One potted fruit plant can bear 100 fruits; harvest a whole pot at a time and never buy them again

This fruit that looks like a watermelon is called the mouse melon; it is especially mini, appearing to be only the size of a thumb, with all kinds of rind patterns very similar to a watermelon, a taste much like a refreshing cucumber, and a fairly high yield when grown in a pot, making it suitable for growing in pots at home.

The mouse melon is an annual or perennial climbing vine; the vine can reach several feet long, forming a trellis-like hanging curtain. Its fruit is oval, with an exterior no different from an ordinary watermelon, and the flesh inside is blue-green, with a crisp, refreshing texture like a cucumber and a higher nutritional value than an ordinary watermelon.

Mouse melon seeds sprout rather slowly. Before sowing, the seeds can be soaked and sterilized in warm water at about 50°C; after soaking for half a day, wash the seeds, then wrap them tightly in a wet towel and place them at about 30°C to germinate.

When the seed sprout has grown to about 0.5cm, it can be sown normally. The mouse melon is suitable for growing in fertile, moist, well-drained neutral sandy loam and peat soil; water when the soil is dry and let it dry out between waterings, and it grows well in a mild summer with plenty of sunshine.

Generally speaking, the mouse melon's survival ability is fairly strong, the chance of being attacked by pests and diseases is very low, and even birds rarely peck at the fruit. When the seedling has grown 5-6 true leaves (plant height 10-12cm), it is ready for trellising and tying the vines.

The mouse melon's growth cycle is generally 2-3 months, and spring and summer are the more suitable cultivation seasons. Growing it on a trellis gives a larger yield; after trellising, a single plant is about 1.5 m tall, and each plant has a fairly high yield of 60-100 fruits.

When the mouse melon is ripe, at about 3 cm long, roughly the size of a finger joint, it can be picked; harvest a whole pot at a time, and after washing it can be eaten directly, with a crisp texture and edible skin. It can also be made into fruit salad; from then on you will not need to buy fruit, just grow a few more pots of mouse melon.