The Jordanian Faqous

While those in the United States may refer to immature melons that are grown as cucumbers as “Armenian” cucumbers, those in the Arabic speaking world often refer to them as Fakkous or Faqous. These melon-cucumbers are generally light in color and can be long, semi-long or slightly short. Depending on where they are grown, they may have some other traits that they are selected for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The germplasm that I received for this specific Faqous was collected by a work colleague who was visiting some friends or family in Jordan. Before leaving on her trip, she promised to pick up some seed for me. I was under the impression that the seed that she had provided me with would be a Palestinian variety called the Beit Sahour Faqous, but it turned out that what I received was a variety that is popular in the markets of Jordan. There, the fruit is picked very young, often with the intention of having locals use it for pickling cucumbers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plants grew well and were generally problem-free until near the end of the season. That is when every muskmelon tends to succumb to Powdery Mildew. But until then, I was free to hand-pollinate the little female flowers that would develop on the meandering vines without the fear of spreading any disease. Once the fruit had set, it took a while to mature. This would definitely be a good trait for farmers who want to collect the fruit every few days, instead of having to pick all the fruit at once. Fruit that matures quickly results in either a lot of babysitting or a lot of wasted food, as those fruit that are often discarded because they don’t meet the customers’ standards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the season, I was able to harvest enough fruit with good seed that I was able to ensure that I have the seed for another season. Often I am provided with seed that may go bad within the next 12 months. In these cases, it is imperative that I grow out at least a small quantity of the variety to ensure sufficient vigor in the population to keep it going. I look forward to growing the Jordanian faqous another year and hope to be able to provide this small variety on sprawling vines to many others.

 

 

 

 

 

Growing out the Tondo Massafra in the Greenhouse

In the fall of 2024, I had the opportunity to grow out the Carosello Tondo di Massafra in the greenhouse. I settled on growing out this variety due to my friend Giuseppe mentioning to me that he was not able to see much of a difference between the coloration patterns of the Massafra, in comparison to the coloration of the Massafrese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

My seed source for the fall Massafra growout was seed from Riccardo Larosa. As much of the Riccardo Larosa seed tends to be poor quality or old, I made sure to soak the seeds in a diluted solution of hydrogen peroxide and water before attempting to sprout them in a warm moist paper towel. Once the seeds sprouted, I transferred them into the hydroponic baskets in the greenhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plants grew quickly in the late summer and began putting on female flowers. That is when I noticed that the female flowers were hermaphrodites. This was new to me. Had my previous Tondo Massafra exhibited hermaphrodite flowers? I’m not sure. I may have to try growing them again to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Riccardo Larosa Tondo di Massafra grew as one would expect. The texture was not as fine as I would have preferred, but that is often the case with the fruit I produce from my greenhouse. It would seem that, while stress does not induce bitterness in melons, it does affect fruit quality and cause the fruit to produce seed earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, the Tondo Massafra that I grew in the greenhouse didn’t surprise me too much; except for the hermaphrodite traits exhibited by some of the flowers. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those traits the next time I grow this variety in the garden.

 

 

Finally – A Pure Splotched Manduria

Unless you have been growing the Carosello Tondo Manduria cucumber for multiple years, it would be nearly impossible to describe how meaningful it is for me to get to the point where I did this last season. The Tondo Manduria is generally a polymorphic variety, meaning that the plant and/or the fruit exhibit diverse traits. While the plant is generally compact, some plants in the population will vine. The fruit itself is even more codominant, expressing two phenotypes – one of which is purely light green and round in color and another which is round and light green with dark green splotching. There are also differences in fruit texture and, occasionally, fruit shape. The texture of the fruit can either be tender and smooth or more firm and slightly grainy.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a number of years, I have grown the Tondo Manduria – hoping to find a population of only tender light green fruit with splotching on a compact plant. I am of the opinion that the splotched tender fruit is one of the most beautiful fruit and believed that there must be a commercially available seed source that grew the variety in purity. However, after years of trialing various seed companies – and even seed from Italian friends, I came to the conclusion that there is no seed company that sold either phenotype of the Tondo Manduria in isolation. My choices were to grow an irregular diverse population or nothing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My serendipitous opportunity to change that came this last year when I grew the Tondo Manduria in a larger population. The larger a population of a specific variety of plant, the greater the opportunity for the grower to identify unique traits. Additionally, by their nature, the sheer numbers of larger populations provide the grower with clusters of plants that exhibit similar traits. This was the case with the Tondo Manduria I grew in the fertile garden and in the olive orchard. I took advantage of the clusters of plants to be able to select for the consistency of coloring I had been trying to get for years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My selection process for isolating any trait in a cucurbit is based on a plant’s proximity to plants with similar characteristics. This is because the plants are pollinated by bees, which generally go from one flower to another, preferring to save energy by pollinating all the flowers in a specific area at a time. I have used this counting technique multiple times to select for specific traits in my cucumber and melon populations. The basic premise is that the higher number of plants with the desired trait that surround a plant with the same desired trait, the higher the chance that the center plant will produce seeds that will grow into plants with the desired trait. If a plant is surrounded by two plants with the desired trait, then I use a marker to write a “2” on the fruit of the central plant. Likewise, if a plant with a desired trait is surrounded by five plants with the desired trait, I will write a “5” on the fruit of the plant with the desired trait. Once again, the higher the number, the greater the probability that the seed of the succeeding generations will exhibit the desired trait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I was going through the fruit at the olive orchard, I found a fruit that was surrounded by six plants with the desired trait – light tender fruit with dark splotching on generally compact plants. I wrote a “6” on all of the fruit of the plant and, when the fruit had fully ripened, I harvested and dried the seed separately, and labeled the bag with the selected seed with the number “6”. Recognizing that there was enough time left in the season to grow out the next generation of the desired Tondo Manduria, I sprouted the seeds and planted them in one of my backyard grape macro bins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To my delight, the plants that grew from these seedlings developed healthy compact vines that produced tender round light fruit with dark splotching. Despite a high variability in the plants of the succeeding generation, all of the plants in the new growout produced fruit that exhibited the desired traits. While, at the beginning of the season, I was resigned to the outcome of not finding what I was looking for, the sought-for traits were realized as I opened my eyes and mind to the possibilities. The seed I planted did not produce all the fruit I was looking for, but rather I was given the opportunity to make the most of the situation by seeing the path ahead. Sometimes we don’t get what we had hoped for, but if we fail to persevere in that which is most important, then we will never realize that we are only removed from our goal by a few steps.