The Scientific Gardener Looking back at the Past, Living in the Present and Anticipating the Future

Since November 14th, 2011 I have been learning from my garden. But the young child in my first blog post, who is now twenty years old. He, along with my other three children, are all grown up and moving away. In a departure from my regular posts, in the next series of posts I will be sharing a little about my life, my gardening up to this time, the development of my seed shop and finally my vision for the future of this blog.

 

 

 Thank you to any of you who have joined me over this time. While I am planning on continuing the blog in some ways, the format may alter in order to accommodate some of the other demands from my garden and from life.

The Spredda Leccese Scuro in New York

Another grower, from New York State, grew out the Carosello Spuredda Leccese Scuro for me. Instead of attempting to grow them in an open field, Nathaniel grew them in a high tunnel. Other than some confusion near the end of the season over how to properly dry the seeds, Nathaniel did a good job of growing the seed out. While there is a learning curve involved in growing and processing cucumber and melon seed, the grower can greatly increase the quality of the seed, if they just complete some minor winnowing. Taking out the lower quality seed enables the heavier seed to remain dry and viable.

 

 

 

Sacramento’s Palestinian Faqous:

This last year I felt very blessed to be able to work with a Sacramento area grower to produce another crop of the Palestinian Faqous. The grower, Christy, was very teachable and worked hard to produce a fine crop of these cucumbers. Here are a few pictures of the Palestinian Faqous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.