Melotria rough or a variety of cucumbers, like watermelons - an unpretentious exotic in your garden

Tell me, what is the name of the variety of cucumbers, like watermelons? We have a new neighbor, such a mistress, she has everything in her garden and a whole collection in the flower beds. I see many plants for the first time, so I tried these miracles - cucumbers. Very unusual taste, but the view is generally amazing. I can imagine how they will look in jars. I want to plant one for myself next year.

We all know from school that in fact a watermelon is not a fruit, but a very large berry, and cucumbers are vegetables. But scientists - breeders went even further and crossed these two seemingly incompatible products. This is how a variety of cucumbers appeared, like watermelons, namely rough melotria. They have retained the appearance of a berry, but the inside is a vegetable, while being a greatly reduced copy of them. Moreover, the shoots with the harvest even resemble a branch with striped grapes, because the length of each fruit does not exceed 4 cm. Nevertheless, despite its modest size, this exotic is quite tasty. It can be eaten fresh, added to salad, and even canned and pickled for the winter.

A variety of cucumbers, like watermelon, is an excellent solution for both a vegetable garden and for decorating a gazebo

By its nature, melotria is a perennial liana from the pumpkin family. Its long, up to 3 m, lashes have antennae with which the plant is tenaciously attached to any support. This allows you to grow miniature watermelons even on an arch or arbor. Why not, considering the densely spaced large leaves. They are very similar to cucumber, but slightly smaller. The leaf plate is triangular, divided into three pointed segments and covered with pubescence.

At the beginning of summer, the vine blooms with bright yellow bisexual flowers, and after a couple of weeks it will delight you with fruits. Small, no more than 4 cm in length, they are covered with a thin skin with a striped pattern. Inside, juicy pulp with a complex taste:

• the cucumber taste is felt first;
• then the sourness of lime appears;
• the aftertaste is rounded off by the slight astringency of melon rinds.

The original look gave the mini cucumbers many names. For their sourness, they are called sour gherkins. And for the diminutiveness and striped watermelon pattern - with watermelon cucumber, as well as American, African cucumber. Perhaps the most unusual nicknames can be considered "hummingbird cucumber" in honor of the smallest bird, and mouse watermelon. Indeed, such a fruit will be a watermelon only for mice.

Features of growing African cucumber

In its homeland, Central America, melotria is a perennial and grows almost like weed... Indeed, this plant is absolutely unpretentious and can bear fruit even in the most unfavorable regions. It is noteworthy that it reproduces not only by seeds, but also vegetatively, by tubers.

Tubers are also edible: they look like sweet potatoes, gaining weight up to almost 0.5 kg each. The taste is very specific, for an amateur: a cross between a radish and a cucumber.

As for the territory of Russia, the mouse watermelon can grow here too. Here is just a little nuance: the thermophilic nature absolutely does not tolerate our frosts. Therefore, the plant is grown mainly in seedlings, planting annually. Already two weeks after planting seedlings in open ground, she gives the first watermelon guides.Fruiting lasts until frost, and up to 5 kg of fruits can be harvested from one bush.

How to grow melotria - video