Grow Your Own Cucamelons!

Hello! 

If you're reading this, chances are you found one of our Grow Your Own Cucamelons Starter Packs inside your Authentic House Subscription Box. We hope you're happy with it!

There are basic instructions on the back of the seed packet, but we thought we'd add more detailed instructions here for your too. So...

Starting The Plants Off

The first thing you need to do is rehydrate your compost pellets. To do this, just drop them into a bowl of lukewarm water for 5 minutes, and they’ll spring to life.

Once you've done this give them a gentle squeeze to remove any excess water and to aerate them a little. You should have a good surface area of compost at the top of the pellet, but if the white membrane is still covering a bit you can tease this back a little.

Put the pellets to one side and open your packet of Cucamelon seeds. Take of the seeds and then sow 2 seeds into each pellet, then place all 3 pellets into your Coir Pot, and then place on a sunny windowsill.

The seeds should germinate in about a week or two

Caring for Your Seedlings 

Once the seedlings have emerged keep a close eye on them. 

Keep the pellets moist but not too wet. In small quantities like this the easiest way to water is to take each pellet out and dip the bottom half into a bowl of water for a few seconds - they absorb water very quickly.

After 2-4 weeks (depending on when you sown them) when the seedlings are more established thin to the strongest one per pellet. You can feed with a diluted liquid organic feed at this point if you wish.

Potting On

Once the seedlings are really getting going you'll notice the roots growing through the white membrane - this is the time to pot them on. 

If you're only interested in growing one plant, pick the strongest seedling and grow this on in your Coir pot. Just half fill the pot with fresh compost, pop the plant in then top up the compost .

If you want to pot the other two plants on too you'll need some more pots - any 7cm pot will do, but if you'd like some more of our coir pots you can order them here.

Grow the plants on until the roots fill the pot and then plant outside once all risk of frost has passed .

Cucamelons are climbers, so require something to climb up – if you’ve ever grown peas, they grow in more or less the same way. We tend to grow them up an obelisk (readily available from most garden supply shop) or make a wigwam out of bamboo canes.

Harvesting Your Cucamelons

The fruits are ready to eat when they fatten out and are the size of large grapes. Just pick them off the plant and enjoy. Check back in the summer for recipe ideas.

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Contact Info

I hope we've covered everything, but if you have any further questions please contact us at [email protected]