The first female flower on our oldest Gen2 winter melon plant!

I’ve finally spotted the first female winter melon flower, and it’s on the oldest Gen2 vine.

I have three plants growing at the trellis right now. The first was germinated and grown in a pot, before being transplanted to the ground when it was about 2 metres long. The other two were germinated at the same time: one was planted directly into the ground when it was just a little sprout while the other was nurtured, and still is, in a pot. I was interested to see how they would each perform, and to my surprise, the second one planted directly when it was a sprout is growing the worst! It is still floundering at ground level, but could just be biding its time before getting a growth spurt.

So, the attention is on the two bigger vines. Unsurprisingly, the oldest vine has been thriving – branching and blooming quite happily, but of course, they were only male flowers. Also unsurprisingly, the female flower made her debut when I stopped my daily scanning for female flowers…

The second-best vine has grown from its pot and just made it to the top of the trellis this week, where it’s beginning to get acquainted with the oldest vine. Who knows, maybe some cross-pollination will help in the coming months?

If things go as they usually do, this flower won’t set fruit just yet – cucurbitaceaes always seem to have to “practise” a few times before the female flowers finally develop into fruits. It’s a shame, though, because the miniature fruit on this female flower is a decent size of almost 2cm long, and it’s perfectly positioned along the strong metal bar of the trellis. Anyway the important thing is that the vine has finally reached maturity, and will keep on tantalizing us with the possibility of fruits…

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