Green Flesh Honeydew Melon

Plant Description
The honeydew melon is a cultivar group of muskmelon. The fruit is round-shape weight about 1.5kg, has slight netted milky yellow surface, has green flesh and seeds. This hybrid melon is known for high disease tolerant and is easy to cultivate. It is the sweetest and delicious fruit among all melons.

How to grow
Grow honeydew melon in full sun and warm climate. Sow the seed 1 inch depth in the well-drained, silghtly acidic, fertile, loam soil. Keep the soil moist during germination. Soil temperature should be 24 to 27 degree Celsius. Need water regularly for germination. Plant spacing is 12 to 24 inches apart and in rows 5 to 6 feet apart. Germination in 7 to 10 days. Honeydew melon is a warm weather fruit and should not be placed outside until the chance of frost has passed. Plant melon season from late spring to summer.

Maturity Info
Approximately 70 days

Nutrition Info
Good source of Vitamin A, C Calcium, Iron, Potassium, & Follate.

Uses & Health benefit.
The honeydew melon is always serve as desserts, can be extract for ice-cream flavor and fresh juices.
It helps to prevent cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes & cancer.

Lemon (Citrus limon)

The lemon is an important fruit of citrus group. It ranks high as a health food. It is sometimes mistaken for the lime, but the lime is a smaller species and the lemon forms a bigger variety, with a rough, thin and loose rind. Lemon is oval in shape and light yellow in color with thick, rough skin. When riPe it has pale yellow pulp, abundant juice and a small number of seeds. It has been cultivated in south-east Asia from ancient times. It is now widely grown in all tropical and subtropical countries. The tree can grow 10 to 20 ft. Its small size makes it a popular container plant indoors in temperate climates.

How to grow
Grows well in full sun or part shade (full sun in cooler climates.) Water regularly, less so during cold months. Fertilize during growing periods. Not particular about soil. USDA hardiness zone is 9-11. Direct sow the seed into soil in container or on the ground. Keep soil moist and germination in a week. Lemon trees should be spaced 25 ft (7.6 in) apart each way. If crowded or "hedged", production declines. The trees must be pruned when young and kept below 10 or 12 ft (3-3.6 m) in height. They are cut back severely after 12 years or replaced. Planting season is spring to late summer.

Maturity info
Hand picked the ripen the fruit in suitable sizes.

Nutrition info
High content of citric acid and Vitamin C.

Uses and Health benefit
Lemons are used to make lemonade, and as a garnish for drinks. Many mixed drinks, soft drinks, iced tea, and water are often served with a wedge or slice of lemon in the glass or on the rim. Drinking lemon juice can cooling our body heat especially during fever and destroys the toxins in the body. Lemon strengthens the gums and teeth. It also good for our digestive system. Lemon peel oil is much used in furniture polishes, detergents, soaps and shampoos. It is important in perfume blending and especially in colognes

Noni (Morinda citrifolia)

Also known as Indian Mulberry, Mengkudu (Malay), Nonu/Nono (Pacific Islands), Noni (Hawaii).

The noni fruit is native to Southeast Asia region but has been extensively spread throughout the Indian subcontinent, Pacific islands, French Polynesia,Puerto Rico and recently the Dominican Republic. Tahiti remains the most prominent growing location.

It can grow up to 9 metres (30 ft) tall, and has large, simple, dark green, shiny and deeply veined leaves. The plant flowers and fruits all year round and produces a small white flower. The fruit is a multiple fruit that has a pungent odor when ripening, and is hence also known as cheese fruit or even vomit fruit. It is oval and reaches 4–7 centimetres (1.6–2.8 in) in size. At first green, the fruit turns yellow then almost white as it ripens. It contains many seeds. It is sometimes called starvation fruit. Despite its strong smell and bitter taste, the fruit is nevertheless eaten as a famine food.

How to grow
The plant grows well on sandy or rocky shores. Apart from saline conditions, the plant also can withstand drought and grows in secondary soils. It is advisable that noni seeds are planted in deeper seedling flats to allow the growth of longer taproots which ensure a safer transplanting and quicker establishment to the soil later. Moderate irrigation is necessary for noni cultivation.

Noni seeds require hot, wet conditions for optimum germination. Unscarified seeds require several months to a year before natural germination takes place, but their germination can be reduced to a month or so using heat. The seeds can tolerate temperature of 100°F (38°C), perhaps even higher. Select the warmest spot in the nursery or greenhouse to germinate noni seeds.

Seed Scarification - The hard seed coat should be scarified through puncturing of nicking to reduce germination time. It also improves germination percentage and brings about uniform sprouting. By natural means, the seed coat decomposes slowly, and then germination follows. Scarification speeds up the process. Sacrified seeds will germinate in 4-6 weeks.

An appropriate interplant spacing for noni is 10–15 feet. At 12-foot spacing there are 290 noni plants per acre. Higher planting densities (closer plant spacing) result in crowding and may exacerbate certain pest or disease problems.

Nutrition info
High dietary fiber, Carbonhydrates and Vitamin C, Niacin, Iron and Potassium.

Uses
Many traditional medicinal uses. For topical uses, it can be used raw or pounded into a mush and mixed with salt. The smelly salve is applied to cuts and broken bones. Raw ripe fruit is applied to infected boils for the purpose of drawing out the pus. It is also topically applied to animal bites, insect bites, inflammation, and burns. In some places heated leaves are placed on the chest to relieve nausea, coughs, and colic, or placed on the forehead to treat headaches.

Tonics made from various parts of the Noni bush are used to treat eye, skin, gum, throat, skin, and stomach problems. Traditional healers use Noni extracts for treating arthritis, menstruation, dysentery, lumbago, asthma, intestinal worms, food poisoning, nausea, and urinary, bowel, and respiratory problems.

Duku Fruit (Lansium domesticum)

Also known as Longkong

A vigorous, spreading, symmetrical tree with dense foliage, fruit in clusters of 4-12. The tree can grow up to 20m tall. Fruits are spheroid, 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) in diameter, with a thick peel, little to no latex. The interior of each fruit contains 5 segments which are very much like the segments of a small grapefruit. The translucent white pulps are sweet and juicy. The seed is ellipsoid in shape and not to bite it (very bitter). Adapted to tropical conditions. It is a exotic fruit which can only be found in Northern Peninsular Malaysia and South of Thailand and Indonesia.

How to grow
Duku fruit needs ultra-tropical climate: full sun, tropical climate with high rainfall and humidity. The tree does best on deep, rich, well-drained, sandy loam or other soils that are slightly acid to neutral and high in organic matter. Propagated by seeds. Sow the seed into the soil with 2 inches depth. The seeds will germinate usually in 3 weeks. The trees are spaced 25 to 33 ft (8-10 m) apart in orchards.

Harvest info
Duku fruit tree in Malaysia generally bear twice a year-in June and July and again in December and January or even until February. Most duku fruit tree will starting to bear fruit in 12-15 years.

Nutrition info
High in Vitamin C, Phosphorous, and Calcium, contains Iron, Riboflavin, Niacin and Thiamine.

Health benefit
The fruit peel is dried and burned to repel mosquitoes; it is also used to treat intestinal parasites and diarrhea. Powdered seeds are used to reduce fever, and the bark is used to treat malaria and scorpion stings.

Mixed Cactus

These fun to grow desert type cacti may be grown outside in frost-free zones or as inside potted specimens in colder climates. Since seeds are selected at random, there is simply no way to know which varieties are included. However, since each packet has 25 seeds, you can expect a good variation. These odd and interesting desert plants are usually spiny and leafless and produce massive round, cyclindrical flat or angular growth which performs the functions of stem, branch and leaves alike.

How to grow
Growing cacti from seed can be rewarding, but requires a lot of patience as the seeds often take some time to germinate. Once mature, cactus will bloom once a year under the proper conditions, producing some of the most colorful blooms.

The cactus germination need bright, non-direct sun, 13 to 14 hours a day, full sun once established. Using loam type, well-draining cactus soil with added sand or perlite, covering seeds lightly. Germination temperature is 21 to 30 degrees Celsius (70 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). The seed germinate irregularly over a period of 4 to 12 weeks so patience must be exercised to obtain successful results.

Keep soil lightly moist during germination and for the first few months afterward. Avoid humid conditions after germination. Once the cacti have reached a few months, they can gradually be adjusted to drier conditions. Most species do best in zones 7 to 11.

Uses
In case of cactus plants it’s not the matter of use but for the most part of aesthetic beauty and true admiration of one’s hobby. It is a beautiful houseplant. It is much rewarding when your cactus is flowering.

Calabaza / Tropical Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata)

Calabaza is a squash variety, grown throughout Central - and South America as well in the Caribbean. It is a creeping, annual tropical vine with large lobed leaves and branching tendrils; the flesh of the fruit is bright orange. The flowers are yellow and pollination is done by bees. The leaves are mottled and grayish green in color. The fruits vary in size, shape, and color owing to outcrossing and strain selection. Some weigh up to 50 pounds. The most common form of fruit weighs about 5-12 pounds, and is round and flattened a bit on the top and bottom. Its colors are mottled green or yellow and buff-cream. The taste is sweet and Calabaza is used in many local dishes.

How to grow
Calabaza tolerates hot weather conditions as well as other members of the cucurbit family. It is a tender crop easily injured by frost and freezes. It should be planted early in the spring as soon as the danger of frost is past. USDA zone 9B - 11. Need full sun, rich warm soil with good drainage, water regularly. Sow the seed directly and it will germinate within 2 weeks. Plant spacing the rows should be spaced 6-9 feet apart, and the plants spaced 4 feet apart, in the row. Planting season is late spring and summer.

Maturity info
Approximately 90 days

Nutrition info
High in dietary fiber and rich in Vitamin A & C

Cooking info
It is eaten many different ways, such as in stews, cakes, and candies. Some recipes that call for pumpkin allow calabaza to be used in its place. The taste is smooth and somewhat sweet. The flower, is used as an ingredient in quesadillas in Mexican cuisine, and in pupusas in Salvadorian cuisine.

Medical uses
Tea from the leaves of calabaza is used against stomach inflammation and jaundice.
The seeds of Cucurbita species are also used; to immobilize and aid in expulsion of intestinal worms and parasites.
Another application is using the seeds in the treatment of prostate gland disorders.
The Cherokee Amerindians and those from Surinam used pumpkin seed as an anthelmintic and also as a pediatric urinary aid to treat bed-wetting.
Help to prevent common type of kidney stones

F1 hybrid Golden Melon