I'm a bit puzzled about the name of this melon. Shark fin would more likely be a "yuh chi gua", yuh chi meaning shark fin and gua or gwa meaning melon at least in Cantonese. Lo shi gua? I don't know, rat melon? Do a search for cucurbita ficifolia on this website (Garden Web) and you will find a lady (winane) that grows the shark fin and has seeds and another that grows the lo shi gwa and may have seeds. She calls it "mouse melon" but that would be lo shi jai gwa.

reefisher,

Please read the FAQ for this forum. There will almost always be several names for a vegetable due to different languages and dialects of the same language.

chris_marshall,

Please read the FAQ for this forum. Requests for seeds are not to be made in this area of this forum. There is an exchange area for these types of requests which you should use instead.

Sorry about that. I'm new to this list. You said "There is an exchange area for these types of requests which you should use instead." Where exactly is it? How do you get there? I did contact the person Win who promised to send shark fin melon seeds but then I heard nothing more from her - a bit depressing... and now even my search for 'cucurbita ficifolia' yields nothing. Please could someone help me out here?

chris,

if i had promised you seeds i would have sent them. i had asked for you to send SASE and never recieved anything from you. perhaps you should have contacted me again if you had assumed i was sending the seeds with my own postage.

i still have seeds available if you would like to do an SASE.

winane....I would like to try this melon ...would you share seeds with me....I will SASE or if you are looking for any seeds, I would be happy to trade..

I have also heard this called Siam Pumpkin from Shanghai. I think it's the same thing. I would love some seeds. Recent research shows it protects the still healthy insulin producing cells in Type 1 diabetics. My kids have this disease. I grow organic veggies to feed them right and give their immune system a boost, but preserving cells would be even better. Looks like there's something real to this. I keep up as much as I can on research and the major children's hospitals in the U.S. have potential cures which all hinge on the person still having some good cells left to work with. My kids still produce some insulin. Please let me know where I could get some seeds and where to send a SASE.Thanks!

You can get them in the US here (under chilacayote)
http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/VegetablesO-Z.htm

or on ebay (search Chilacayote or Lacayote)

or in Europe from here
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rickstevens/ohmygourd/Freeseedhome.html

I am in US zone 6a and I had a small success growing shark fin melon last year. The plant grew leaves and branches vigorously during summer and autumn but would not grow flowers until mid October. It grew male flower first and female a few week later. The problem is the freezing temperature came too early and I had only 3 matured melons.
I was also looking for seeds for this year's planting. Thanks for fchow8888 5 's information. I searched the link http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/VegetablesO-Z.htm without anything came out. Then I searhed Ebay ( either Chilacayote or Lacayote ) and found a seller ( Ebay ID andeanseeds ) is selling 15 seeds for $3.99 + $2.5 shipping.

Hi ccteng,

What latitude are you at? I read that the melon will not flower unless the daylight is 12 hours or less. That varies by latitude:

http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500905/hours_of_daylight_by_latitude.html

I'm at 45N, so that won't happen until the end of September. First frost is probably mid November. That only leaves six weeks for the fruit to grow.

I just ordered a package of seeds from Nichols
http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/Files/VegetableSeeds.pdf
scroll down to "squash winter", item #VSW420

This is a cream color skin spaghetti squash c.pepo from Japan.

I have some seed left over from last year. New seeds will be available by March 2011. Email me at hwlee888@gmail.com. This is my 2010 harvest.
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