BACK AGAIN - THE KIWANO AKA AFRICAN HORNED JELLY MELON
These are a great garden crop and they are starting to produce for us!
When I first encountered these at a local health food store, I was happy to see that they were locally grown too! Since they had a lot of seeds inside, I figured that we might as well give them a try and see if we could get the seeds to germinate. Sure enough, they worked, so this is our third year growing them now, and they are beginning to produce fruit!
HERE COME THE KIWANOS
The Kiwano is a very interesting plant. It grows as a long vine that can get up to about 100 feet long. The vine itself has tiny little "hairs" or spikes that can cause you to itch a little bit, but nothing lasting like stinging nettle or poison ivy. So far I've just been growing them on fence lines or cattle panel archways, but I may need to figure out something bigger and better, since these plants can really grow.
The vines eventually produce tiny little yellow flowers that look similar to a cucumber flower. The fruit, however, does not look like a cucumber. In fact, it looks more like a pufferfish! At this point, they are still tiny and the biggest ones are only over an inch in length. Soon, they will grow to about five inches long before finally turning yellow.
These are what the fully ripe fruits look like. They are very poky, but still a delicious snack. Inside, they have a bunch of seeds that are shaped similar to cucumber seeds, except that they are wrapped in tiny little "gel packets," hence the common name "jelly melon."
The Kiwano is another interesting plant that we just happened to encounter which works out really well for us. Not only do the @little-peppers love to eat them, but they grow really well for us too. They don't seem to have much of a shelf life, but that's fine by us, and we love eating them fresh as a snack throughout the day.
Have any of you ever tried these? Also, since they are call the "African" horned melon, I wonder if any of our steemian friends over in Africa have actually grown or eaten these. Either way, I can't wait until these are ready to harvest!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-kiwano-plants
Until next time…
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Do you know that rain make it fresh like this, had it been it is during dry season it wont look great as this.
and again sorry to ask this, are you an African?
I am not an African. I grow these in the USA
Wow! It seems to be a good food
I'm Africa but I have not tasted this, not sure it is grown here in my country Nigeria.
Very cool!! Happy growing lush melon plant! I feel like I have seen these in the grocery store but i doubt they grow here!
Nice to meet you Papa-pepper I like your article and have no also learned something about a new fruit I never knew of. Thanks for this informative content
Nice to meet you too @andre62! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it!
I hope it produces you a lot of fruit!
They usually do! We will see. Thank you!
These look great papa, i wonder how they taste. We don't have plants like this in Nigeria lolz
These are new to me, and they sound amazing. I love finding new fruits to eat. How would you describe the flavour of them? We have some similar fruits with seeds surrounded by gel that are amazingly delicious, but not on vines like this so thanks @papa-pepper for sharing a new discovery with me. ❤️🌈🦋🌴💛
Wow this looks so cool @papa-pepper. I really wish to know where exactly such grows on Africa!
Wow those look awesome! I have never heard of them before. I wonder if I can get them to grow here in Arizona. Will have to look into that.
Wow! It seems to be a good food
I'm Africa but I have not tasted this, not sure it is grown here in my country Nigeria.