I planted the Cucumbers on a fence this year, the best thing I have ever done, saving lots of space and making it easier to harvest the cucumbers overall. The vines did really well and as the fruits started to come out I started to see what looked like Musk Melons growing where I planted the Armenian Cucumbers. Thinking I just mixed up the seeds, I thought "fine I will just have more Melons than I planned". As the "Melons" continued to grow, they began to get extremely elongated which baffled me as I had not planted these nor had I ever seen anything like them before. They looked like Musk Melons but were very long and skinny. I let them grow just to see what they would turn out to be but they just kept growing.
I started to suspect there was some hybridization going on here so I started to research. Turns out that melons will cross pollinate with each other. The cross pollination actually happened last year and the seeds I planted were already destined to become a mix. But wait! Melons and Cucumbers don't cross pollinate so whats going on here! As I learned last year, Armenian Cucumbers are not really cucumbers, they are Melons! They are used more like a cucumber would be used, as they are hard and crunchy, than used as a Melon would be used. They can be used in salads or sauteed or pickled as a cucumber would.
If left on the vine to ripen the hybrid will turn yellow and slip from the stem as a Musk Melon would but the flesh is not as orange or sweet as a Musk Melon is. You can definitely see and taste the influence of the Armenian Cucumber on this Hybrid. All in all they are not a bad thing to eat and they get huge so you have plenty of food. They go good in a fruit salad or a cucumber salad and are not bad eaten alone.
The lesson? Don't grow different kinds of Melon right next to each other unless you are doing some genetics experiments!
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Ripe Musk Melon |
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Armenian "Cucumber" |
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Hybrid Armuskian Cumelon! |
They certainly look interesting. I wonder if you kept cross pollinating the new "melons" with musk melons, if you would end up with something tasty AND larger than a musk melon? Could be an interesting experiment? Cheers for sharing this and the timely reminder as our season here in Tasmania is a few months shy of starting all over again. I will remember your lesson.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had time to experiment this way as I have thought of some of the same things you are thinking. I wonder what would come of just planting some of the seeds from this hybrid fruit. I will save some of the seeds to try next year.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you,
Peace
Fascinating, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteHey Emma,
DeleteThanks for stopping by! Yea, very unexpected. I just picked the last "Armuskian Cumelon" this morning., it was 2.5 feet long!
Peace