I have planted a pepino bush and this last week or so noticed the first little fruits appearing! Yah I thought untill I spotted a brown rotten fruit and inside chomping away was a strawberry red fat ol' catipillar. Needless to say, it is no more but I need to know if I need to spray / treat my plant with something (organic preferred). I'd hate to loose the fruit on it.
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I find they're quite nice in a mixed fruit salad - they're fairly bland on their own but go well with stronger tasting fruit like banana, apple or peaches.
I'm trying to grow mine up a trellis, as they can spread if unchecked. Mixed results so far, although I'll see how we go this summer.
They are a pretty hardy little plant. If it's in a sunny spot with good water and healthy soil I reckon it will treat you well.
My thought would be to feed it with more good org compost. A healthy plant will resist attack, and a weak one will become food for other critters, that's nature's way. Nature doesn't need much from us to express her abundance. Just go and sing to it from time to time, and let it know how grateful you are.
My experience is the same as Christy and the bushes aren't that long-lived either, in my experience, but the branches root well. the fruit is great when used in exchange for bananas in a cake...
mine have been growing for a couple of years now and they are quite susceptible to chomping pests. i use 'quash' bait every so often when snails and slugs are an issue, otherwise i would say keep a close eye on them and if there is something that is difficult to remove by hand then spray with something reasonably non-toxic like pyretheum. i like to add a bit of neem oil when i spray too which i think is a bit longer lasting. you can also buy neem granules to sprinkle on the ground, which i have but haven't tried yet. by the way i've found that pepino's need to stay on the bush for quite a while to get properly ripe, i.e. slightly soft, otherwise they don't taste like anything much.
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I find they're quite nice in a mixed fruit salad - they're fairly bland on their own but go well with stronger tasting fruit like banana, apple or peaches.
I'm trying to grow mine up a trellis, as they can spread if unchecked. Mixed results so far, although I'll see how we go this summer.
My thought would be to feed it with more good org compost. A healthy plant will resist attack, and a weak one will become food for other critters, that's nature's way. Nature doesn't need much from us to express her abundance. Just go and sing to it from time to time, and let it know how grateful you are.