How to train the vines of bitter melon in arched sheds? Detailed technical points
How should bitter melon in arched sheds be vine-trained? Please advise. When visiting the countryside, I saw that many vegetable growers left too many lateral vines on their arched-shed bitter melon, resulting in poor air circulation and light penetration, slow plant growth, and a serious impact on increasing bitter melon yields. When asked why they did not train the vines, the growers said that bitter melon mainly sets fruit on lateral vines,...
How should bitter melon in arched sheds be vine-trained? Please advise
When visiting the countryside, I saw that many vegetable growers left too many lateral vines on their arched-shed bitter melon, resulting in poor air circulation and light penetration, slow plant growth, and a serious impact on increasing bitter melon yields. When asked why they did not train the vines, the growers said that bitter melon mainly sets fruit on lateral vines, so the more lateral vines left, the higher the yield, and that vine training was unnecessary. But this is exactly what causes poor growth of bitter melon. So how should bitter melon vines be trained?
First, bitter melon has strong branching ability and many lateral vines, so it must be vine-trained. After the bitter melon is hung up, lateral vines produced on the main vine within 40-50 cm of the wire should be retained as appropriate, while lateral vines, tendrils, etc. below 50 cm from the wire should all be removed, which helps the lower part of the plant get air circulation and light.
Then select 4-6 robustly growing lateral vines produced within 40-50 cm of the main vine from the wire and retain them, guiding the vines onto the trellis, but be sure to wind the lateral vines together with the main vine horizontally around the trellis wire. For vines after they climb onto the trellis, weak lateral vines, vines without fruit, and diseased or pest-damaged vines that sprout should be removed in time, keeping only the fruit-bearing vines.
Because bitter melon is pulled from the field around Frost's Descent, in order to ensure increased yield, after the first bitter melon on a lateral vine is picked, excessive vine thinning should no longer be done, and growers can keep 6-10 lateral vines per plant. Old leaves, yellow leaves, diseased leaves, etc. on the lower part of the plant should be removed to promote air circulation and light penetration for the bitter melon.
Through this kind of vine training, not only will it not affect the increase of bitter melon yield, but it also helps improve the market quality of bitter melon and increase returns.
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