The Red-Sapped Ayra from Rajasthan

Seeds of the Ayra cucumber came into my possession through a USDA germplasm accession from Rajasthan, India. The plants grew very similar to other Cucumis melo that I have grown before and continued to grow very well in my raised bed gardens until the time when they began to fruit. That is when I began to notice very big difference between the Ayra and any other cucumber I have ever grown before.

Extraordinarily short fine dense hairs cover the outside of the fruit, producing a reflective sheen over the entire outer surface of the cucumber. This trait is difficult to identify unless one gets up close to the cucumber. If reflected from the sun to one’s eyes, the nearly ability of the fruit surface to reflect the sunlight can be nearly blinding.

Dry texture. The fruit is not as juicy as some other Cucumis melo fruit I have grown before. In fact, the texture is nearly as dry as a zucchini. It is still completely edible and nourishing, but thirst quenching it is not.

Red sap. If the surface of the fruit is scraped or cut, it will give off a red sap. This sap is clearly visible when eating the fruit, as long as the consumer waits long enough for the liquid to form on the cut surface of the fruit. Though eating a cucumber that “bleeds” can be a bit unnerving, the liquid does not have a taste or odor that is any different from many other immature fruit in the muskmelon family.

 

Color changing. While many other fruit become lighter with maturity, this fruit can often become darker. Green or semi-green fruit can turn a burnt reddish-brown color. The reason for this is unknown, but it may have something to do with the color of the sap that comes from the fruit.

Gelatin-textured pulp inside the mature fruit. As the fruit matures, the outer portion continues to dry out, giving much of its moisture to the inner portion of the fruit. Similar to a Maldives cucumber-melon the inside of the mature fruit has gelatin-like pulp surrounding the seeds.

Generally speaking, this is the most drought-resistant cucumber variety I have ever grown. There was a time in which my garden was accidently no longer receiving water for nearly a month. Part of the reason why I had difficulty realizing that the water had stopped is that, while the growth of the fruit slowed down, the general health and well-being of the plant remained strong. I suspect that the vines have at least one attribute that enables the plant to limit transpiration during times of drought.

As easy as the plants were to grow the seed proved a little challenging to process. The pulp held tight to the seeds, requiring fermentation and unless the seeds were kept cool, germination rates would quickly deteriorate. As a result, I ended up discarding well over half of my newly harvested seed due to poor germination.

While there is one company in India that I am aware of that sells Ayra cucumbers, my experience is that they are very difficult to acquire from the company.

If you would like to learn a little more about the Ayra cucumber, here is a research paper on this fruit and its differences from the standard Cucumis melo cucumber.

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326303115_A_less-known_vegetable_melon_landrace_Arya_Cucumis_melo_L_from_Rajasthan_and_Haryana_India_morphological_biochemical_and_taxonomic_study

The Badem Acur Turkish Cucumber

I grew out the Badem Acur in 2021 as part of my international cucumber-melon trials. Similar to what Americans would call an Armenian Cucumber, a cucumber-melon is a Cucumis melo that is grown to be picked immature as a cucumber. I acquired this cultivar from a Dutch seed company that had this variety as part of their extensive cucumber seed collection. This was the first cucumber variety I grew out in my spring raised beds.

My experience was that they grew slowly to begin with. This may have been because of the cool night temperatures or because of the pillbugs that continually threatened to eliminate all the plants in the raised beds. While I did have some casualties from the Pillbugs, over half of the Badem Acur did survive and set fruit.

The Badem Acur is a Turkish variety of acur, or melon-cucumber. While Badem means “almond”, it is also used to denote “tiny” or miniature”. This acur variety comes from Antepin, which is the former capital of the Gaziantep province in Turkey. I have also seen it called “the Iyisi of Antepin” meaning “the finest” of Antepin. These small cucumbers grow on compact container-friendly vines. They are very tender and pleasant when 1 inch in diameter, but are great for pickling, stuffing or roasting when full-sized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While this variety continues to require some refinement for fresh-eating, it has a relatively nice texture and taste. One primary concern is the variability in color pattern and occasional bitterness. There were a small number of bitter fruit in the population I grew. After discovering this, I rouged all of the plants with bitter fruit and all of the fruit from each of the plants. Then I grew all the remaining plants out to seed. Because bitterness in Cucumis melo is primarily genetic instead of environmental, the primary means of eliminating bitterness in the genetics is to remove bitter plants from the population so that they cannot pass bitter genes onto the next generation.

Overall, I would have to say that the Badem Acur is one of the most interesting cucumber varieties that I grew out in 2021. It shows plenty of promise – especially for those who are limited in their garden space or would just like to try growing something fun.