Plant · P-220

Pepino

Solanum muricatum

Pepino is an Andean fruit crop grown for a sweet, honeydew-melon-flavored fruit eaten fresh - low in calories, high in vitamin C, and harvested just before full ripeness so it keeps for several weeks at room temperature. The plant tolerates summer heat but stops fruiting once temperatures climb past about 86 F during flowering, so it produces in two windows, a spring crop before the heat sets in and a fall crop once nights cool, rather than bearing all summer. It is frost-tender and does not overwinter outdoors below about 27 F, so growers usually take cuttings in autumn or keep a container stock plant under cover to carry it to the next year.