A small satin-like fruit streaked with purple stripes and varying in colour from golden-yellow to apricot. The pale yellowish-green flesh has a juicy melon-like texture. It is a delicious subtle flavoured fruit similar to a honeydew or rockmelon.
Closely related to the tomato this shrub grows in a sprawling habit and makes an excellent ground cover plant. It tends to fruit better when grown over a trellis. The foliage is susceptible to damage by light to moderate frosts, however will quickly recover with warmer weather.
Small bush rarely above 1 m tall with yellow fruit stripped purple up to 10cm. Flavour is like a juicy rock melon. Only pick fragrant, slightly soft fruit which are ripe.
Comments (30)NEW | Mega Tube | $9.90 AU | 
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| Height | Frost tol. | Pollination req'd | Evergreen/Deciduous | Harvest period |
| 1 | Medium | No | Evergreen | January - May |
We welcome your Tips on Pepino. Share Your Tip.
Well worth growing. Fruit tastes like extra juicy and sweet rock melon. Easy to propagate from cuttings and layering. Watch out for fruit fly and snails. Keep fruit clear of the ground and exposed to light. Water well in hot weather. | David White - Newcastle, NSW 03-Jun-2006
L grow my pepino in stack of car tyers 3 high.the fruit hangs down and the snails miss out on dessert. | Ray Aquilina - Drysdale, VIC 08-Jun-2006
I'm amazed how prolific and large the fruit is on my little 1 year old Pepino Gold! It seems to like Adelaide and limey soil, and can thrive with less than judicious watering. Does anyone have any recipes for the fruit? | Sharon - Adelaide, SA 03-Aug-2006
There are some good pepino recipes here http://www.edible.co.nz/recipes/pepino.htm | Cecilia - Melbourne, VIC 29-Sep-2006
I plant my Pepino in pots (500mm) so I can put them in the sun during summer and under cover to stop frost damage in winter. My first crop was over 50 fruit. A very prolific tasty fruit. | Bruce Roberts - Sale, VIC 02-May-2007
Pepino is wonderful dried: really intense sweet flavour. good to add to home made muesli | Jane Donaldson - Tolga, QLD 19-Jun-2007
Try sprinkling pepinos with a dusting of ground ginger and castor sugar. Let the dish stand for a while and serve with cream or icecream. Or as a savoury, wrap proscuttio around slices of pepino. | Margaret Eldridge - Sandy Bay, TASMA 27-Jun-2007
I will let you know, am getting ready to eat my first one. They are as large as a big Tom tomato.. I have about six on my first plant. | Frank Kemp - Poole, Dorset, U.K. 15-Sep-2007
Did well in the U.K. had seven in total from one plant. taste like a Melon | Frank Kemp - Poole, U.K. 28-Oct-2007
The Pepino recipes link above from Cecilia is now wrong. Try http://www.edible.co.nz/recipies.php?fruitid=43 instead, same site & same recipes. PS they grow well in SE Qld but my dog eats more of them than I do! | Rob Mcmillan - Brisbane, QLD 25-Jun-2008
I have had mine in for 3 months and am trying to work out if the fruit are ready mine is purple too they seem to do ok in palmerston north so i am happy any one with ideas on how to tell if fruit are ready please post a thing so i can read it thanks | Sally Lewis - Palmerston North, NZ 23-Feb-2009
A great plant! I'm in Melbourne and my outdoor pepino plant gets bit down a bit every winter by the cold but comes back quickly in spring. (perhaps would be better under cover for safety tho) easy to grow from cuttings. nice fruit | Lewis - Melbourne, VIC 12-Apr-2009
Lve just planted a new shrub of pepino..and am looking forward to my first crop of fruit. | Vicky H. - Hallam , VIC 31-Jan-2010
More than 1 metre high and fruit is yellow/green no purple. anyone else seen fruit with no purple ? | Anna Gibson - Niddrie, VIC 23-Mar-2010
I have mine on the patio in a large pot.Its about six months old about half a meter high and a meter across has at least eighteen fruits, and are yellow/green no purple. | Tony Forde - York, N.YOR 15-Aug-2010
Pepinos are a good ground cover and snail attractor around fruit trees. Now we have so many I'm drying them and making chutney. My pepinos don't taste too flash on their own, maybe it's because we have very alkaline soil... | Wendy Rushbrook - Stansbury, SA 16-Jan-2011
Need a good watering but does the pepino need any specal elements in the soil | Nathen Brickly - Busselton, WA 19-Jan-2011
I just have a couple of plants and i plant then 30 to 45 cm apart from each other and im surprise how much it has grown | Nathen Brickly - Busselton, WA 19-Jan-2011
Grown in full sun in pot. just picked our first fruit after the bush was planted in september. One large fruit with four smaller ones. Pick when a pale yellow with purple mottled stripes and slight give to flesh. Melony texture and yummy to eat. | Pauline Borg - Deer Park, VIC 14-Feb-2011
Hi guys,try dried fruit, before drying stand sliced and cut fruit in lime juice for 5 minutes, the dry in fruit drier.yummmmy or try stew apples with equal amount of pepino. Hug Schroeder- Mornngton Peninsula Vic 13 March 2011 | Hugh Schroeder - Dromana, VIC 14-Mar-2011
Pepino isvery usefull because it canbe addition to many desserets,side dishes and hEALTH-consciousmeals.Italso interesting to plant and you can have a business out of it by selling it in to your friends and others......................................... | Pamela L. Catapia - Batangas , NONE 15-Mar-2011
I have my pepino in a large pot and it cascaded over the edge. I found that the branched started developing roots and where they touched the ground I had more bushes growing. I cut these branches off and now have quite a few new plants in pots. | Ulrich G. - Rockhampton, QLD 14-May-2011
If you want large sweet tasting crops use Brunnings Tomato & veg Plant Food I have 3 plant 3 months my family of 2adults 3 kids cant keep up with them neighbor are loving it | Michael Tinson - Maitland, 2320, NSW 08-Feb-2012
Keep Pipinos off the ground in wine barrel or similiar mine is loaded and this in July hope they ripen as it seems unseasonal | Valerie Cameron - Strathalbyn 5255, S A 07-Jul-2012
Ours is 3 years old. Had trouble when allowing to grow on ground, slaters, snails etc. Husband put a fence of arc mesh around it to hold up branches. Bush is loaded now with at least 30 fruit, some as large as small rockmelons. | Raylee Pittard - Esperance, WA 06-Aug-2012
I gave my pepino plant a cut back a few months ago, it is now close to 1 meter tall I have made a trellis for it, I have already taken 6 pepinos from the plant, and took some cuttings 3 months ago that have been translated in the garden. | Joe - Melbourne, VIC 06-Dec-2012
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/pepino.html
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