Kiwano, African Horned Melon 'African Horned'

I planted a Kiwano (Jelly melon) in mid-March 2017, I live in South Texas, Houston area. It went crazy growing everywhere but no flowers,...Read More no fruit UNTIL the end of may and now it's flowering like crazy and producing many fruits. Seems, unlike other plants this one likes to put all its energy into spreading out first, then it blooms ALOT! So don't give up eventually it will produce. (Got my seeds from store bought fruit as well)

Hi,
I bought one of these from sprouts market in Scottsdale AZ and planted it late June, we had a very rainy season way above ...Read Moreaverage, and this thing has grown up and over the wall, vining down the clothes line and has pretty much taken over, which I don't mind. I have yet to see any flowers however. There have been plenty if bees around but nothing for them to pollinate. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that plants grown from seeds of fruit bought at the store are unlikely to produce fruit, something about them being sterile or some such equivalent...does anyone know if there is any truth to that or what I can do to try and get my plant to flower if it's not true...?

Here's a great story for you. I bought a Kiwano melon at AJ's Market in Phoenix, Arizona while I was down visiting my brother. He had jus...Read Moret moved into a new house and I was helping him plant new shrubs, trees and plants. We did all that and then I suddenly had a sneaky idea. I'm sure you can guess. I ate most of my Kiwano melon but I saved a number of seeds and just dropped them underneath a Passiflora vine I had just planted for him. He called me a few months later and asked me if I knew what this weird vine was that was taking over all of the other plants in that particular bed. Of course I did! My experiment had worked obviously. One of the seeds had germinated and was growing like a weed. That was months ago. I just went down to visit him and oh dear! I created a monster! The Kiwano is approx. 14 ft tall now and crawling all over everything else and up the trellis. It has reached the roof and is growing across the beams in the front courtyard too, now. It is huge! No blooms as of yet but it sure likes that desert climate and the 100 plus degree temps. It gets constant water from irrigation and now we are just waiting for it to bloom and fruit, which I pray it does. The neighbors are all asking what it is and now they all want one too! It makes great shade in the desert and is a very attractive vine. The trunk on this vine must be about 2 inches in diameter by now. It's like a tree. Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can get it to bloom and fruit? It's grown all the way up onto the roof as I said, but no flowers or fruit. Can't wait to hopefully see orange spiny melons hanging down from the beams in the courtyard!

I'm going to give this plant a positive rating right now because the greenery is growing like gangbusters. It's a very active climber and...Read More seems to grow several inches overnight. However I haven't seen any flowers or fruits and it's mid July. I've never grown this before so I can't say if this is typical or not so we'll see. The leaves and vines look very healthy, bugs don't seem to bother them, vines are 10+ feet long in places.

I hope we get some fruits because this looks like a fun one to try.