{"id":103,"date":"2015-07-21T14:28:32","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T18:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/?p=103"},"modified":"2018-04-18T10:06:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T14:06:29","slug":"cucamelons-cool-as-a-cucumber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/2015\/07\/cucamelons-cool-as-a-cucumber\/","title":{"rendered":"Cucamelons: Cool as a Cucumber"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am always on the search for different varieties for my garden.\u00a0 Not that there is anything wrong with the old standards like \u2018Clemson Spineless\u2019 okra or \u2018Rutgers\u2019 tomato but I like to grow to discover new flavors, unique characteristics, or plants that are otherwise not known to grow in my area.\u00a0 This year I\u2019ve experimented with a few different varieties but the one I\u2019ve most enjoyed is the Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra<\/em>) or \u201cCucamelon\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The two plants in my garden are full of delicate, almost hair-like vines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It is a vining plant with more delicate stems than cucumbers so it will need a trellis or some sort of support; I grew mine on a tepee.\u00a0 It was much slower than a typical cucumber to start climbing and set blossoms.\u00a0 It makes tiny yellow flowers that you really have to try to see and the fruits should be eaten before they get over 1\u201d long because they get seedy.\u00a0 From what I can tell it also seems less affected by the typical cucurbit killers like vine borers and squash beetles.<\/p>\n

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The miniature, watermelon lookalikes are a fun addition to the garden and would be a great way to get kids interested in gardening and eating their veggies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The gherkin has a great taste to go along with its unusual appearance.\u00a0 It is mild with an almost lemony flavor and is eaten with the skin on.\u00a0 The seed companies say that it can be pickled but I may have to try that next year since I only had two plants make it to maturity.\u00a0 These little guys are cooler than a cucumber and are a great plant for parents and teachers to get kids interested in gardening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always on the search for different varieties for my garden.\u00a0 Not that there is anything wrong with the old standards like \u2018Clemson Spineless\u2019 okra or \u2018Rutgers\u2019 tomato but I like to grow to discover new flavors, unique characteristics, or plants that are otherwise not known to grow in my area.\u00a0 This year I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,35,15],"tags":[59,60],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childrens-garden","category-home-gardening","category-vegetables","tag-cucamelon","tag-fun-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}