Female flowers have swelling or the ovary at the base of the bloom resembling a tiny melon. Male flowers open first, followed in a week or by female blossoms. Vines normally begin flowering about 5 to 6 weeks after planting. The soil must be well-drained and fertile. As the bitter gourd seeds have a hard seed coat, germination is difficult to take place when the temperature range is below 10☌. Bitter gourd crops can be grown in places of lower temperatures and high rainfall areas. Bitter gourd is a warm-season crop and the temperature suitable for its growth and flowering is 25 to 30☌. Bitter gourd pollinationīitter gourd (Momordica charantia Linn.) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and known as one of the bitterest fruits. This prevents insects from cross-pollinating the plant and removes the bags after 48 hours. Then cover the pollinated female flowers with the muslin bags. Also, one male flower carries enough pollen to pollinate a few female flowers. Otherwise, break off the male flower and use it to dust the female flower. And tap the male flower gently to shake pollen onto the female flower. Place a male flower and bend it toward a female flower. Orange flowers generally open in the morning, and white flowers open at dusk. And pull on the drawstring to close the bag.Īlso, return to hand-pollinate the flowers when they open naturally.

Isolate male and female blooms by covering them by a muslin drawstring bag. Female flowers contain a large, bulbous growth on the vine just beneath the blossoms, while male flowers lack this growth. Identify male flowers and female flowers on your gourd plant. Properly pollinated seeds hold larger seed vigor, longer viability, pose higher germination capacity, seedling vigor, pest resistance, and yielding capacity. There is unequal pollination require of different crop plants, for example, cross-pollinating plants, self-fertile plants, self-sterile plants, cross-compatible varieties, monoecious, dioecious, etc. Pollinators provide a necessary ecosystem service for the production of seeds or fruit and diversity maintenance. Insects still can be necessary or helpful in moving pollen to the stigmas. Though, such plants are not necessarily self-pollinating. Self-fertile plants can increase seeds and fruit when pollen is transferred from anthers of a flower to the stigma of the same flower or different flowers on the same plant. Many crops require or advantage from cross-pollination. Cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen from flowers of one plant to the flowers of a different plant or different plant variety. Not all flowering plants have the same pollination requirements. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male parts of the flower or the anther to the female part or stigma of the same or a different flower of the same plant or the different plants. A guide to pollinating vegetable gourds by hand What are we waiting for? Let’s get into the details of pollinating vegetable gourds by hand. If only one of the necessary organs is present in a flower, it is called an incomplete flower. Most flowers have two other parts, the sepals, and petals, which may help attract insect pollinators. Since both a stamen and a pistil are essential for seed formation, they are called essential organs. Introduction to pollinating vegetable gourds: Plants develop seeds through a process known as pollination and it is the transfer of pollen from the stamen (male flower part) to the pistil (female flower part).

Vegetable gord