How to grow mini bottle gourds in pots? The planting method is so simple you'll learn it in no time

The bottle gourd's name sounds like “fulu” (fortune and wealth), and it is one of the oldest auspicious symbols of the Chinese nation. The mini bottle gourd, as an ornamental gourd, is grown fairly widely in China. The fruit of the mini bottle gourd is used medicinally, and once mature its shell becomes lignified and can serve as a children's toy, while the seed oil can be used to make soap. Below let us learn together about the planting method for potted mini bottle gourds.

1. Sprouting

Sowing bottle gourds is best done around Guyu (Grain Rain), but since climates vary from place to place, it can be moved appropriately earlier or later. Before sowing, select plump seeds free of mold and sprout them first. Why is the germination rate of bottle gourds so low? Because the seed coat of bottle gourds is hard, so sprouting techniques matter.

First, when sowing, if you use pliers or nail clippers to cut a small notch at the tip of the seed, it will sprout more easily; be careful not to damage the inside, only break the outer shell. Let it push through naturally.

Second, soak the seeds in 30-degree water for 8 to 12 hours. First wrap the seeds well in coarse cloth like a wet towel, then keep them at 25-30 degrees. (An electric blanket or cotton quilt can be used.) Bottle gourd seeds generally sprout in 7-10 days, and when the sprout is generally about 0.5-1 cm long, transplant it into the seedling bed and cover with soil.

Third, choose soft soil. If conditions allow, friends or beginners had best use seedling blocks. Place the seeds flat and neatly arranged, cover with 1 cm of soil, (when using seedling blocks, first soak the blocks, make sure the seedling box has no standing water, then poke a hole, put the sprouted bottle gourd seed in, and cover it well). Water. Leave it in a shady place for half a day, and when placing it in sunlight, add a layer of newspaper to prevent sunscald and rain, keeping the soil moist until the seeds sprout.

2. Cultivation method

Mini bottle gourds can be sown from February to August in South China, but spring and autumn are the main cultivation seasons. Mini bottle gourd seeds have a relatively long dormancy period, so special attention should be paid to choosing seeds that have already passed dormancy. Flat trellis cultivation is generally used, with the trellis 1.6-1.8 m high. Before sowing, seeds should be soaked to promote sprouting, and when the sprout is 0.3 cm long, sow into nutrient cups or a seedling bed for raising seedlings. At low temperatures, use a warm shed to raise seedlings, keeping them warm and moist. When the seedlings have 3-4 leaves, they can be planted out. Generally, high ridges are used for planting, with a row spacing of 2 m and a plant spacing of 0.5 m, planting 600-800 plants per mu.

3. Field management

When the main vine of the mini bottle gourd is about 50 cm long, pinch off the growing tip to encourage side vines to sprout; after that, let the secondary vines grow freely. Before planting out, open a furrow in the center of the ridge and apply 1500 kg of farmyard manure, 200 kg of peanut bran, and 40 kg of phosphate fertilizer per mu as a base fertilizer; during the growing period, pay attention to topdressing, but it is best to apply lightly and frequently. At the same time, carry out intertillage and weeding in time and remove old leaves, yellow leaves, and diseased leaves. For ornamental mini bottle gourds, the harvest standard is when the gourd shell is hard, the gourd hairs begin to fall off, and the skin color begins to turn yellow. Generally, they can only be harvested 45 days after flowering. When processing mini bottle gourds, first scrape off the waxy powder on the skin, then place them in a dry place to air-dry, otherwise they rot easily.

4. Pest and disease control

The main pests and diseases of mini bottle gourds are phytophthora blight, fusarium wilt, powdery mildew, aphids, mites, American leafminer, and so on. Among these, for the American leafminer, prevention should be the main approach, with integrated control, in order to better control its damage; 1.8% abamectin emulsifiable concentrate at 1000 times dilution or 3% cyromazine emulsifiable concentrate at 3000 times dilution can be used for control.