In this auction 15 Winter melon seeds is for sale.

The winter melon, also called white gourd, winter gourd, tallow gourd, Chinese preserving melon,or ash gourd, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The fruit is fuzzy when young. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten. By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length. Although the fruit is referred to as a "melon," the fully grown crop is not sweet. Originally cultivated in Southeast Asia, the winter melon is now widely grown in East Asia and South Asia as well.

Winter melon requires a long growing season and ripens in late autumn. You may directly sow the seeds in a sunny location of the garden when the soil has warmed to over 60 degrees F. (15 C.) .Or they can be germinated in individual peat pots or seed flats after abrading the seed covering slightly, keeping the soil moist until the plant has sprouted. Transplant into the garden after 5-6 leaves have appeared.

Uses

The winter melon is occasionally, used to produce a fruit drink like winter melon tea or fruit punch, flesh as soup or stir fry even as candy in festival. The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.

The winter melon requires very warm weather to grow but can be stored for many months much like winter squash. It is commonly eaten throughout winter in countries of deciduous vegetation such as China, as one of the few vegetables available during winter, hence its Chinese name literally means 'winter melon'. The winter melon can typically be stored for 12 months.

In Vietnamese cuisine, it is called bí đao, which is usually used to make soup or stew. When cooked with pork short ribs, the resulting soup can help produce more milk for breastfeeding mothers.

In Chinese cuisine the melons are used in stir fry or usually combined with pork or pork/beef bones to make winter melon soup, often served in the scooped out melon, carved by scraping off the waxy coating. It is also chopped and candied as wintermelon candy (táng dōng guā) to be commonly eaten at New Year festivals, or as filling for Sweetheart cake (lǎopó bǐng). It has also been used as the base filling in Chinese and Taiwanese mooncakes for the Moon Festival.

In North India and Pakistan, the vegetable is also used to prepare a candy called Petha. In South Indian cuisine, it is used to make curries. In Ayurvedic remedies it used to increase appetite also its fresh juice is used to cure kidney stones. The seeds are cooked in milk and taken to increase "sperm count" and to improve sperm locomotion.

payment will be accepted through Paypal or bank deposit.

As soon as I receive payment I will endevour to post seeds the same or next business day

Due to quarantine restrictions I cannot post seeds to Western Australia or Tasmania