Growing chayote is like growing a pear … that bears in just a few calendar month !
This is my first year successfully growing chayote squash and I ’m thrilled to have them finally making their room into the kitchen .
I think it ’s quite inauspicious that they ’re call “ squeeze , ” since they smack nothing like a squash . Chayote taste more like a frosty cucumber mixed with a breath of pear tree and fresh green beans . Juicy and refreshing – more like eating a mild fruit than eating any other squash .
This is understandable , since they ’re in the same kin as melons and cucumber . Some have called chayote crush “ vegetable pears , ” which is n’t a bad moniker . They ’d for sure equip much better in a yield salad than zucchini would .
Growing Chayote
Growing chayote is n’t operose if you have a long enough warm time of year ( I ’ve understand 150 days ) . I planted mine in March at the base of a pomegranate tree diagram off the back porch .
They ’ve now eaten the tree diagram .
Growing chayote on a pomegranate Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Growing chayote is like growing a pear… that bears in just a few months!
This is fine , because by the time they wax over the top of that pomegranate , I already knew it was n’t cash in one’s chips to produce yield this yr . The bloom had dropped , so I proceed “ forget it ! Thou art a chayote trellis , non - bearing knave ! ”
Rachel is coming up with chayote formula ideas already and we ’ve only harvest two thus far .
More are coming , though :
Growing chayote on a pomegranate tree
A still growing chayote fruit almost quick for harvest time .
Unlike their squash cousins , chayote do n’t produce come . Instead , they full fruit besiege a single embryo in the middle . To grow a new vine , you demand to plant the yield itself . I buried mine half - elbow room in the earth and they did all right .
These chayote originally came from my friendJoe Pierce of cob oven fame . Since frost will take a chayote squash racquets vine to the ground , he order some of the terminal fruit of fall on the porch and permit them ride until spring when they can be planted out again . They ’ll grow big crazy vine right out of the terminal of the yield … very strange .
A still growing chayote fruit almost ready for harvest.
Speaking of Joe , when I was shoot the cob oven telecasting , he also did a quick demonstration of a homemade pump exercise / bow drill firestarter – I just send the video on my channel a brace of day ago :
grow chayote squash as a perennial is possible in strong areas of the state , and may even be possible up here in North Florida ; however , this is my first year of successful chayote arise so I ’m not sure if the vine will issue forth back or not . They do n’t bulge setting yield until the fall , so if you live too far northward ( say , past Georgia ) it may be out of the question to get a good take . ( rent me know if you ’ve heard differently or if you have circumstances – I always love to get a line gardening fib . )
Mother Earth Newsdid a good article on chayotea few decade back and the link is here . Lots more info worth checking out . It has the potential to be a remarkably productive plant – I ’ve heard of common people around here getting close to a hundred fruit and deliver the vine climb up right smart up into the oaks .
Though I ’ll wager I ’m the only one growing them on a pomegranate tree diagram .
