Has anyone grown monk fruit?

[Shule]

Has anyone here grown monk fruit (Siraitia grosvenorii)?

It's a perennial cucurbit (which can be grown as an annual), and it is used to produce a sugar substitute similar to Stevia. It's rumored to help people live longer.

It's thought to be difficult to grow. They say you have to hand-pollinate each fruit, although they don't say why bees, flies, and moths don't (maybe they would in some regions).

It's thought to like to sprout in soil fit for a cactus, and to grow in 60 to 80% humidity. The ideal sunlight conditions are supposed to be less than full sun, but I'm not sure how much less.

I gathered this information from random websites found via Google, including this one. So, it could be wrong.

I wonder if you could pre-germinate the seeds in a plastic bag with a paper towel to make things easier.

[habitat-gardener]

It's interesting that it's a cucurbit! But whenever I see monk fruit on a label, I avoid it, because it has an "off" taste to me. I wonder if it's the plant itself, or something to do with the extensive processing. (I looked at the Wikipedia site, which outlines some of that.)

[Nan6b]

Odd that it has to be individually hand-pollinated. What did it do before mankind started pollinating it?

[Shule]

There might be some extinct creature that used to pollinate it. There's a similar trouble with Vanilla (not with all the Vanilla in the world, however—but hand pollination is part of the reason they say it's been so expensive; Mexico has natural pollinators for Vanilla, though).

Cucurbits usually attract bees very easily. It must be tricky to pollinate or something.

[Tracydr]

Hmm. I’ve heard the same thing about gourds but my cucuzza gourds go insane during summer so maybe it just depends. Is it a night flower? I think the night flowering plants,like cucuzza, rely on moths. I have seen hummingbirds on mine,though.
I’d love to produce monk fruit. It’s my favorite sweetener but soooo expensive.

[Shule]

[mention]Tracydr[/mention] I'm not sure if it's a night flower, but that would be great to know.