kovakkai plant from seeds Tindora (Ivy Gourd) seeds

kovakkai plant from seeds Tindora (Ivy Gourd) seedsTindora (Coccinia grandis) AKA Ivy Gourd Warm Season (Tender) Perennial Vine can be grown as an annual Full Sun Vigorous vine cannot take frost Best in Ground or Raised Beds or Large Containers Dioecious separate male and female plants (fruits only on female) Pest and Disease Resistant (far more so than cucumbers) Tindora is widely eaten in India and parts of Asia, and is naturalized in many places of the world such as Florida. In climates with

Tindora (Coccinia grandis) AKA Ivy Gourd

Warm Season (Tender) Perennial Vine can be grown as an annual

Full Sun

Vigorous vine cannot take frost

Best in Ground or Raised Beds or Large Containers

Dioecious -- separate male and female plants (fruits only on female)

Pest and Disease Resistant (far more so than cucumbers)

Tindora is widely eaten in India and parts of Asia, and is naturalized in many places of the world such as Florida. In climates with freezes it can be grown as annual just like a cucumber and does well that way. It is tougher and more pest and disease resistant than cucumbers. 

The super young fruit is a delicious crunchy, cucumber-like snack, albeit quite small. The larger young fruit is harvested and can be eaten just like a cucumber. Very nice texture that we greatly favor over regular cucumbers which can get a little slimy. However, there is a bit of cucumber bitterness in tindora, like older varieties of cucumber. 

In many parts of the world, the cucumber-like young fruits are cooked in various dishes. We have yet to try this, but I would imagine it would really shine when treated as such. 

Unlike regular cucumbers that get inedibly bitter upon age, tindora fruits pretty much always stay edible and eventually the ripe fruit taste like a bland, low sugar persimmon to us and can be eaten fresh. 

The only real drawback to these plants we have found is the male and female, dioecious nature of the vines. Seedlings will yield approximately half male, half female plants. Fruit, of course, can only be made on the female plants. Viable seeds can only be had with both male and female plants growing together. Whether or not female plants will fruit, we do not yet know. If so, cuttings could be made of female plants to ensure production of fruit. 

These seeds are hard to come by, and supply is limited.