I live in south Arkansas. I planted 6 che trees grafted onto Osage Orange about 14 years ago. One male and 5 female. After about 3 years, I wanted to see if I could cross a che with an osage orange so I cut down the male tree. The female still produce fruit, but not quite as many and seedless. The trees are planted in poor soil - heavy clay with poor drainage. Not good for any trees. They all are healthy and large about 8 to 10 inch bases and over 20 feet tall and wide each. I tried to prune them back for the first few years, they just grew to fast and big so I gave up. Many of the trees produced over 20 limbs over 8 feet long in one growing season straight up. I just keep them cut so I can ride my riding lawn mower under them without hitting any limbs. They are attractive trees. I planted them far too close (I thought they were bushes), about 10 feet apart, they are all intertwined. They should have been 25 feet apart and not pruned. I have over 100 different types of fruit trees from around the world (just a hobby)and would consider the fruit a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10. They are very juicy, sticky and medium sweetness. I have made preserves from them and they taste like fig preserves. The preserves are dark red and if you want you can carry the process futher and candy them. They are also good that way. My osage/che crosses are only about 6 foot tall with a 1" base and have not produced fruit yet. My desire is to have a fruit the size of Osage Orange (grapefruit size) but the sweetness of the che. The Osage is a more distint male and female. Both male and female of the che produce fruit that is the same. The Osage male only produces pollen and no fruit. The female produces only fruit. I went through quite a trial and error period of years before sucessfully making the cross. I am not a horticulturist or speller as you can see, so don't have great knowledge on how to make crosses. I am an engineer with limited time to play with the fruit trees, but I dearly love doing it.

I see my neighbor stealing some of the raspberries between the houses (kind of a shared spot). Not a big deal, as I steal some beans on my side of the fence, and she also gives me some food as well. I have gotten her addicted to blackberries! I do grow more plants then just fruit - like castor beans, and I had to chase down some teens who a bunch. I managed to track them down - they thought it was weed, and man would they have gotten a shock when they smoked it....... I had to tell them what it was. OF course they didnt believe me. I had to use one of their phones to show them the differences. Ive had cops stop and ask what it was as well.

Jane, I haven't saved seeds from melons, so I'm inexperienced. I wouldn't go with floating row covers, as pollinatoras may be able to crawl under them. I think you'd need to protect both the male and female flowers, by covering, or tying them up individually(the ones used in controlled pollinations). Then using a paintbrush to pollinate the females, with pollen from the male flowers. After pollination, the females would have to be protected until the fruit starts to form(so the bees don't pollinate as well). I'd look for better instructions than mine, on the internet, or in a book. Douglas

There's a whole, big, wide world of chutneys out there, and a bazillion recipes. Google is great for this, and it's fun to find all the different ideas. Search for any of the following, followed by "chutney" - Apple, mint, cilantro, peach, mango, plum, mixed fruit, banana, pineapple, cranberry. Then add the word "fresh" and then put two together, like "cranberry mixed fruit" - all kinds of fun stuff. We do a family favorite using home-dried cherries, dried slices of beef steak tomato, and dried, powdered chipotle pepper, with brown sugar and cider vinegar. That,on a peanut butter sandwich, is pretty tasty. As well as mixing it up with cranberries for festive holiday fare. Unfortunately, there aren't that many tested recipes for canning out there - I, personally, can it often if the ingredients are fruit, sugar, and vinegar, with a bit of spices. Hot pack, pint jars, 20 min BWB.