What causes bitter melon to bear few fruits
Bitter melon can be eaten as a fresh vegetable, can also be processed and refined for medicinal use, and can even be processed into other secondary food products. It is a very good summer heat-relieving vegetable, but not everyone likes it, because its fruit tastes sweet and bitter. When growing bitter melon, we often encounter a situation where the bitter melon seedlings grow very well, but the amount of fruit they bear is very small. Why is that? Is there any way to solve it? Let's find out below.
1. Reasons for bitter melon bearing few fruits
Why does bitter melon fail to set fruit or set few fruits during its growth process? In fact, there are three main reasons. The first is poor pollination. If bitter melon encounters continuous rain during the flowering period, it leads to poor pollination, and then later the bitter melon will abort its fruits, so the fruit yield is low. The second is insufficient light. During the flowering period, bitter melon has a relatively large demand for light. If the branches and leaves are too luxuriant, the light received by the bitter melon is reduced, which can also cause serious flower and fruit drop. There is also improper water and fertilizer management, which causes bitter melon to lack water and fertilizer during the flowering period, and insufficient supply of nutrients and water, thereby reducing the fruit-setting rate. Of course, besides these, there are also improper temperature, improper soil selection, improper selection of bitter melon varieties, and so on. These are all possible reasons for bitter melon bearing few fruits.
2. Solutions
Aiming at the problem of bitter melon bearing few fruits, we need to solve the problem based on the actual planting situation. If it is poor pollination, then we should improve the management of the bitter melon flowering period, and in bad weather carry out artificial supplementary pollination to increase the success rate of pollination. The second is to properly thin flowers and fruits when necessary to reduce the phenomenon of physiological flower and fruit drop. If it is insufficient light, then we can enhance light through artificial lighting, or remove branches and leaves to increase field ventilation and light penetration and improve light intensity. Finally, if it is improper fertilization, we need to consider it from multiple aspects: do not apply excessive nitrogen fertilizer, to avoid excessive vegetative growth of branches and leaves without fruit setting; the second is to appropriately increase the amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer during the flowering and fruiting period of bitter melon, to improve the fruit-setting rate and promote the enlargement of bitter melon. Of course, it is also necessary to appropriately control the use of growth regulators to avoid excessive rampant growth.
3. Precautions
When planting bitter melon, the first thing we should pay attention to is understanding the local climate conditions and choosing suitable bitter melon varieties for planting. The second is to choose a suitable planting site according to the growth habits of the bitter melon variety. There is also adjusting the density of the planted bitter melon plants to avoid excessive density, which affects field ventilation and light penetration. Finally, pay attention to temperature regulation. It is best to keep the temperature between 20 and 30 degrees.
Generally, if everyone pays attention to these points listed by the editor during the planting process and plants according to the correct planting techniques, then basically the phenomenon of bearing few fruits will not occur. That is all for today's sharing that the editor wants to bring to everyone. Thank you for your support and encouragement.