Saturday, January 31, 2009

Bittermelon


Ku Gua, Foo Gwah)" vspace="0" width="239" border="0" height="28" hspace="0">

Bitter Gourd is one of the most popular vegetables in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, India and the Philippines. Bitter Gourd, also called Bitter Melon, has an acquired taste. The plant is grown mainly for the immature fruits although the young leaves and tips are edible. Bitter Melon seed has hard skin and needs warm/moist soil conditions during germination. It may fail or take a long time to germiante if the soil temperature is too low. Bitter Melon is a long-season, high-humidity and warm-climate vine plant and needs to grow along supports.

NOTE: Bitter Melon needs insects to carry out the pollinating process for setting fruits. If the insects are not available in your area, the pollinating process can be done manually, by picking up male flowers and transferring pollens (face-to-face touching the center part of flowers) to femal flowers. Femal flowers have a fat section between the flower and vine stem. This process should be carried out when flowering is active during the daytime. If the pollination is success, the fat portion will grow into full size fruit.


No comments: