It looks like squash to me. Do you have pollinators? Fruit setting, turning yellow, and falling off the vine while young, sounds as if it wasn't pollinated. You should start hand pollinating to assure yourself that this isn't the problem. The only climbing squash that I'm familiar with is the genus Cucurbita moschata.
Your post appeared in two places, and maybe you didn't see this reply I made elsewhere.
.. Pepino "melons", Solanum muricatum (so actually a member of the tomato/potato/chilli family) that I have bought in shops in Chile are about 6-8"/15-20cm long, and oval in end-to-end cross-section. So a bit bigger than an aubergine, but rather smaller than most melons. But there is a picture of one on the Wikipedia page, described as ripe, not much larger than a hen's egg, so they can be rather smaller than that. They do look like melons.
Their origin is, like many of the cultivated solanums, in the Andes. The original wild plant has not been found. They are cultivated at around
2000m to 3000m in the tropical Andes, and in the mediterranean climate area of Chile. I came across them being grown at around 1500m in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia, but they weren't very good, perhaps too warm. I believe they are also grown in the northern parts of New Zealand.
They are known to be trickier than chillis to grow. But in general, I would say that if you have the conditions right to grow aubergines without any trouble, or tamarillos (tree tomatoes), then you should have the conditions about right for these.
.. Additional comments on your latest:
Solanums are generally self-pollinating.
Solanum flowers are generally pretty obviously different from curcurbit (squash family) flowers, though if you are total newbie you may not recognise the difference. A few images from google might help. If you decide what you have is a curcurbit, then it wasn't a pepino melon, you were misled. But this is always a problem when plant sellers sell things with just popular names.
For squash, you will notice that some of the flowers are on short stems and others are on long stems. The easiest way to pollinate them is to pick one of the long stemmed flowers, pull off the petals, and then swirl it around inside the short stemmed flower for a couple of seconds, and you're done.
Have you done any web searching on your own behalf or are you counting on us doing it all for you? You are likely to get more help if you show that you have at least tried to find out yourself.
There must be something cultural about gardenbanter that makes them take on this degree of helplessness. It seems an attitude unrelated to level of gardening knowledge. I find it quite odd.
Banter is exactly why this forum is here I thought David...
I have done a lot of web searching and in fact found this to be the nicest spot to ask
However, it seems like all forums there always seems to be those who dont enjoy the banter and swapping of ideas liberally.
"BANTER" is described on google as a
"Supple term used to describe activities or chat that is playful, intelligent and original. Banter is something you either posses or lack, there is no middle ground. It is also something inherently English, stemming as it does from traditional hi-jinks and tomfoolery of British yesteryear"
Generally, I enjoy sharing ideas as this develops knowledge.
This year's experiment was to attempt growing Pepino 'melons' but had a lot of trouble with germination. I only had about six seeds, not all of them germinated, and the seeds that did seemed to have a problem getting the seed leaves out of the seed coat. I managed to raise only one plant to set out in the garden (I had aimed for two).
It grew into a large, healthy plant but none of the flowers set fruit. So, I'm thinking this might be one of those members of the Solanum family that aren't self-fertile.
I'm willing to try at least one more time, and see if I can get two plants to transplant size next year. This year's plant seemed even more robust than my eggplants and had a number of flower trusses, It just never set fruit..
Not entirely. Perhaps you don't realise that gardenbanter links to the usenet newsgroup rec.gardens.edible. Most of the posts you see are not sent via gardenbanter. The newsgroup is international and about growing edibles. Along the way you will get some banter but that is not its primary purpose.
There is nothing at all wrong with banter and swapping ideas liberally.
So do most of us.
My point was that you came across as expecting others to do basic internet searching that you could readily do yourself. Interchange between people is good if the subject is complex or you don't know how to frame the question. For a very simple clear question like "Is there such a name as PEPITO Melon?" a search engine is quicker and more effective than a human.
I'm sure you know that "gardenbanter" is an English web site that is usurping "usenet" and presenting newsgroups as its own, just as "Googlegroups". Think of it as a smaller-scale "googlegroups". I don't want to appear the bigot (truthfully, I don't care) but it does seem to attract the same sort of user. Frankly, I use a local proxy to avoid messages from both domains and don't read any traffic therefrom unless followups from NG users whom I do read pique my interest. A wiser head, I suppose, would configure software to ignore the entire thread but one occasionally does glean a bit of knowledge from them.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.