PEPINO - melon pears

I am convinced you're not really living in Scotland with all the lovely trhings you manage to grow outside. The best I can do is a cauli!

Bet your caulies are better than mine Amanda. Mine were great to grapefruit size then went all loose. It's my first year in this garden and I think the ground was too loose ,but back to the Pepino question.

i'm trying some this year, they are currently under a grow light and are about 6 inches tall, will probably keep them in till next year, then chuck em in the ground and see what happens.

It bears fruits in about 9 months from seed. Grown either as a half-hardy annual or herbacious perennial - the foliage dies back in frost but the rootstock often resprouts if protected with mulch.
Best grown like a pot Tomato Plant and in the same conditions although they have proved much hardier and continue to grow and last fruit ripen through our winters even in a cold frost free Greenhouse.


The Melon Pear is a half-hardy perennial herbaceous bush with a woody base and fibrous roots. It is native to the temperate Andean regions of Colombia, Peru and Chile. Naturally it grows at altitudes ranging from near sea level to 10,000 ft, however it does best in a warm, relatively frost-free climate. The plant will survive a low temperature of -2 to -3°C if the freeze is not prolonged, but may loose many of its leaves.
The melon pear produces fruits with variable shape and size. It is more or less rounded or oblong, and can be up to about 6 in (15cm) long. When ripe, the melon pear has a yellow-cream skin, with purple stripes. The flesh is juicy and moderately sweet, and has the same texture as a melon with a flavour between Honeydew and Charentais .


Looking similar to a potato plant, (it's from the same family) the bright green leaves are sparsely covered with very small hairs and the flowers are purple and yellow. It's unlikely that the plant will set fruit until night time temperatures exceed 15-18°C. The fruit matures 30 to 80 days after pollination. The plants self-pollinate.


The plant likes a sunny or semi-shaded, frost-free location, sheltered from strong winds. It does well planted next to a south-facing wall or in a patio. If treated like a tomato plant, it should do well although too much nitrogen will result in lots of plant with little fruit. Increasing the ripening fruits' exposure to sunlight improves the purple striping and general appearance.

Thanks for all that Lynda. Looks like maybe I should plant now, overwinter in the conservatory and put out in a pot against a south facing wall about May.
Good luck with yours. Do let us know how you get on.

nowt to lose except a few seeds

and no probs, i only copied it

there are a few plants and seeds on ebay melon pear, Home Garden, Plants, Seeds items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

i bought the seeds, it feels like cheating buying a plant lol .... and they're cheaper

I had 1 last year which my friend gave me- she'd grown from seed. It produced some fruit but the slugs got to it before they were full size let alone ripening.I did get 1 good size, almost ripe fruit. Tasted similar to under-ripe melon. I dug it up & overwintered it in the greenhouse, planting it out again early summer. This year it's not had fruit but whether thats because I disturbed it by the move. Maybe I'll try thick fleece or building a make shift cold frame round it then it might get an early start in spring.

I grew Pepino last summer in my greenhouse. I grew it from seed into a bushy plant about 2' by 2' and produced about half a dozen fruits that were not as big as they should have got but ripened and were pleasant to eat. (I have eaten these in Peru before). As it is a perenial I hoped to overwinter it in my greenhouse and then have a better chance of a bigger crop this year but sadly the plant succumbed to some kind of mould (I am not very good at looking after things in the greenhouse in the winter).
I shall try and post a picture but my skills in the computer department are limited.

Thanks everybody. I'll give it a go instead of the aubergines. The results can't be worse.

I grew them last year, I don't know what size they're supposed to be, but mine were somewhere between a cherry tomato and a bog-standard tomato and I'd imagined that they'd be bigger. The flavour was nice, but quite mild for a fruit. I suppose the 'melon-pear' description is accurate as neither of those is particularly strong flavoured. Germination was a little erratic and, although most did eventually germinate, I just chose the three first ones to grow on as the others were a long way behind. The flowers were pretty though.

Thank you Bluemoon. I'll look forward to the flowers.

I grew them last year from seed in my greenhouse in Glasgow, but had to take them home to ripen the fruit. There are photos here pepino
Sad to say, growing them from cuttings this year in the greenhouse, has been a waste of time with 3 unripened fruits. I gave cuttings to three other plotters to grow in their greenhouses, but they have not had success.
They flower OK, but seem to be very difficult to get to set fruit. From other information that I have seen on the web, it seems that the temperature has to be just right, > 70 and < 90 F. Rather a tall order in our climate!

I have several fruits on a number of plants but how do you know when they are ripe? Do they go a bit soft like a melon? They all seem rock hard at the moment.

Thank you for the link Realfood. A lot of really good information there.
Susiehab - see Realfoods link above for the answer to your question.

same here...i got about 10 on one plant..size of apples...starting to get stripes but i got them outdoors...no green house...so when should they ripen?
sorry...question already answered in realfoods link...thanks