Kioria and Keziah, who are based in Gatuthi, Tetu in Nyeri grow various seedlings, which include those of trees and fruits that they sell to farmers in neighbouring counties and Nairobi from Sh30 to Sh200.
However, of all their seedlings, one that they introduced last year is making them one of the most-sought farmers in the region.
The couple are growing a “wonder fruit” known as the pepino melon.
The fruit is in the solanaceae family, where potato also belongs. The plant remains green and starts producing fruits at no more than a metre high.
The melon is normally round-shaped, but others are oval and have a thin yellow skin with reddish brown spots or stripes. The flesh itself is yellow, juicy and soft and has a sweet flavour that tastes like melon, pear or cucumbers. Some people call it a melumber.
GREENBELT MOVEMENT
At the centre of a pepino fruit are many flat or round seeds that are also edible. Sometimes they are referred to as tree melons, or melon pears.
The melon fruit is popular in South America where it is known to help fight high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis and reduces weight.
“We started growing seedling as a group of seven young people in the neighbourhood in 2003. We would plant trees and sell to the Greenbelt Movement,” says Kioria, explaining why he loves the environmentalist.
They were doing it in his parent’s quarter-acre on the slopes of the Aberdares Forest.
“We would collect seeds from the forest then plant them in small bags and sell after about three to four months.”
With time, however, the group members left to pursue other interests and careers leaving the couple to run the nursery.
Mid-2013, they diversified and went into growing fruit seedlings in a 15 by 8m greenhouse, with the structure costing them Sh160,000.
The couple invested a further Sh3,000 into buying avocado, guava, passion fruit and tree tomato seedlings.
Mid last year, they visited a friend, Peter Karari, in Nyeri, who is also running a seedling business. It is there that Kioria stumbled upon the pepino melon.
Karari, who has 950 pepino melons, had returned from a visit in Eldoret where he had carried some pepino seedlings and fruits.
“I did not even know it was called pepino. The friend who gave them to me also did not know but said the fruit suppresses various diseases. I carried three fruits with about five seedlings to plant at home for my wife,” says Karari, whose wife is hypertensive.
With the help of his friend Kioria, the two did research on the internet and identified it as pepino.
The fruit contains Vitamin A, B, C, K, protein, iron and copper, which help to boost the immune system and strengthen bones.
“The fruit also contains some fibre which helps in digestion and reduces the chances of gastric ulcers,” explains Kioria, adding they then started to propagate the fruit.
To grow pepino melon, seeds are planted in the seedbed at a spacing of 30x30cm and in holes of about 30cm deep, and they sprout after about two weeks. They are then left to grow for about three weeks to a month and they are ready for sale.
One can also propagate them using cuttings, which are put in nylon bags filled with soil and manure. After a month of watering, the cuttings develop roots and new leaves start sprouting. They will then flower after a week signalling their readiness for sale.
“The flowering starts almost immediately or within a week of transplanting right from the nursery bed. After planting, the fruits develop and they take about five to six months to start ripening,” says Kioria, noting the fruit is harvested by plucking it from the plant, and it continues all through for up to three years.
The plant grows mainly in well-drained soils, but it does also well in other types. Pepino melons require moderate rainfall, organic manure mixed with soil at a ratio of 1:3 and inorganic fertiliser such as DAP or 17:17. During dry seasons, mulching should be done to prevent much water from evaporating.
The couple, which has 500 mature pepino plants and 2,000 seedlings, sell a melon seedling at Sh200 while a fruit at Sh30 to their neighbours and Sh50 at the market.
For the other seedlings, they sell the grafted hass variety avocado at Sh150, grafted tree tomato at Sh100, flowers at Sh100 and indigenous and exotic tree varieties at Sh50.
In a month, they sell about 100 pepino seedlings to farmers. For the other seedlings, they sell up to 200 seedlings.
Several farmers in Nyeri have taken to growing pepino as demand due to its ‘healing powers’ increases. Kingori Maenia, a farmer from Gaithairi Tetu Nyeri, who has planted over 300 pepino plants says he got the seedlings from a farmer in Kinagop.
“I sell the fruit to traders in markets in Nyeri and the demand is going up.”
John Wambugu, an agronomist at the Wambugu Farm Agricultural Centre in Nyeri, who also grows the plants out of curiosity, says the ‘super healing power’ of the melon is yet be scientifically proven.
“Because it is a fruit and fruits contains vitamins it’s possible that it has the capacity to heal.”
He adds that fruits that contain Vitamin A, B, C and K helps in boosting immunity and healing diseases.