Thursday, September 23, 2010

Pitting method of Cultivating Bitter Gourd

Pitting method of Cultivating Bitter Gourd by Pritham Denzil Dsouza aka 'Metal Farmer'
i have already discussed how to cultivate Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia) in my previous post in continuous pits . here i would like to show you how one can grow Bitter Gourds in individual pits.




  • the size of every pit is around 60 cms X 60 cms and height is about 30 cms
  • in every pit around 6 seeds are sowed
  • after germination, 3 seeds are retained per pit
  • this is done to prevent over crowding

  • support in the form of sticks has to be given during vegetative phase
  • the vines tend to fall to the ground and care has to be taken to see the vines are trained on top of the support so as to move upwards

  • during flowering phase, thousands of bright yellow flowers are seen, however only one tenth of them will pollinate and yield fruit







  • once the vines reach a desired height as shown above, they will need to start growing vertically and a proper trellis needs to be built as seen in the pic below



  • results can be seen in 21 days as the pic shows above
  • retaining just 3 seeds per pit has resulted in lush growth of the vines in every pit
  • watering the pits is easy and there is no wastage
  • application of manures can also easily be done per pit



  • there is a tendency for the vines to produce excessive lateral shoots and they too are given support so they move upwards as shown in the pic above






Advantages of growing in pits
  • plant density and plant population can be maintained
  • no over crowding
  • application of manure and fertilizer is much easy
  • no wastage due to excessive drainage
  • spraying with neem using back pack sprayer is convenient and can be done from a distance
  • harvesting is easy
  • the resultant shade increases pollination by attracting a large number of pollinators
all images and data by Pritham 'Metal Farmer' D'Souza

4 comments:

  1. you have an awesome blog. I live US,it is time for us to start growing Indian veggies, as we live in midwest. I just have a veggie patch but I get many tips from your blog..Happy Gardening..

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  2. thank u Lizzy.... glad u liked my blog. i am so busy farming these days i have no time to maintain my blog :(

    hopefully i will get some free time next week... coz i have so many more photos and data to post... cheers

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  3. Your blog is excellent! I learnt a lot from your blog. please let me know how to grow Bitter Gourd to maturity. The Bitter gourd on my tree grows till one inch and then turn red and stops growing, any idea why this happens? Please help

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  4. Hi I am from trichy
    Ur blog seems to be intrresting
    Started cultivating bittergourd and snake gourd

    ReplyDelete