I can't believe these spiky melons are sold for $4 to $7 while here in Africa, specifically in Namibia i just go in the forest or just around the homestead a pick all i want and i don't have to grow them, they grow in wildness. Thank you for the video...here we call them Manyose
@@elchuppacabre How do i afford a cell phone? Lol...what a question! You maybe thinking i am just living in African jungles right? Well, i have a farm, and a house in the city....at farm i have workers who help me with crop and livestock farming while i work in the city, i only go to the farm over the weekends. So from farming business i can buy a cellphone, a car and a house or i can just buy from my salary....i mean is not like a cell phone costs US$ 20 000
I planted some in my woods by where I live. I’ll see how it is next year. I see they grow crazy. I live in a tropical climate so hopefully they thrive!
Looks like they are gonna eat my food forest. Great demonstration, and good way to show how crazy they are. I planted about six, and they have already run about 15' each in the last month, and they're branching all over. They've eaten a goumi berry bush already. I'll probably have to prune those off. Wow. If they produce 100 melons each, I'm gonna need another pig just to eat the extras.
Man, thanks for the visit. Like your stuff. Was watching your Terra Petra video recently and then put in another hugel mound, plus some #10 can biochar . Keep it up
Im in Minnesota and my kiwano took over my whole garden. I planted them in mid april, and our first melon is just about ready to harvest in the last week of August. We have a few more fruits that just started, and there's still a ton of flowers. I did not start them indoors I planted 4 seeds directly in the ground.
@@zackzimmer7167 yes they are perennial but depending on the cold they might need to be moved indoors. They are very sensitive to cold weather and prefer 60 degrees or above
I planted one and it climbed all over my mango and orange tree, so I had kiwanos all over my trees, and then my German shepherd dug it up from its root. It looks like it's still alive, but its roots dried up before I knew. Might have to start over, I think it took about 6 months or a bit more from its seedlings.
I planted kiwano seeds about 2 or 3 years ago and they didn't grow. Now, finally, they germinated! They aren't as vigorous as these plants but they are making fruit and each time I go out to my garden, they seem to be a bit bigger.
Hey there! This is Amy! I just found this video as we’re growing these thus year. We bought Soda aka Raqiya and Violet aka Poimen from you last year! I pray you and your family are blessed and well. So great to find you all. Your garden is one of the best and most prolific we’ve ever toured! Thank you so much. God’s blessings to you and all your family! 😁🙏🏼❤️
This is AWESOME plant, coming here after watchin Emmymade tasting a Kiwano Melon, thanks for sharing Papa Pepper, liked and sending you greetings from Mexico! :D
Great info! Thank you!! I bought seeds and I'm looking forward to spring to try and grow them. I don't have as much room as you, so I will definitely have to be creative with where I put it.
Anyone know why my leaves keep drying up? Am I watering too much? The stalk is healthy, its about 4 months old & grew very fast but now all the leaves are dried up
I think having some unique things for the farmer's market stand is definitely a good idea. Along the same principle - I looking into buying seeds for my garden from online catalogs. I'm not really interested in buying the basic varieties like Cherry Belle Radish, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Danvers Carrots, Sweet Million Tomatoes, etc. Not saying there's anything wrong with those varieties but I can buy those at the local garden center or sometimes even at the grocery store or home improvement store when I go there to buy tomato cages, twine, etc, and not have to spend any more on shipping. But if an online catalog carries the hard to find seeds I'm on the look-out for, like skirret, achocha, caucassian mountain perennial spinach, miner's lettuce, etc... I'm much more likely to go with that. And then I'd also pick up seed packets of other moderately hard to find seeds like cucamelon, root parsley, salsify, corn salad and rattail radish.
You should! It'll come back for years to come! Here's a video I made about growing my hops, in case you're interested: ruclips.net/video/wTE2xyHgyg4/видео.html
Just watched it - Thank you. I am currently an "urban" gardener, and am restricted by space in my back yard which in this city are not huge. However, I have a larger back yard than most, and it is full of food and herbs that I save (freeze, dry, or can) for the winter months. I started watching your videos because you seem to match many of the ideas I have about where I would like to be. I like medicinal plants, st.johns wort, ginsing, toothache, ginger, turmeric, etc (which I'm growing all but ginsing). Do hops need full sun? Or would partial shade work? I have an area next to sponge gourds in partial shade that would be perfect for hops.
Nice! Luffa Gourds? - I was just checking on my St. John's Wort seedlings today! They are sun lovers, so give them as much as you can, but they should grow up into some too, and reach the "full sun" on their own. Also, do you have a source for Hops Rhizomes?
Wish I'd seen this earlier. Just bought some seeds but it's probably too late to plant them. I'm a zone 10 and Summer will be over before they start to ripen. Oh well, will give one a go, see what happens.
If I prune the tops, do you think they will grow smaller and still fruit? I'm growing them on my apartment patio right now 😂😂😂 along with the rest of my crop jungle
Thank you, just found these growing amongst my beans. Absolutely no idea how I got them. Never seen them in my life. Was a resting garden bed with no planting in it for two years. Just letting the beans grow out from planting previously.
Thanks for the info! Great vid! Just want to knoe what fertilizer to use for the kiwanos? Can i just use chicken manure? Or they need more than that? Thanks!
I wish I had seen this before I grew them... oh well... how do you get them to fruit? Mine have been a vine for a good 3 months or more and still no fruit...
@@Hammer_OJustice Don't worry, you can harvest green fruits. To force them ripen fast, place fruit with ripe apple in hermetic container (big jar will be good) and wait 2-3 days.
What is your average temperature where you are growing these? I'm from Melbourne Australia, average temperature is 21c /and have started two in my greenhouse in august, which is only 2m by 3m. It's not very big but has two tiny fruits starting. The regular potted cucumbers in there only produce 1 cucumber each at a time. They are also small.
Melbourne is a growing zone 10b, we are in a 6b/7a. With kiwano being a tropical plant, you are in a better suited climate to grow this plant for an entended period of time and get a longer harvest.
They say kiwano needs tropical conditions, well from my experience it's not true, even temperate climate zone is fine, temporary temperature fall below 10 C (50 F) at night won't destroy them, - most important is high day temperature, which happens very often on end of May and June in my coutry. I am succeded with planting kiwano and I'm living in central Europe. The only inconvenience I need to harvest unmatured fruits and and wait for them to be ripen, usually 2-3 months and I also need to prepare seedlings to plant them alredy grown a bit in the spring (but the same goes to many others, tomato for example). In compare to regular cucmber, kiwano nedds much more time to blossom, at the beggining kiwano grows incredibly fast without creating any blossoms
@@HTJournals I usually plant the seeds in the middle of April and keep them indoor. In the end of May (no frost risk), I move them outdoor to garden and let them to grow as long as there's no risk of frost (on my area, that's usually middle of September). Last year I got first fruits at the end of July, first mature fruits ready to eat one month later. Overall, from 4 seedlings I got 80 fruits, 30% ready to eat, the rest more or less green. Most of them much bigger than the one I've ever seen to buy in the market.
Thank you for the great video and knowledge you're smart and knowledgeable and great entrepreneur just to let you know here in Southern California at the supermarkets they want anywhere from $5 to $7 for one kiwano so if you want up selling this at your Farmers Market you can probably sell for a lot more also if you looked up these fruit have a lot of nutrients for many different reasons.
@@PapaPepper I am I'm actually took the seeds from one of the fruits that grew accidentally in my aunt's yard in of all places Santa Monica California. Not sure if a passerby threw a half-eaten one in her front yard or Birds or some other means distributed the seeds in her front yard but she's been growing it for a couple years but not giving it a lot of water so it only produces about 4 of 5 fruit
You can cut them back a little to encourage blooming, or just give them more time. Often plants "know" what they are doing. Have they done anything by now?
i just got this seed packet from baker's creek. did not know they got so big but it does say the are prolific. but it seems like two plants would completely take over my garden, soooo......SHIT. lol gotta make another garden. ohh darn. ; )
Now I'm scared. growing them for the first time in a medium size backyard that has been converted to hold eight 4'x8' raised beds. Gonna use cattle fence trellis between them. But hell, this'll consume the backyard in no time. Like a virus. Guess I'll be cutting it back constantly.
I can't believe these spiky melons are sold for $4 to $7 while here in Africa, specifically in Namibia i just go in the forest or just around the homestead a pick all i want and i don't have to grow them, they grow in wildness. Thank you for the video...here we call them Manyose
Wow how do you afford a cell phone? 🤔🤔🤔
@@elchuppacabre How do i afford a cell phone? Lol...what a question! You maybe thinking i am just living in African jungles right? Well, i have a farm, and a house in the city....at farm i have workers who help me with crop and livestock farming while i work in the city, i only go to the farm over the weekends. So from farming business i can buy a cellphone, a car and a house or i can just buy from my salary....i mean is not like a cell phone costs US$ 20 000
I planted some in my woods by where I live. I’ll see how it is next year. I see they grow crazy. I live in a tropical climate so hopefully they thrive!
Looks like they are gonna eat my food forest. Great demonstration, and good way to show how crazy they are. I planted about six, and they have already run about 15' each in the last month, and they're branching all over. They've eaten a goumi berry bush already. I'll probably have to prune those off. Wow. If they produce 100 melons each, I'm gonna need another pig just to eat the extras.
Man, thanks for the visit. Like your stuff. Was watching your Terra Petra video recently and then put in another hugel mound, plus some #10 can biochar . Keep it up
African Top Tip:
Grow kiwanos around tress. Preferably a short shrubs. The tree branches will get in the way and it will tame the growth.
I understand this is a warning video, but I think you just inspired a "kiwano cave"!
LOL - Glad to hear it. It gave us a number of ideas too!
Im in Minnesota and my kiwano took over my whole garden. I planted them in mid april, and our first melon is just about ready to harvest in the last week of August. We have a few more fruits that just started, and there's still a ton of flowers. I did not start them indoors I planted 4 seeds directly in the ground.
Are they perennial?
@@zackzimmer7167 yes they are perennial but depending on the cold they might need to be moved indoors. They are very sensitive to cold weather and prefer 60 degrees or above
I planted one and it climbed all over my mango and orange tree, so I had kiwanos all over my trees, and then my German shepherd dug it up from its root. It looks like it's still alive, but its roots dried up before I knew. Might have to start over, I think it took about 6 months or a bit more from its seedlings.
I planted kiwano seeds about 2 or 3 years ago and they didn't grow. Now, finally, they germinated! They aren't as vigorous as these plants but they are making fruit and each time I go out to my garden, they seem to be a bit bigger.
Cool! Glad that they are finally growing for you!
Everyone’s over here worried about how they planted the Kiwano in a small garden.
I planted two in a cup…
I laughed so hard...
lol same
Hey there! This is Amy! I just found this video as we’re growing these thus year. We bought Soda aka Raqiya and Violet aka Poimen from you last year! I pray you and your family are blessed and well. So great to find you all. Your garden is one of the best and most prolific we’ve ever toured! Thank you so much. God’s blessings to you and all your family! 😁🙏🏼❤️
WOW! We think of you often!!!!! WE need to get together again sometime. Thanks SO MUCH for commenting, and so glad you "stumbled upon" our videos!
Papa Pepper We’d love that! You have an amazingly blessed life and family, no doubt!
Wow that is incredibly prolific! Good thinking on the diversifying too @papa-pepper.
This is AWESOME plant, coming here after watchin Emmymade tasting a Kiwano Melon, thanks for sharing Papa Pepper, liked and sending you greetings from Mexico! :D
Omg your hops set up is awesome! Thanks for sharing tips on kiwano melon 😊
I planted it, it grew well, will try to plant alot on the foot of other trees as a live mulching.
I started 4 of these plants for this upcoming season...I think I'll only transplant one now. Great information!
I hope to grow some again this year
Great info! Thank you!! I bought seeds and I'm looking forward to spring to try and grow them. I don't have as much room as you, so I will definitely have to be creative with where I put it.
Anyone know why my leaves keep drying up? Am I watering too much? The stalk is healthy, its about 4 months old & grew very fast but now all the leaves are dried up
My kids would love that cave. How do you eat them? I was planning on planting them, but my garden is very small. Maybe I'll do a container...
We cut them in half and scoop the out
I am grow them in a large pot, cut down runners and promote growth upwards
Beautiful garden
I think having some unique things for the farmer's market stand is definitely a good idea.
Along the same principle - I looking into buying seeds for my garden from online catalogs. I'm not really interested in buying the basic varieties like Cherry Belle Radish, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Danvers Carrots, Sweet Million Tomatoes, etc. Not saying there's anything wrong with those varieties but I can buy those at the local garden center or sometimes even at the grocery store or home improvement store when I go there to buy tomato cages, twine, etc, and not have to spend any more on shipping.
But if an online catalog carries the hard to find seeds I'm on the look-out for, like skirret, achocha, caucassian mountain perennial spinach, miner's lettuce, etc... I'm much more likely to go with that. And then I'd also pick up seed packets of other moderately hard to find seeds like cucamelon, root parsley, salsify, corn salad and rattail radish.
You should check out Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They have a lot of rare seeds from around the world.
@@scotttorres1845 I might buy from them at some point, although I've been able to find a lot of the same seeds at a lower price from other retailers.
Thanks for the video, I found this growing in my daughters garden and collected them.
I just planted this.4 days ago. Planted along a 1/4 quarter acre property of a 4ft fence.
You just gave me an answer on Kiwanos!! 😀
I would like to try hops next year!
You should! It'll come back for years to come! Here's a video I made about growing my hops, in case you're interested: ruclips.net/video/wTE2xyHgyg4/видео.html
Just watched it - Thank you. I am currently an "urban" gardener, and am restricted by space in my back yard which in this city are not huge. However, I have a larger back yard than most, and it is full of food and herbs that I save (freeze, dry, or can) for the winter months. I started watching your videos because you seem to match many of the ideas I have about where I would like to be. I like medicinal plants, st.johns wort, ginsing, toothache, ginger, turmeric, etc (which I'm growing all but ginsing).
Do hops need full sun? Or would partial shade work? I have an area next to sponge gourds in partial shade that would be perfect for hops.
Nice! Luffa Gourds? - I was just checking on my St. John's Wort seedlings today! They are sun lovers, so give them as much as you can, but they should grow up into some too, and reach the "full sun" on their own. Also, do you have a source for Hops Rhizomes?
Wish I'd seen this earlier. Just bought some seeds but it's probably too late to plant them.
I'm a zone 10 and Summer will be over before they start to ripen. Oh well, will give one a go, see what happens.
So glad I saw your post before I purchased the seeds. No way do I have the space.
If I prune the tops, do you think they will grow smaller and still fruit? I'm growing them on my apartment patio right now 😂😂😂 along with the rest of my crop jungle
I think so.
Thank you, just found these growing amongst my beans. Absolutely no idea how I got them. Never seen them in my life. Was a resting garden bed with no planting in it for two years. Just letting the beans grow out from planting previously.
CooL!
It's my favorite fruit of all time
Thanks for the info! Great vid! Just want to knoe what fertilizer to use for the kiwanos? Can i just use chicken manure? Or they need more than that? Thanks!
I just used rabbit manure tea predominantly, so I think that could work!
I wish I had seen this before I grew them... oh well... how do you get them to fruit? Mine have been a vine for a good 3 months or more and still no fruit...
That's normal, you need to keep waiting, usually 3-4 months to fruit, it depends from weather conditions (more hot = better)
Thanks
@@johngordon9140 I now have a bunch of fruit that I'm hoping will ripen before the first frost... Some are huge too
@@Hammer_OJustice Don't worry, you can harvest green fruits. To force them ripen fast, place fruit with ripe apple in hermetic container (big jar will be good) and wait 2-3 days.
@@johngordon9140 will the seeds be viable if I do it that way?
I have around 200 seeds.... This will be fun considering a couple can already take over a garden.
Apparently there's been success grafting other kinds of melons onto kiwanos and it makes them more disease resistant?
Goodness
That's crazy! It reminds me of a wild invasive plant of the same family
it is one crazy plant! Thanks for checking it out.
What is your average temperature where you are growing these? I'm from Melbourne Australia, average temperature is 21c /and have started two in my greenhouse in august, which is only 2m by 3m. It's not very big but has two tiny fruits starting. The regular potted cucumbers in there only produce 1 cucumber each at a time. They are also small.
Melbourne is a growing zone 10b, we are in a 6b/7a. With kiwano being a tropical plant, you are in a better suited climate to grow this plant for an entended period of time and get a longer harvest.
3:38 The goat wanted to hear none of it maybe he's innocent 😁
Sheep, but yup. He was over it
You had me subscribed at Kiwano Cave
They say kiwano needs tropical conditions, well from my experience it's not true, even temperate climate zone is fine, temporary temperature fall below 10 C (50 F) at night won't destroy them, - most important is high day temperature, which happens very often on end of May and June in my coutry. I am succeded with planting kiwano and I'm living in central Europe. The only inconvenience I need to harvest unmatured fruits and and wait for them to be ripen, usually 2-3 months and I also need to prepare seedlings to plant them alredy grown a bit in the spring (but the same goes to many others, tomato for example). In compare to regular cucmber, kiwano nedds much more time to blossom, at the beggining kiwano grows incredibly fast without creating any blossoms
how do you usually grow yours? I'm not in a tropical area but would like to try and wonder if it would be different
@@HTJournals I usually plant the seeds in the middle of April and keep them indoor. In the end of May (no frost risk), I move them outdoor to garden and let them to grow as long as there's no risk of frost (on my area, that's usually middle of September). Last year I got first fruits at the end of July, first mature fruits ready to eat one month later. Overall, from 4 seedlings I got 80 fruits, 30% ready to eat, the rest more or less green. Most of them much bigger than the one I've ever seen to buy in the market.
@@johngordon9140 THANK YOU! you've motivated me to start!
Yep, now my kids want a kiwano cave.
You should get them one... it's delicious
Thank you for the great video and knowledge you're smart and knowledgeable and great entrepreneur just to let you know here in Southern California at the supermarkets they want anywhere from $5 to $7 for one kiwano so if you want up selling this at your Farmers Market you can probably sell for a lot more also if you looked up these fruit have a lot of nutrients for many different reasons.
Whoa!!!! That would be like $200 - $700 USD just off of one good vine some years, LOL. Crazy. Are you growing some yourself?
@@PapaPepper I am I'm actually took the seeds from one of the fruits that grew accidentally in my aunt's yard in of all places Santa Monica California. Not sure if a passerby threw a half-eaten one in her front yard or Birds or some other means distributed the seeds in her front yard but she's been growing it for a couple years but not giving it a lot of water so it only produces about 4 of 5 fruit
awesome
Those are Super Massive Kiwano Vines!!!! Is that a single plant or several plants
Multiple. And they are sooooo tasty. Have you eaten them before?
Papa Pepper no I haven’t What do they taste like
Yup. First year growing and they want to smother everything else!
Thank you for the video! I have a kiwano seed packet in my online cart, not sure I want to deal with this taking over our small garden though...
Hi mine is stil not flowering.. can u give advise why? They are almost 2mos and climbing..
You can cut them back a little to encourage blooming, or just give them more time. Often plants "know" what they are doing. Have they done anything by now?
I started growing this how’s the taste? I haven’t harvest yet
Lol the goat
Very tasty melon
Good day,
Where do you get your fruit tree seeds from?
kind regards
Could you be more specific?
I have read you can eat the skin? But in all the videos I’ve seen I haven’t seen any one eating the skin… have you tried eating it?
i just got this seed packet from baker's creek. did not know they got so big but it does say the are prolific. but it seems like two plants would completely take over my garden, soooo......SHIT. lol gotta make another garden. ohh darn. ; )
Lol a kiwano cave lol i love it
Us too, edible and a good hiding spot.
People say kiwano plant die after producing fruits so farmers should plant them again, so how can the plant be like this?
This was still during the production process. They can put out dozens of fruit per vine
what do you do for predators? squirrels? raccoons? etc?
They seemed to leave these alone. Maybe it's the spikes... or maybe they just didn't find them... they sure found the corn.
@@PapaPepper lol!
Now I'm scared. growing them for the first time in a medium size backyard that has been converted to hold eight 4'x8' raised beds. Gonna use cattle fence trellis between them. But hell, this'll consume the backyard in no time. Like a virus. Guess I'll be cutting it back constantly.
What does kiwano taste like?
I'm bad at describing tastes and flavors.... To me, It's pleasant and tasty
Is there a risk of snakes in a Kiwano 'cave'?
Around here, snakes can be found everywhere!
🙏
Cut them back. It will make it fruit more and not encroach on your other veg.
Yup, a great way to deal with them.
How many did you plant?
Here, 5 or 6 per side, so a dozen or less
Well looks like I'm only planting like 2 or 3 of these😅. Thanks for the info
@@sasquatchdonut2674 That would be wiser... learn from my mistakes
lol I cannot grow these in our greenhouse they are insane
Had a friend who tried... it took over his hydroponic gree house...
Awesome video but please get a hair cut like a good old American boy👍
I did that before, a couple times.... always seems to grow back. How's your hair line?
Papa Pepper brush that shit then g. I have black peoples natural hair...dread locks! Big fat bob Marley locksnot sister locks like America men
Do what you wanna do, be what you wanna be.