growing cucumelons

The cucumelon, cucamelon, or melothria scabra, whatever you want to call it, is easy to grow.  In fact, it thrives in hot weather, dry weather, humid weather, and all different conditions.  Originally from Mexico, these fruits will grow far north.  They grow as an aggressive, clinging vine that will crawl on fences, posts, trellises, and the like.

Be patient with the seeds, as they can take longer to germinate than tomato seeds.  However, ideally, you want to plant cucumelon / cucamelon seeds in moist soil and maintain humidity.  A plastic covering, such as a mini seed-starting greenhouse, will help germination rates.  To speed the process up, you can use a heating mat.

Once the seeds germinate and significant roots grow in the starting containers, the cucumelon vine can be transplanted.  If you are waiting for the weather to plant in the ground, at this stage the seedling can go into a smaller pot (3"-6").  The vine will look for something to climb within 1-2 weeks. 

If you are going to keep the cucumelon plant in a container, set up a vertical trellis in the container or adjacent to the container.  Bamboo posts work well, and can be encircled with twine as the vine grows.

If growing outside, a cucumelon vine will take over several feet of coverage within just a few weeks.  You can direct the vine to grow on what you'd like.  It grows particularly well on fences, but you can also grow it on strings.

The vine will grow flowers that produce the fruit.  The fruit becomes sour if allowed to continue growing, experiment with different harvest times to find the right flavor.  When the cucumelons are the size of a large grape and easily fall of the vine, they are ready.