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This year, for the first time, I tried growing achocha, a member of the gourd family, so related to marrows, pumpkins, etc. I planted out three plants in the spring, but only one survived, probably because I planted them out too soon. It's a climber, with pea-like tendrils, so I grew it up a tripod with netting round it. It grew reasonably vigorously, thugh not as rampantly as some descriptions suggested, and has been producing flowers for some time - tiny, insignificant ones, unlike the big trumpets of most gourds - but no fruit, and I was about to give up on it. I wondered if maybe it was not self-fertile, and you had to have at least two to get any fruit, but then, in the last week or so, it's suddenly produced lots of fruit, in the 'armpits'. They're quite small at the moment, so I'll let them grow a bit, and it's almost too late, because we'll have the first frost soon.
Has anyone else grown them, and do they always fruit late?
Has anyone else grown them, and do they always fruit late?
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