When is bitter melon ripe

Place a trellis 6 feet 1. When the vine grows to the top of its trellis, prune or pinch away all lateral branches from the soil up to the 10th node. This will stimulate the upper branches to grow and produce a higher yield.

Prune laterals from 2 to 3 feet long. As a result, the plant will produce a greater number of flowers and fruit sooner. Water and feeding: Keep bitter melon planting beds evenly moist; regular water is essential for fruit development and growth. Aged compost will feed melon plants. You can also add a slow release organic fertilizer such as around plants early in the season.

Side-dress plants with aged compost during the growing season to add nutrients and to help retain moisture in the soil. To give plants a boost water with compost or comfrey tea every third week during the growing season. Companion Plants: Beans, corn, peas, pumpkins, and squash. Do not grow bitter melons with potatoes and herbs. Care: Trellised vines produce hanging fruit, which grows long and straight.

Vines allowed to sprawl on the ground should be mulched with straw or plastic to keep fruit from resting on the soil. The growing tips of trellised vines should be pruned or pinched when they reach the top of the support, as should long lower lateral branches. Prune when the first female flowers appear; female flowers follow male flowers. Pollination: Vines commonly begin flowering about 5 to 6 weeks after planting. Male flowers open first, followed in a week or so by female blossoms.

Both flowers are yellow. Female flowers have a swelling the ovary at the base of the bloom resembling a tiny melon. Bees and pollinating insects visit both blooms, transferring pollen from male to female flowers.

Usually male blooms live only one day; they open in the morning and fall from the plant in the evening. Flower drop is not uncommon. The ovary of pollinated female flowers will begin to enlarge and fruit will mature in two to four months.

Mature fruits will be ready to pick about 12 weeks after planting. They will be light green and juicy with white, bitter flesh. Hand pollination: Bitter Melons are pollinated by insects and honeybees. If there are flowers but no fruit forms and you find no bees at work in the garden, then you may rightfully suspect that pollination has not occurred. Pollination can be done by hand—this is true for cucumbers and squash as well: pick male flowers and transfer pollen by touching the center part of the male flowers against the center of the female flowers.

Container Growing: Bitter melon can be grown in a pot. Choose a container that can hold at least 5 gallons 19 liters of potting soil—more is better. Make sure the container drains well. Pests: Bitter melon can be attacked by spotted and striped cucumber beetles.

Cucumber beetles can carry bacterial wilt disease which will cause vines to collapse. Spray adult beetles with rotenone or a pyrethrum-based insecticide. Use all pesticides at dusk to avoid harming honey bees.

Fruit flies may also attack bitter melons; they can spread fruit rot. Prevent flies from reaching the fruit by covering fruits with paper bags secured with twine or rubber bands or wrapping them with newspaper when the fruits are just an inch or two long.

Diseases: Bitter melon is susceptible to most of the same diseases that plague squash and cucumbers: fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, downy mildew, and rust and rots as well as watermelon mosaic virus and bacterial wilts. Trellising which increases air circulation around vines can help reduce fungal diseases. For non-trellised vines, use a straw or plastic mulch to keep melons from resting directly on moist soil. There is no cure for plants attacked by viruses.

When possible, plant disease-resistant varieties. Harvest: Harvest bitter melon about 12 to 16 weeks after planting and 8 to 10 days after blossom drop when the fruits are 4 to 6 inches cm long. The fruits will be a bit pear shaped, with light green skin and a few streaks of yellow. If fruits stay too long on the vine they will over-ripen, turn all yellow, grow too large, and become bitter.

Fruits on the same vine can vary in their degrees of bitterness—melons both immature and overripe can taste very bitter. The bitter melon has a thin layer of flesh that turns orange to bright red when ripe.

The flesh surrounds a hollow interior cavity with spongy, white pulp peppered with seeds. The fruit will be watery and crunchy much like a cucumber.

Bitterness is the result of the alkaloid momordicine found in growing bitter melons; the darker the color of a bitter melon the more bitter and intense the flavor of the fruit.

Once melons start to ripen, pick fruits regularly every two to three days. The more you pick, the more fruits will form. Seed production: To save seed for next season, leave a few fruits on each vine to mature past harvest.

Mature fruits will break open and release brown or white seeds. Collect the seed, sort it, wash it, and dry it on a countertop, then store it in a cool, dry spot. It will remain viable for 2 to 3 years. Bitter melons native to China are oblong with blunt ends and have a gently undulating, warty surface. Use: To prepare bitter melon, slice the fruit open and remove the seeds and pith. Do not peel. The fruit can be parboiled or soaked in salted water to lessen bitterness however this can affect the fruits normally crunchy texture.

Bitter melon can be stuffed often stuffed with pork or shrimp and steamed , pickled, or curried and served with meat or in soup. The fruit pairs well with other strong flavors, like garlic, Chinese black beans, chili peppers, or coconut milk. A dietary note: bitter melon is used in traditional Chinese medicine and in alternative medicine to treat Type 2 diabetes. It is also a folk remedy for treating high blood pressure.

The combination of bitter melon and drugs sometimes used to treat hyperglycemia can decrease blood sugar levels to dangerously low levels.

Bitter melon has twice the beta carotene of broccoli, twice the potassium of bananas, and twice the calcium of spinach. Use within 3 to 5 days of harvest. Store bitter melon fruit away from other ripening fruits to avoid hastening the ripening process.

Common name: Bitter gourd, balsam pear, karela, bitter cucumber, bitter squash, African cucumber, alligator pear, ampalaya, goya. Your email address will not be published. Post Comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Please check settings. Plant 2 or 3 seed to a container; use a gallon or larger container; once plants are established, trim away the weakest seedlings and let just one grow in each container.

Bitter melons need plenty of nutrients and moisture so it is best to give each plant its own container. New flowers that fall or fail have been stressed. The stress could be environmental—weather too hot, too cold, too rainy. The stress could be too much water in the soil or not enough. The stress could be too much nitrogen in the soil.

Given that bitter gourds can continue to ripen after being picked, storage away from ethylene-producing fruits is a must. You can harvest the seeds after the gourd splits open.

Bitter gourd vines are grown from seed, and the ones you collect will remain good for a couple of years. While you could grow bitter gourds on the ground, trellising them is much better because it makes harvesting them a lot easier, especially if you arrange them in a way so the vines are high up, allowing the gourds to hang down.

Instead of having to dig through the prolific foliage of the plant to find gourds, the hanging gourds will be very visible, making those frequent harvesting trips go much more quickly. Suzanne S. Wiley is an editor and writer in Southern California.

She has been editing since and began writing in Wiley received her master's degree from the University of Texas and her work appears on various websites. The consumption of bitter melon can help your cells utilize glucose and move it to your liver, muscles, and fat. Bitter melon isn't an approved treatment or medication for prediabetes or diabetes despite the evidence that it can manage blood sugar.

Several studies have examined bitter melon and diabetes. Can I eat karela raw? Bitter gourd, or karela in Hindi, is relished for its benefits and despised for its bitter taste.

Even drinking raw karela juice is full of advantages as it contains essential vitamins as well as antioxidants that all of us need. Can we eat bitter gourd at night? Bitter gourd a fruit is pack of nutrients. Contrary to its name , bitter gourd is very beneficial for health. It is loaded with so many beneficial things. I have never heard that it should not be eaten at night. What is bitter gourd used for? Bitter melon is a vegetable used in India and other Asian countries.

The fruit and seeds are used to make medicine. People use bitter melon for diabetes, stomach and intestinal problems, to promote menstruation, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses. How do you clean bitter gourd? To scrape off the skin, just use a regular vegetable peeler and only remove the textured part. After scraping the skin, the spongy flesh where the seeds reside should also be removed.

Next, rub the gourds with quite a generous amount of sea salt. Then, fill the bowl with enough water to just cover them.