Bitter Gourd / Karela

🌿Plant Care Guide

📝 Description

Bitter gourd is grown for its bitter tender fruits. Fruits are covered with blunt tubercles. The fruits turn to an orange-yellow colour when ripe .The fruits are cooked in many ways but more commonly used as fried, boiled, stuffed and cooked. The cooked vegetable of bitter gourd remains quite fit for consumption for 2-3 days. The cucurbitacin-bitter glucoside may help in preventing spoilage of cooked vegetable of bitter-gourd. The fruits are also utilized in the preparation of pickles and stored as a dry vegetable.It is a warm season crop but has a wide range of adaptability and can be grown in regions with comparatively low temperatures. At temperature between 25°- 30°C, the growth is normal and yield is high. When the temperature is less than 18°C, the growth is slow leading to poor yield. When temperature is above 36°C there is poor production of female flowers resulting in poor yield. The crop can be grown in all types of soils but sandy loam and silt loam soils are most suitable. The best ph would be 6.5-7.0. For higher production, the soil should be rich in organic manure either proper drainage facility.Apply 10 kg of fym per pit (20 t/ha) 100 g of npk 6:12:12/pit as basal and 10 g of n/pit 30 days after sowing.Apply azospirillum and phosphobacteria 2 kg/ha and pseudomonas @ 2.5 Kg/ha along with fym 50 kg and neem cake @ 100 kg before last ploughing.