Growing Bitter Melon - Frequently Asked Questions
After the original article on bitter melon was published at this site, we received numerous questions, both through comments as well as through emails on several aspects of Bitter Melon. These questions were the main inspiration for this blog post.
To get the context, please click this link to read the original article on bitter melon growing.
- I am trying to grow Bitter Melon in Sydney, Australia as have got type 2 diabetes. Any suggestions as per temp changes from your zone?
- I have been buying and eating bitter melon and it has greatly helped with my type 2 diabetes. I am a mother of 2 young kids so want to preserve my health for them. I buy fresh bitter melon and cut and fry and eat daily as a BM sandwich! This is just a comment on how I use bitter melon.
- Any tips on germinating bitter melons in Sydney, Australia?
- I have collected some seeds, which had been red inside some of the bitter melon I bought from the grocery store. I removed the red fleshy part and kept the brown seeds to dry. Can I use these seeds to grow bitter melon?
- Regarding pruning bitter melon, I do not really understand which branches to prune off or how tall should I allow the branches to grow. Do you have any recommendations?
- I did the wet paper towel method you mentioned for germinating bitter melon seeds, but the seeds got moulds on them? What did I do wrong?
- Do you use string/rope to have the plant climb up to the trellis?
- I have three bitter melon plants. It gets lots of flowers, but no bitter melon. What steps do I need to take in order to produce bitter melon?
- I have a question regarding types of bitter melon. I have been planting and growing bitter melon for the past 2 yrs. The first year a larger variety (less bitter) and the following year a smaller melon (a bit more bitter) and both were excellent. This year I am growing both types of melon. Would these two types of bitter melon cross-pollinate and result in a hybridized fruit?
- I would like to know is there a way to protect the old Bitter Melon plant from frost/cold so that they can continue to survive to the following season. I tried to cover them with plastic sheeting but not successful. Would the hothouse (more expensive way) do the tricks? I live in Melbourne, Australia.
- In your blog post you mentioned that, “After about two weeks, the seeds will germinate. At this time you can transfer them to your small containers” I did exactly as suggested, and the seed are germinated between two pieces of wet paper towels, but I am not sure which way you put the germinated seed into the soil, the little root that came out of the seed, I put that section into the soil (or is it the other way?).
- I was wondering how high do you make the trellis from the ground? I dont want it too high but then again not too low!?! Thanks
- I have a very successful year for my bitter melon, I have collected many seeds from a very ripe (red) melon, can you advise what is the best way to store them so that i can grow them again next summer. Can I store them (after drying) in the fridge?
Since Sydney has a warmer climate than the North-East of U.S (my location), you should be able to grow bitter melons quite successfully in Sydney. It may be much easier to grow there than here since we get only about 5 months of summer season, so we couldn’t make use of the full potential of the plant.
Also, you may be able to harvest at least two crops in Sydney, If you like to preserve bitter melons for year round use, my wife recommends vacuum sealing and freezing. She preserves several vegetables we grow this way.
It is great to know that you are benefited by bitter melon. You may get more effect if you use the fresh juice of bitter melon, or use it without too much cooking such as frying.
Young Bitter Melon Plant (Indian Bitter Melon)
As I have previously mentioned in my blog post, bitter melon has been used in various Asian traditional medicine systems for a long time. Like most bitter-tasting foods, bitter melons can stimulate digestion. Bitter melons have been used by Asians for centuries and is a popular medicine in Chinese Medicine for diabetes mellitus type 2.
Teams from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica pulped roughly a tonne of fresh bitter melon and extracted four very promising bioactive components. These four compounds all appear to activate the enzyme AMPK, a protein well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake. This is clearly an indication that bitter melon can potentially help by lowering blood sugar or can lower blood glucose levels.
I have given two approaches on my blog post. However it is more applicable to locations where the summer is very short so that we need to save as much time as possible. Since your summer is much hotter than here, you can sow the seeds directly in soil.
Regarding the seeds, I recommend that you try to find good quality seeds, instead of trying your luck on the seeds you scooped out from the BM you got from the vegetable store. This is because seeds will be of good quality only when the fruit is allowed to ripen naturally after its full maturity.
The store bought BM is harvested before full maturity; so the seeds you collected from them may not be of the best quality.
Why using good quality seeds are important: Because, buying seeds costs too little compared to the overall effort involved in raising the crop. Considering that it will take almost a month to know if you have seeds that will germinate or not. So, if your seeds fail to germinate, you would have lost one month of harvest.
Pruning the vines is not very critical for bitter melon, especially so if you are just starting to grow bitter melon.
Here are the more important steps I would recommend:
1. Get good quality seeds.
2. Find the sunniest location in your garden where you can also put a trellis.
3. Dig up soil 1.5 ft width to 1 ft depth. Add a lot of dried, powdered organic matter or manure - cow dung. In USA, you can buy cow dung (cow manure) from Lowes and Home Depot. Wet manure is not good and you need to the mix manure well with soil. It is better if you can do this a few weeks before your seed or plant your bitter melon.
4. Sow the seeds. You can put about 6 to 8 seeds in a pit. Separate the seeds about 6 inches apart.
5. Water at least twice a week, depending on soil and weather conditions.
6. Once the plant starts to climb, provide a trellis big enough for the plant to spread around. For my 4 pits, I provide an 8×8 feet trellis. The height of the trellis can be as low as 4 ft, however if you can make them above your own height, then it will be easy for you to walk underneath and harvest them.
7. Add a tablespoon full of 6:6:6 or 10:10:10 fertilizer to each pit in every 2 to 3 weeks. Put the fertilizer not touching the plant stem and mix it with soil.
8. When the fruits are ready, enjoy your harvest.
Bitter Melon fruit (Indian Bitter Melon)
Once you are able to grow them successfully for a season, then you can think about the advanced management aspects such as pruning etc. Until then don’t worry about those things.
When you use the paper towel method, some mould is OK. I get them especially for snake gourd. But after the first week, the mould will go away. With the bitter gourd, by using the paper towel method and providing some heat (I have a very small oven for this purpose) I generally get almost 100% germination. Heat and moisture are the two determining factors for germination success for bitter melon.
Yes, we do hang two jute strings per plant for the small plants to climb up to the trellis. Once they reach the trellis, they are own their own. But by the time they are so eager that they will spread and cover the trellis in no time.
In the initial flowering stage of bitter melon only male flowers would appear. After about 2 to 4 weeks of initial flowering that you will see the female flowers. Only the female flowers produce the bitter melon. If your plant is growing well and is of decent size then I wouldn’t worry about it. In a few weeks’ time you will start seeing female flowers.
However if your growing conditions are sub-par (less sunlight and the plant is really small) then it may take longer for the female flowers to appear and their numbers would also be fewer.
Yes, It is potentially possible that the bitter melon varieties cross-pollinate in your garden and may result in hybrid seeds.
Bitter Melon is not a perennial plant. It will die after every season and should be started from seeds again in the next season. Even under tropical conditions this is the cycle for this seasonal plant.
So unfortunately building a green house will not keep this plant alive season after season.
It doesn’t matter which direction you put the seeds, especially when they are really tiny. Remember, in nature nobody is going to place the seeds in a particular direction. As long as you don’t damage the seeds while you transfer them to small containers, the roots and the plant will grow properly. Nature has its own way to correct things. Good luck.
As far as the bitter melon plant is concerned, the height doesn’t matter much as long as it is a few feet above the ground. However as a matter of convenience I prefer them to be about 6 feet high, so that I can walk underneath the trellis to inspect the plant as well as harvest the melons when they are ready for picking.
You shouldn’t store your bitter melon seeds inside a fridge. These are tropical plants and cold temperature is not natural for them.
You can successfully store these seeds for the next year by keeping them inside a paper bag (I use brown paper bags) in a cool, dry place. Basements or the top shelf of a cupboard are good places to keep them.
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I grow BM in a pot.I stay in Ahmedabad, a city in Western India.The problem I am facing is that the BMs become yellow even before maturing and fall off.What could be the reason?
Hi Sukam:
Thanks for visiting this blog. The reason for the Bitter Melon fruits to fall off before maturity can be due to three reasons.
1. Not having proper nutrition and healthy root system: Since you are growing the plant in a pot, I am a bit doubtful whether the plant is getting enough root space to grow a robust root system to produce a healthy plant. If space is not a problem, try to grow them on ground. But if you are living in an apartment and growing the plant on ground is not a possibility then try to grow them on a big pot with a very rich potting mix. A mixture of 1:1:1 of soil, dried powdered cow manure and sand will provide a reasonably rich potting mixture. Also make sure your plant is getting enough sunlight and water the plant very well every alternate day.
2. Insects: Now, if you are already following the above and your plant is otherwise healthy and growing vigorously, then there are only two other reasons for the young BM fruit to fall off. The first possibility is that some insect such as fruit flies are attacking the young fruit. This is very easy to fix. Just put a paper or plastic cover over the young fruit after the flower drops off. You must wait until the flower drops off to ensure the fruit is properly pollinated. By the way if you are living in a very high rise apartment, the young fruits can fall off due to lack of pollination also.
3. Fungal disease: This is a rare but possible cause. You need to consider this possibility only after the items 1 and 2 mentioned above are covered. If this is a fungal disease, you may need to get some expert opinion by contacting the local agricultural extension specialist in your area.
Thanks and good luck with your vegetable gardening.
Iris
In 2010 we planted several different kinds of vegetables and herbs in pots on a rear patio because of the bad soil quality in our neighborhood. When doing this you need to be sure the pots are large enough for respective plants potentiall root growth and you will probably need to water them almost twice as much as the dirt tends to dry out.
Great article about bitter melon gardening.
Question: What is the best fertilizer, natural or commercial(3 number combination, N,K, etc?
Great history about bitter melon gardening…