Mexican Sour Cucumber

Mexican Sour Cucumber - Melothria scabra.
Recommended for growing on personal plots. Melothria is a non-spread vegetable culture of Cucurbitaceae family from Africa. This is a tiny kind of cucumber - small fruits (1,5-2,5 cm.) of light-green colour are cucumber-like by taste, the dense skin has nice sourish/acidulous taste.
Melothria is an annual grassy plant, which forms shoots up to 3 m long. Plant has triangle-pointed hairy leaves. Plants have bright-yellow flowers of both sexes: female flowers are situated on stem one by one, male flowers - several in each node. Melothria is good for gardens, plants have decorative branches, high growing ability.

* The genus Melothria is represented by 80 species, distributed mainly in the tropics of both hemispheres, and Melothria scabra grows only in Africa. 
Melothria plants have the property of growing quickly, so it is usually used in landscaping. Tenacious tendrils easily attach to all kinds of supports and completely entwine them. In addition, the plants tend to strong lateral branching and rooting of lateral shoots. 
Melothria looks very decorative - bright greenery does not lose its color until autumn, and strong growth gives it the opportunity to successfully compete with weeds. 
It is best to grow Melothria through seedlings - it easily takes root in a new place. A week after transplanting, strong growth begins. 
Melothria prefers fertile and light soil in mechanical composition. Plants respond to watering, but over-moistening is undesirable. If the soil becomes compacted, it is necessary to loosen the plantings several times during the summer, being careful not to damage the roots.
If you intend to grow Mexican Sour Cucumber for landscaping, then at the beginning of summer the plants need to be fed with nitrogen so that the greenery is more lush, and if for the sake of the fruits, then with phosphorus and potassium (10 g / m2) during the flowering phase.
Melothria plants are very productive, a fruit is formed in each node. It should be noted that the fruits are tastier while they are still small and have not formed a large number of seeds in them. The fruits are collected as they grow. They can be eaten fresh, salted and marinated.
When canned, the fruits of Mexican Sour Cucumber acquire a special taste, especially if you add a little hot pepper to the marinade.
And how original the small fruits look in jars! They can be used to decorate dishes and add to pickles (cucumbers or tomatoes), make assorted dishes from them. 
One of the advantages of Mexican Sour Cucumber over other pumpkin crops is its resistance to pests and diseases.
So, Melothria has every right to take its place in our gardens.

Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber.