MIRLITON.ORG

MIRLITON.ORG

Spring Mirliton Seed Problems (chayote, “Sechium edule”)

We discovered some differences between spring and fall mirliton seeds. These are Mister Rock mirlitons from the Spring 2011 crop that were allowed to set on the vine until they began to sprout. Normally the best time to pick for seed is as soon as the fruit is mature. The long exposure to heat seems to have disturbed the seeds normal rooting and shooting habits. In this case, this fruit was planted exposed to the sun and finally excavated after several weeks of not sprouting. I found that the roots were poorly formed and the shoot did not rise vertically, but instead curled under the fruit. This is probably caused by heat deteriorating the plant hormones that regulate root and shoot growth.
A second fruit excavated from the container. The brown section is the pericarp exposed to the sun, which might have harmed the inner soft seed. Again, the roots are not well developed and the shoot was curling under the plant.
Sprout planted with top half of fruit above soil line in June. The intense heat on the fruit body prevents the shoot (white above) from growing upward. Instead it coiled under the fruit.Soft seed removed from fruit. Lots of decay of seed and shoot was even turning necrotic. As a test, I planted a fresh fruit from the same plant that had matured later in a soil inside out of direct sun and it rooted vigorously and sent up a shoot in five days. Moral of the story, if you want to use spring mirlitons as seed, pick them as soon as they are mature, "incubate" (place them in warm place out of the direct sun, shielded from insects with netting), and plant as soon as the seed becomes to extrude from the apical cleft (the large end of the seed). Cover the whole seed and shoot with at least two inches of soil to prevent direct sun from reaching the seed which might compound the damage to plant hormones.
Handy wire basket to discourage squirrels--but mice and rats also will eat fresh-sprouting fruit, so a finer mesh wire over this would work. This can be used to cover containers or ground plantings.