Are you already fluent in the technology of growing cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers? Surely, you are devoted to vegetable growing with all your heart, and therefore you will want to grow something more unusual. What about growing artichokes, horned melons, or melon pears? Let’s take a look at TOP-5 exotic plants to grow in your polycarbonate greenhouse.
If you have a polycarbonate greenhouse, you can handle these tasks. The conditions in the greenhouse are suitable, you just need to choose the crops to experiment with and get to know them better.
Exotic plants to grow in polycarbonate greenhouse
Artichokes
In Europe, the artichoke belongs to the category of gourmet vegetables. The culture is interesting because the unopened flower bud is eaten. It is baked in the oven with spices and olive oil, boiled in water with the addition of lemon juice.
To ensure that your artichokes are sure to ripen in any climate zone, choose an early variety. Seedlings need to be grown for up to 60 days in a sand-turf mixture with humus. Choose a bed on the sunniest side; before planting, fertilize the soil with humus, ash, and superphosphate. You will need plenty of watering.
Kiwano – African horned melon
The orange pimpled kiwano fruit and vegetable has a complex, vibrant flavor. You can use it to prepare salads, as well as jam and desserts, or pickle it like cucumbers. The fruit belongs to the pumpkin family.
In the northern United States, only one variety of kiwano can be grown – Green Dragon. The liana reaches a length of 3 meters and requires a garter. You can even grow it in an open garden, the main thing is to transplant the seedlings when it is already 54-59 °F outside. Fertilize with regular organic matter.
Pepino – melon pears
These sweet fruits are more similar in appearance to yellow-purple plums and belong to the nightshade family (like tomatoes). Eaten fresh, they resemble cucumbers, bananas, pears and melons at the same time. They also prepare desserts, candied fruits, and bake them. Take early ripening pepino varieties – Consuelo, Ramses. Transplant the seedlings into the ground in mid-May. Be sure to tie it up. Growing technology and care are similar to tomatoes.
Super healthy fennel
Connoisseurs of natural vitamins will like the idea of growing fennel – a crop in the form of a head of cabbage with leaves like carrots. Moreover, you can eat all parts – seeds, leaves, heads of cabbage. Even fresh. You can also stew it or add it to soups.
Sow more seedlings, as they are quite reluctant to take root in the garden bed. A special feature of care is the need for abundant watering with warm water. Make sure that the soil does not dry out, otherwise the fennel will produce flowers that make the head inedible.
The pinnacle of exoticism is momordica
The elongated oval fruit of momordica surprises with its appearance. At first it looks like a pimply, deformed cucumber, then it turns bright orange, bursts and reveals scarlet “berries”. Crop is a relative of the cucumber, has a sour taste and is reminiscent of persimmon and watermelon. You can eat ripe fruits fresh, add them to salads and preserve them. You can bake or stew unripe fruits. Also You can eat shoots and leaves, for example, add them to soups.
