CHOCKO CULTIVATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2058, 1 May 1907, Page 1

CHOCKO CULTIVATION.

The cultivation of the chayote, or, as it is usually called, the cliocho in Southern Queensland, is adding a very serviceable vegetable to the market and also to the table dietary. It is now grown in large quantities, and probably will soon be among the exports to other States. It lias bill the fine flavor of the marrows, and, when dished up in a similar manner to them, it is a most pleasant and tasty vegetable. It is pear-shaped and varies in color from a greenish yellow to a creamy white, and its firm shelly outer coat prevents it from being easily bruised or injured in its transmission to the market. A native of Mexico and the AVcst indies, where it grows in abundance, and is often used as food for the stock, it •was. introduced into Queensland by the Brisbane Acclimatisation Society some few years ago, "and has gradually won its way into favor, being now grown as a vegetable in many of the private and market gardens around the city ; and on the Blackall ranges it is much cultivated, where it is also used for feeding cattle, pigs and horses, it is propagated by pjapf* ing one of the choclios in good rich soil and where there is a good supply of water. Very quickly the seed in the centre of the pulpy substance, of the vegetable germinates and sprouts from the cotyledon and extends itself in a long creeping vine. A framework is soon covered, and one vine will sometimes hear as many as 800 choehos in a season. The retail price is often 9d to Is per dozen. No signs of disease have as yet appeared on the vines, neither is the vegetable ypj. attacked b,y any insect or fungus pests. It seems immune to the ordinary destructive banes of the gardener. and grows luxuriantly, and when studded with its glistening pearlike fruitage it makes a cp.fljely show. —Dalgety’s Itpview,