As may be inferred from previous posts, I love cucumber-melons. Melon plants grow incredibly well (and fast) in Tucson's warm climate. My melon plants tend to grow slowly during the cool temperatures but really tend to take off when the thermometer exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit. One cucumber-melon (Carosello) variety I have grown recently is called Carosello Polisello.
 |
| Polisello Early April |
 |
| Carosello Polisello Mid April |
 |
| Carosello Polisello Late April |
The Carosello cucumbers from Italy have many different characteristics that make them interesting, beautiful, and tasty. Though my family does not care to eat everything that comes out of my garden, they are happy to eat the carosello fruit I grow.
 |
| Carosello developing fruit in Early May |
 |
| Another Polisello plant in Early May |
 |
| Carosello Polisello plants in early June |
The Polisello is a light-colored cucumber with dark splotching along the length of the fruit. Though I grew both longer and shorter types I will be saving the shorter fruit that is more true to the variety, for seed.
 |
| Carosello Beginning to fruit |
 |
| Carosello Polisello is quite tasty. |
 |
| It is very fun to design arrangements with this variety! |
 |
| Carosello Polisello slices ready to eat! |
|
|
| Polisello fruit ready to harvest |
|
|
| Another Carosello Polisello ready to harvest |
|
|
| Harvested fruit of Carosello Polisello |
|
|
| Yet another Harvested Polisello fruit |
In the future I hope to see more cucumber-melon varieties become available to the public.
 |
| Carosello are both beautiful and delicious |
I would like to thank Angelo and Paulo of amicidellortodue for the opportunity to learn about - and grow - this wonderful variety of Carosello.
Update: After saving plenty of seed of this Carosello I would like to offer this variety to others in sample seed packets at Cucumbershop.comhttps://cucumbershop.com.
Do they taste like the cucumbers you typically see here?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your question, Rebecca! Some may describe them as tasting like cucumbers with a melon-type aftertaste. The taste is more like a zucchini if picked too young, the taste is more like a melon rind if picked too late, and the taste is like a watery refreshing cucumber when picked at mid-age.
DeleteComplimenti Jay, un lavoro prezioso e perfetto!!!
DeleteAngelo
Grazie!
DeleteCongratulations for your vegetables (Polisello) and for the work to "rouging"!
ReplyDeletePat
Thank you!
DeleteFascinating looking vegetable...hubby hates cukes so this would not be a good choice for our garden...but I would grow it just for the look fo the veggie...
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with these, but you got my attention when you said they like 95+ heat! Sounds like something I should try. They are certainly beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb. I hope to continue working on growing out these varieties in the future. They are a real pain when it comes to saving seed though. There has to be some method to saving the seed that I haven't figured out yet.
DeleteHow interesting looking! With the summer we've been having, something that likes hot weather sounds like a winner!
ReplyDeleteI hope more people continue to grow these in the future!
Deletehow and where can I get some seeds ? Thanks
ReplyDeleteCucumberShop.com
DeleteThe variety still requires more refinement.
Happy Gardening!
-Jay
Thanks for the seeds Jay. I grew this variety this year. I love the pattern on these cucumbers. The dark green dots on white are so eye catching! They are crisp and took the heat perfectly here in Tucson, AZ. Keep working on this variety Jay; it's a keeper. What's the story behind this cucumber?
ReplyDeleteDear Nathan,
DeleteI’m so glad you enjoyed growing it!
Here is all I know so far:
I first learned about this variety on the Amici dell’ Orto (friends of gardening) blog. The post is listed here: http://amicidellortodue.blogspot.com/2011/08/carosello-polisello.html I received some seeds from Angelo, one of the main contributors to the blog.
I then grew it out myself, as mentioned in this post. When I grew it out, like you – I thought that it had been mixed seed.
The history of the variety can be found here: https://biodiversitapuglia.it/pilusedda/
My friend, Giuseppe grew this variety out in 2017. You can see his experience here: http://carosellopugliese.blogspot.com/2017/06/un-carosello-strano.html
I also grew it out in 2017 as mentioned in this post:
https://scientificgardener.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-polymorphic-carosello-polisello.html
Recently, because of the possibility of becoming bitter, I decided to discontinue the variety. There are multiple factors to work on with this variety. There are ways to select for non-bitter fruit before fruiting and ways to select for what we are trying to achieve in growing this variety, but it will take dedicated work over time.