For the past few weeks my compost microorganisms have been working on some bitter melons and hopefully imbuing their seeds with endophytes.
I dug the first one up the other day and cracked it open. It was squishy - - I left it two weeks IIRC and there were a number of freezes in that time. I mainly brought it out because I wanted to make sure I got seeds - - I don’t know anything likely to dig it out of compost and eat it, but I also don’t know anything that would want to eat my cayenne pepper seeds. Rodents, are y’all on a parasite cleanse?
The inside smelled really good. I’m not kidding, kind of like a fresh jalapeño salsa. I put the fruits in compost after I noticed them too moldy to reasonably eat in non-famine conditions (I had bought them intending to save seed anyway), and recalling Julia’s comment that decomposing agents are natural enemies of mold.
Taking a look inside the composted fruit it looked like there was a lot going on. Since the seeds have dried (not pictured) I noticed that most never actually filled out their seed sleeves (I’m not sure what these little pods are called, if I remember right north georgia candy roasters have something similar), so I’m not sure about viability or robustness thereof. I planted one of the filled out ones minus the sleeve in an experimental pot in which we had transplanted chard into compost (it seems happy enough). Same compost the fruit was buried in. Haven’t watered that pot since, just letting the seed and chard get to know each other for now.
I’ve got one more fruit to dig up any day now. No control bitter melon this time
None of the seeds from the first bitter melon were viable, so the one I planted was a wash. All shattered with minimal pressure between my fingers .
The second one came out a few weeks later - - it was falling apart when I dug it up. Hadn’t meant for it to go that long but the ground stayed frozen a long while. Seeds were more developed but still seemed inviable - - seed coats were still flimsy. While they were drying I somehow accidentally knocked half on the floor and one of our cats ate them (don’t worry he was perfectly fine ). I’ve eaten bitter melon seeds before and know what goes into my compost, so I thought “Aw shucks” and ate the other half
There would have been no point to this update if I hadn’t made a subsequent trip to a local Indian grocery where I saw a big box of Indian type Momordica Charantia in the produce section. Since I primarily wanted it for seeds and had encountered a bitter melon of about the size and characteristics of those in the box before which had no seeds, I did my best to ask the fruits which ones had viable seeds. I had the impression that one responded strongly so I bought it.
I would have been OK just to eat it too - - I like bitter melon
This fruit had a lot of hard seeds. I’ve direct-sown bitter melon before but never gotten it to grow here, and I don’t personally want to get into transplanting unless I don’t have another reasonable choice. I thought I couldn’t put the whole fruit straight into the compost without verifying that it did in fact have seeds, and even though the bitter melon seeds I’ve encountered have both coats and sleeves, didn’t really want to put them directly into the compost unwrapped.
I left them on top of some compost in an inside container for a while. I’ve since planted a few indoors.
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). I’ve eaten bitter melon seeds before and know what goes into my compost, so I thought “Aw shucks” and ate the other half 
