How to Grow Bitter Melon for High Quality and High Yield

Bitter melon has functions such as clearing heat, detoxifying and promoting urination, and is loved by the broad masses of the people. Many farmers grow some bitter melon, so how do you grow bitter melon for high quality and high yield? Let's take a look.

1. Site selection

Bitter melon relatively prefers plots with a thick upper soil layer, good fertilizer, and relatively good drainage and irrigation. So when choosing a plot to grow bitter melon, we should choose land with relatively high terrain, convenient drainage, rich in organic matter, and loose, fertile soil.

2. Variety

When we grow bitter melon, it is best to choose excellent varieties with good adaptability, high resistance to pests and diseases, many female flowers, a long fruiting period, and thick flesh, so that the bitter melon you grow will sell better.

3. Seed treatment and sprouting

According to the local environment and conditions, choose the better local planting variety. After choosing the seeds, first break the seed coat, and soak the seeds in warm water at 58 degrees C for about 15 minutes. When the water temperature drops to 30 degrees C, soak them for about nine hours and then remove them.

After removing the seeds, wash the mucus off them with clean water, then wrap them in a wet cloth and place them under conditions of about 30 degrees C to sprout. When you see 50% of the seeds showing white tips, you can sow and raise seedlings.

4. Sowing and raising seedlings

When vegetable farmers cultivate in spring, they generally do it in greenhouses. When raising seedlings, we can use nutrient soil to grow them, so the seedlings will grow better.

The method for preparing nutrient soil is: 50% each of decomposed organic fertilizer and loose field soil, sieve them and mix evenly, then add 0.1%-0.2% superphosphate and 0.3% plant ash, mix them evenly and set aside.

Before sowing, we should water the soil a little. After sowing, we should cover it with 1cm of culture soil, then cover it with a small arched shed to keep warm and moist. After sowing the seeds, remember to control the temperature inside the greenhouse between 30-35 degrees C. Wait until 70% of the seedlings have emerged.

Then adjust the temperature inside the greenhouse to about 25-30 degrees C during the day and about 15-20 degrees C at night. When you see the soil is a little dry, water it. During the seedling stage, we adopt the principle of controlling temperature but not water, then according to the growth of the seedlings, timely apply 1-2 additional foliar fertilizer applications, each time spraying some 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution.

When you see the seedlings have grown strong, gradually lower the temperature in the shed until a few days before planting, then open all the shed film to harden the seedlings.

5. Transplanting and setting seedlings

When the bitter melon seedlings grow to the five-leaf-one-heart stage, you can move the seedlings to the field for planting. Late April is the most suitable transplanting period, and 1600 to 1700 seedlings can be planted per mu.

6. Base fertilizer is very important

If you want your bitter melon to grow relatively well, applying good base fertilizer is a key step. Before planting, you need to apply the base fertilizer together with plowing the soil, so that the fertilizer in the soil will be more even.

When applying base fertilizer, we can use some already decomposed manure and urine fertilizer. About 5000 kg of manure and urine fertilizer is needed per mu. When applying decomposed fertilizer, we can also pair it with some other elemental fertilizers: about 40 kg of nitrogen, about 50 kg of phosphorus, and about 30 kg of potassium.

Only when the fertilizer is sufficient will the bitter melon grow more vigorously, but there is one thing everyone should note: when applying farmyard manure, you must remember that it can only be applied after it is decomposed.

7. Plant management

1. Build supports: bitter melon seedlings grow relatively fast in the early stage. When the bitter melon begins to send out vines, you should set up the “人”-shaped support. The fixed support poles should use bamboo poles 2.5 m long and about 3 cm in diameter. In the early stage, you should tie the vines manually to help the vines climb onto the trellis.

2. Remove side vines: after the supports are set up and the vines are tied, because the bitter melon vines grow relatively fast and there are many side vines. Many farmers growing bitter melon may think that the more vines, the more fruit. But this idea is wrong, because bitter melon mainly sets fruit on the main vine and secondary side vines.

For the tertiary and quaternary vines that appear later, they do not set much fruit, and some even only produce male flowers. If you do not remove the side vines in time, it will affect the fruit-setting rate, because these side vines will compete with the main vine and side vines for nutrients, so during the flowering period of bitter melon you must promptly cut off those excess side vines.

3. Pruning and pinching: after the bitter melon has climbed onto the supports, no fruit should be kept below 50 cm on the main vine. We should remove the female flowers, as this is beneficial to the overall development of the plant. After 6-7 fruits have set firmly on the main vine, leave only about 6 leaves and pinch the top.

4. Pollination: many farmers growing bitter melon may not pollinate their own bitter melon, thinking that it is enough for insects to help pollinate. But if you let them pollinate naturally, it will affect the fruit-setting rate of bitter melon. If the flowering period is long and there is rainstorm weather, the petals will easily fall, and then there will be even fewer insects to help pollinate.

5. Thin young fruits: if the pollination rate is also high, then naturally there will be many fruits. But the nutrients a single plant can provide are very limited. If many young fruits set on one plant, you should thin the fruits appropriately. If too many young fruits set, their expansion speed will slow down, and in the end when they mature, their size will also be very small.

8. Water and fertilizer management

Because bitter melon grows relatively fast and consumes a lot of nutrients, and the temperature in the middle and late stages is too high, in order to meet the plant's demand for water and fertilizer, we must do a good job in water and fertilizer management.

1. Watering management: when planting bitter melon, you should give it enough planting water, then during the vine-sending period generally control water for about 10 to 15 days, which can prevent excessive nutrition and overly fast growth. About 15 days later, bitter melon will enter the flowering and fruiting time. At this time, in order to promote fruit growth, you need to water in time.

When you water bitter melon, try to water the fruit and not the flowers. Do not use flood irrigation; try to use small amounts of water and water frequently. During the flowering period, if the weather is not dry, there is no need to water. When the fruit is setting, water a little. Do not carry out flood irrigation, otherwise it may cause the soil to become compacted, which will make its air permeability worse and thereby affect the absorption capacity of the root system.

2. Fertilizer management: in the early stage of bitter melon fruiting, the outside temperature is relatively low, so the main task of farmers is to nourish the vines and strengthen the roots. When watering, some low-content compound fertilizer with high humic acid should be applied along with the water.

When bitter melon enters the full fruiting period, the plant's demand for nutrients is very large. At this time, you can increase the amount of fertilizer. Per mu, about 30 kg of ammonium nitrate type nitrogen fertilizer should be applied with irrigation each time, and it can be applied continuously 2-3 times.

When bitter melon reaches the late fruiting stage, because its root system begins to age and its absorption capacity becomes worse, the plant's fruit-setting rate will begin to decline. At this time, you should reduce the number of waterings and the amount of fertilizer. Generally, per mu, applying about 10-15 kg of fertilizer with irrigation each time is enough

9. Pest and disease control

Bitter melon also has relatively many pests and diseases. The most common ones include Fusarium wilt, slow wilt, powdery mildew, black spot, melon fruit fly, aphids, and so on. When you find problems with the plant, you should promptly remove the residual, rotten, and diseased leaves.