This fruit is rich in many vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and it has very few calories. It contains high levels of lycopene, a carotenoid known to improve cardiac function as well as beta-carotene.
Steps To Growing Perfect Cucamelons
Purchase the seeds
For the first planting of this fruit you will need to buy seed. We recommend doing this online shopping as the seeds of this fruit are very difficult to find in the grocery stores.
But for the next few seasons you will be able to leave a seed by letting the fruit ripen, then reaping it and leaving it for one to two weeks in a cool, dry place. When the two weeks are up, all you have to do is cut the fruit and gather the seeds and put it in a jar. After a week, rinse the seed and put the paper to dry. When the seeds have dried, load them onto another piece of paper and wrap them.
Climate considerations
The fruits are grown similarly to annual vegetables and they need a long growing season of 65 to 75 days warm weather. If you are in colder areas then we recommend planting them in a greenhouse where they will be isolated from the cold and exposed to sunlight at the same time.
Start cucamelons indoors
Cucamelons are best to plant in April or May. Our recommendation is to plant them in a greenhouse directly in the ground after the danger of frost has passed.
Choose your planting location
Cucumelons require fast drainage and a place where they will be exposed to the sun for at least 6 hours. It is recommended that you leave at least 12 square inches of space between each plant.
Install a wire cage or trellis
Cucamelons need a support structure to keep their stems and fruit off the ground, so you should install a small trellis or tomato cage for them to grow on.
The right soil
To be successful in this tree you need to have really good soil that contains a lot of the nutrients that the cucumelons need.
Before planting them you should first treat the soil with some old fertilizer or compost.
You can amend lean or porous soil with a 2-inch layer of compost worked into the top 6-8 inches of soil prior to planting. Once you establish them, keep in mind that they don’t need supplemental feeding, other than a light, 3-inch side-dressing of compost each month.
Water needs
In the process of supply cucumelons it is necessary to irrigate them well. That means you need to provide an inch of water every five to seven days on summer days, wetting the top 6 to 15 inches of soil every time.
Note: When the weather is very hot and dry, increase the water twice a week.
Pest issues and re-seeding
Cucamelons are really tolerant of rough conditions. Pests tend to ignore them and disease rarely ever comes to them. Even birds don’t mess with cucamelons, meaning pest control is no issue when it comes to these plants.
Training the growing vines
The growing vines of the cucamelon won’t exactly fill up your trellis, and those long tendrils usually gasp onto anything they can, you can pull the vines in all sorts of directions and train them by wrapping the vines throughout the trellis in any way you’d like.
Harvesting your cucamelons
When cucumelons reach the grape size it is ready to be harvested. The size of the fruit should be one to one and a half inches long. After pollination, the fruit takes 2-3 weeks to reach the required size.
Harvest your cucumbers by simply selecting them without separating the plant.