Chayote seeds

[DannyS1951]

Has anyone seen Chayote seeds for sale locally in packets? I think Thais refer to this gourd as pak meo. Has anyone grown it before in the Bangkok region? It seems to be a new 'superfood' and I want to give it a try. Today I have two fresh fruits from the market but I'm not sure there will be a viable seed inside. Thanks in advance. Danny

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

[lannarebirth]

AliExpress has a couple of sellers and YouTube has a few videos how to plant seeds from the squash.

 

 

[DannyS1951]

Many thanks Lannarebirth. I will start looking online. Cooked up half of one of my market bought chayote in a stir fry and the other half in I had in a salad. Rather impressed with both. Does anyone think buying fresh fruit and letting it rot down would produce viable seeds or does it need to brown on the vine.

[jvs]

@ Danny,i just asked An.They grow a lot of them in the north of Thailand and lots of seeds available there.

She says it is too hot over here(cha-am) to grow it but maybe you could try in the winter.

no more then a few hours of full sunshine.

[MikeN]

According to your Wiki link, it’s what we called a choko in Australia. You don’t need seeds, just leave the whole thing somewhere dark until it sprouts then plant it out.

https://m.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Choko-Vine

[DannyS1951]

Thanks for the the replies JVS and MikeN. We bought two fairly large fruits from the market and I have tried them in salads and a stir fry. I will put the remaining half into a pasta meat sauce today. I saw some smaller fruits in Makro yesterday at just 25 baht a kilo. It makes sense that it could be too hot here in Bangkok although if I got them germinated towards the end of year they may make it through the following hot season. Mike I will try your method. I had already ordered some seeds from China via Aliexpress as per Lannarbirth's suggestion so I will have some to play with.

 

While ordering the seeds I took some others from the same supplier. These were adenium and fuchsia just as experiments. I suspect again it will be a question of whether they will germinate in the warm temperatures. I know they both grow in pots here. Anyway the entire bill was just a bit over $3;-)

[bubbaba]

I live just outside of Korat. Just as hot IMO as Bangkok. I take a chayote fruit with a seed/stem starting out the end of the fruit and plant it.  Only the seed/stem is out of the soil.  I plant directly into the garden soil, no pot. Likes plenty of sunshine, water, and well drained soil. That delicious vegetable grows all over Asia and South America and probably other places too. I grew it in my garden in Hawthorne, Florida. Needs trellis. Likes to climb.

[DannyS1951]

Seeds from Aliexpress never arrived, but I will try germinating shop bought fruits. I will wait until the scorching weather moderates and the rains start. Being in Bangkok with our wet clay soil I may try them with pots first.  We tend to plant anything more permanent in raised beds made with the round concrete septic tank sections. No reason to believe the garden won't get flooded every year;-)

Danny