A Detailed Guide to Bottle Gourd Cultivation Techniques and Management Methods

When it comes to bottle gourd, many people may not know what it is, mainly because many people do not recognize the character “hu” (hu). In fact, when we see a bottle gourd, many people understand right away, as it is a fairly common and frequently eaten ingredient in our daily lives.

What Is Bottle Gourd

Bottle gourd (pinyin: hù zǐ), also known as sweet gourd, sweet bottle gourd, hu gua, jing jie chui, long mi gua, tian gua, chang hu, bian pu; it belongs to the phylum Angiospermae, family Cucurbitaceae, genus Lagenaria, and is a variety of the genus plant Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd), an annual climbing herb. It differs from the bottle gourd (the original variety) in that: the ovary is cylindrical; the fruit is uniform in thickness and cylindrical in shape, straight or slightly curved, up to 60-80 cm long, greenish-white, with white flesh. When young, the fruit is soft and juicy and can be used as a vegetable. It is cultivated in most parts of the country, widely cultivated in the Yangtze River basin area, and harvested in summer and autumn.

Bottle Gourd Growing Environment  

Bottle gourd is a warmth-loving plant, with an optimum growing temperature of 20-25°C. It is not tolerant of waterlogging or drought. In rainy areas, attention should be paid to drainage, and in dry conditions, timely irrigation is needed. It likes warmth and is slightly tolerant of low temperatures. Seeds begin to germinate at 15°C, with the fastest germination at 30-35°C, and the optimum temperature for growth and fruiting is 20-25°C. Long bottle gourd is not tolerant of high temperatures. It has high requirements for light conditions; with sufficient sunlight, there is less disease, and growth and fruiting are good with high yields. It has strict water requirements, being intolerant of both drought and waterlogging. During the fruiting period, relatively high air humidity is required. It is not tolerant of poor, thin soil and prefers soil rich in humus with strong water and fertilizer retention capacity. The nutrients needed are mainly nitrogen, combined with appropriate amounts of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, so as to improve yield and quality.

Bottle Gourd Cultivation Techniques

1. Crop rotation selection and land preparation: Choose flat land and low-lying land with good drainage and fertile soil, as well as hilly land with irrigation conditions. Avoid continuous cropping or alternating cropping with watermelon and other cucurbit crops. Land preparation: Form ridges at the top of the soil, and press and compact in time to preserve soil moisture. The transplanting ridges are long-mouth ridges. The ridge width is 9-13 cm; the 7-8 empty ridges in between should also be ridged to help suppress weeds.

2. Seed soaking and germination: Select the Japanese green-skinned bottle gourd variety, soak the seeds in 40°C warm water for 12-24 hours, remove them, wrap them in gauze, spin dry, and crack open the soaked sweet bottle gourd seeds. Use a wooden trough or an ordinary basin, line it with a layer of sterilized sawdust or sand, then line it with a layer of gauze, place the soaked seeds evenly on the gauze, cover with a wrung-out new towel, cover with a lid, and cover with a cotton quilt to promote germination, sprinkling water twice a day with a new brush broom. The germination temperature is generally 25-28°C. It is required to pick out the germinated seeds every day and place them in another basin, placed in a cool indoor location, to control sprout growth.

3. Sowing in the seedbed:

① Seedbed preparation. Line the bottom of the seedbed with 8-10 cm of horse manure or chopped straw, spread a layer of soil on top, and tread it flat. At the same time, disinfect with 70% dexon wettable powder at 0.3-0.6 g/sq m, and cover with a shed. After sowing the seeds, set up a small shed over the seedbed.

② Nutrient soil preparation. Choose soil that has not been treated with herbicides such as pursuit and chlorimuron-ethyl, sieve it well, and mix it with sieved decomposed farmyard manure at a ratio of 7:2.

③ Bagging and sowing. Put the nutrient soil into 10 cm × 15 cm plastic bags, and place 20-30 granules of diammonium phosphate as base fertilizer at the bottom 1/3 of the plastic bag, fill it full and firm it, and cut open the bottom corners of the nutrient bag or punch 2-4 holes with a diameter of 8-10 mm at the bottom for water permeability. The sowing time is based on the local season. Use a wooden stick to make a 3-4 cm deep hole in the middle of the nutrient bag, place the germinated seeds with the sprout eye facing down, cover with soil, and water once.

4. Seedbed management: Water appropriately, do not overwater; prevent rodent damage and insect damage: use phoxim or trichlorfon mixed with wheat bran (poison bait) as needed; weed in time and spray foliar fertilizer; when the true leaves grow to 3-4, begin pinching the growing point to prevent excessive vegetative growth; the suitable seedbed temperature is 25-28°C, not lower than 15°C at night. The seedling age is generally 35-40 days, and seedlings are hardened off 5-7 days before planting.

5. Timely transplanting:

① Dig large holes. Before transplanting, dig holes of 20 cm × 20 cm, with a plant spacing of 1.3-1.6 m, keeping about 80-100 seedlings per mu. Apply 5-7.5 kg of farmyard manure and 100-250 g of chemical fertilizer (diammonium phosphate, potassium fertilizer, magnesium powder at a ratio of 3:1:1) per hole as base fertilizer.

② Manual transplanting. Before transplanting, water the nutrient bags thoroughly, transplant the seedlings into the holes, cover with soil, and water thoroughly. At the same time, cover with plastic film and cut holes to let the seedlings out. Double-film transplanting can also be chosen, that is, adding an arch film after transplanting.

6. Field management:

① Manual weeding, timely prevention and control of pests and diseases.

② Combine topdressing with leveling the empty ridges and laying straw. Use about 1 kg of rice straw or wheat straw per sq m to prevent weed infestation. When the main vine grows to about 50 cm, it is best to combine with irrigation and apply 100-250 g of urea per plant as topdressing. Do not apply topdressing too close to the main root, to prevent root burn. Do not scatter urea on the leaf surface, to prevent leaf burn.

③ Vine training, pinching, pruning side shoots, and artificial pollination. Vine training: keep two main vines per plant. Lay both main vines horizontally on the empty ridges, and cultivate directional soil once. Pinching: for first-level branches, when they grow to 3 leaves, begin pinching, watch and pinch off second- and third-level branches; pinch the main vine after August 23. Artificial pollination: generally for sweet bottle gourd, prune side shoots and pinch in the morning every day, and begin pollination at 16:00 in the afternoon. Pollination can be stopped after the End of Heat solar term. Generally, two main vines bear 6-8 fruits.

Bottle Gourd Cultivated Varieties  

1. Xian hu zi (thread bottle gourd): The flesh of thread bottle gourd is white, about 1 cm thick, fine and tender in texture, with few fibers, good quality, and suitable for cooked food. It has relatively strong heat tolerance, is not tolerant of cold or waterlogging. Its resistance to pests and diseases is medium.  

2. Chang hu zi (long bottle gourd): The fruit of long bottle gourd is long and cylindrical, 40-50 cm long, with light green skin and white flesh, soft and of excellent quality. The fruits mostly set on secondary or lateral vines, and it is an early-maturing variety.  

3. Mian tiao hu zi (noodle bottle gourd): The fruit of noodle bottle gourd is long with similar thickness at the top and bottom, slightly thinner at the stem end, with thin skin, light green, glossy, thick and tender white flesh; a single fruit weighs 1.5-2.0 kg. It keeps well when mature and is relatively early-maturing.  

4. Da hu lu (large bottle gourd): The flesh of large bottle gourd is white, relatively dense in texture, high in water content, low in fiber, slightly sweet, and of relatively good quality. The young fruit is eaten cooked, and the mature fruit can be used as a container. It is heat-tolerant, not cold-tolerant, not drought-tolerant, and likes fertilizer.  

5. Xiaogan hu gua: The fruit of Xiaogan hu gua is long and cylindrical, with thin green skin, thick white flesh, few seeds, and good quality. A single fruit weighs about 1 kg. It is an early-maturing, high-yielding variety.  

6. Sanjiangkou hu zi: Sanjiangkou bottle gourd has fine, tender flesh, a slightly sweet taste, and excellent quality. A single fruit weighs 750 g. It is relatively tolerant of low temperatures, relatively resistant to pests and diseases, and yields 3500-4000 kg per mu.

From this, it can be seen that there are actually many types of bottle gourd. When growing bottle gourd, certain cultivation skills are still needed. Despite the small size of the bottle gourd, it is actually rather troublesome to grow, and there are still many points that need attention to achieve twice the result with half the effort!