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.

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.)

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

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.

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.

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