The Pupuneddhra Bianca from Uccio of Sogliano

Back in 2017, I happened upon a Facebook post by an organization called Biodiverso di Puglia about a farmer named Luigi, who had discovered a new type of cucumber-melon. One day, in the course talking with some family friends about the importance of safeguarding Salento’s agricultural biodiversity, Luigi’s friends told him that in their father’s home in the countryside of Sogliano, they had some seeds of a variety of cucumber-melon that their father grew. The father, Uccio, had kept and maintained a population of cucumber-melons year after year until he passed away. While it was fortunate that had left a small box with a number of jars containing the seeds, the seeds were already 15 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon receiving the seeds, Luigi sowed them all. That was back in 2016. Out of those seeds, only one plant of what Luigi called the white Pupuneddhra, or Pupuneddhra bianca grew. For context, depending on the local dialect, Puglian farmers call melons that are picked immature as cucumbers by a variety of names. While they are generally referred to as carosello by seed companies, they are also called meloncella, cucumbarazzi, spuredda, and Pupuneddhra. Luigi ate one fruit and left the other as a what they call in the local dialect “samentara” or a fruit reserved for seed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because the two fruits were different, Luigi was doubtful that the variety was actually white. He thought that the difference in fruit color must be the result of crossing with an unknown variety or a result of some unstable mutation. From the seeds of that one fruit, Luigi again planted the seeds in 2017. Out of that, 7-8 vines produced white fruit. He left three fruit from which to collect the seed, then showed the fruit he picked to Uccio’s daughters, who said that they recognized the variety from when they were younger. They said that their grandfather had also cultivated the variety and that he and later his son, nicknamed Uccio, would leave at least one fruit for seed each year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After years of hoping, I was blessed to receive some of these white cucumber-melons from Luigi in early 2022. While the germination rate was relatively low, he had provided enough seed for me to coax the remainder of the poor seed to become healthy seedlings. The seedlings were cared for and planted, and after some adverse conditions related to the soil and critters ran their course, I planted a second round of seedlings to fill in the spots left by the plants that didn’t make it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The variety grew well. From the beginning, previous pictures that Luigi had shared led me to believe that the variety would be polymorphic – meaning that the vines would produce a number of fruit shapes, sizes and colors. As the fruit began to set on the vine, I culled (or removed from the population) vines whose fruit were not at least partially white. I continued to pull vines until all the plants had at least set fruit long enough for me to decipher the fruit color and remove all unwanted vines. I then harvested all of the white fruit, leaving the desired vines that had set prior to distinguishing the color of neighboring dark fruit. From the entire next crop of white fruit, except for the misshapen ones, I produced my own “samentara” or fruit reserved for seed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fruit itself had a very nice smooth texture. The variety was about as watery as a young Tortarello Barese (also known as a dark Snake Melon or Armenian Cucumber). It was more watery than a zucchini but less juicy than a lemon cucumber - somewhere between a Carosello Mezzo Lungo Barese and a Carosello Bianco Lecce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typically, when I am gifted a new cucumber-melon variety that I am able to grow out to seed, I send an extra portion of fresh seed back to those who gave the initial seed to me. This is a practice I have adopted over the years to thank those who entrust me with their precious indigenous cucumber-melon varieties. While I am never able to fully repay the kindness of those who share seed with me, I have returned a large quantity of fresh healthy Pupueneddhra bianca seed back to Luigi. Thanks to his efforts, this white cucumber-melon that originated with Uccio of Sogliano will not be forgotten.

The “6 bucket” hydropic basket gardens (Dark Armenian, Tar Kadki, Scopattizo, Faqous)

Without enough gardens, it can be difficult to determine where I can grow my plants. This last year, I had too many varieties for myself to handle in the three gardens that I had. While I did acquire a garden at the community college over the winter, I had no idea how to manage a 20x20’ plot consisting primarily of weeds. After looking at what a farmer would be willing to grow and what I wanted to make a priority for my main gardens, I decided to grow two varieties that I had low seed stock with and two new varieties that I had recently acquired seed of. The two established varieties were the Dark Armenian (Tortarello Barese) and the Scopattizo Barese while the two new varieties were the Tar Kakdi (a snakemelon variety from India) and the Palastinian Faqous.

 

 

 

 

I decided that I needed at least six plants, so I would have each host care for six buckets of one cucumber-melon variety. Then I went about trying to find people who would be comfortable with me growing plants in their yards. The owner of the chicken garden was willing to host a set of buckets, two friends at church were also willing. Finally, I found one woman from the community college who was willing to host a set of buckets. With the hosts determined, I then went about starting transplants and transplanting each soil block into the buckets. The most important part of this was labeling. At one point, I had to pull out some transplants because I accidentally forgot to label which variety was which and I accidentally put some of the transplants together.

So here is how each variety did:

The Faqous was my most important variety. For this variety, I found an expensive organic soil business that would deliver a whole yard of high quality growing mix. I had this mix delivered to my friend’s house, then we used a pallet jack to bring it to the correct place in his yard. Then I transferred the hydroponic baskets into the soil. The plants did very well, but the plants went from fruiting to setting seed so quick that the plants quickly died immediately afterwards. It was great that the plants were so efficient, but how quick the plants produced seed caught me a little off-guard. I thought that the plants might last a little longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tar Kakdi grew for a little while, but turned out to not be the variety I was looking for. So instead of trying to fight the heat of the summer, I just gathered all the buckets from this friend and came home with them. My hope for this variety was that it would produce very long thin cucumbers. Unfortunately, it produced misshapen cucumbers with some variations in color.

The Dark Armenian was grown out by a friend of mine who manages a nursery in American Canyon. The plants did relatively well, then started to go downhill. I harvested a little bit of good seed from the fruit that we grew on his property.

 

 

 

 

The Scopattizo Barese were grown on the plot of a friend of mine who, with her husband, does a lot to care for the garden plots at the community college where my new garden plot was. She had some extra space, so transferred some of the struggling hydroponic baskets into the ground, where they did much better than in the buckets. They produced well, though I have yet to harvest all the seeds from these plants.

 

 

 

Lessons Learned: Growing plants in buckets using hydroponic baskets is definitely a short-term solution. I am lucky to get one or two fruit if I am growing in full sun in Northern California. That being said, starting in hydroponic baskets and transferring the plants into a garden or larger plots works relatively well. I will likely see if I can utilize the connections that I have made and grow in one larger container in each garden I am able to next year.