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How to grow exotic and delicious bitter melons in your backyard

• Type of Vegetable: Exotic – Asian
• Skill required: Minimal gardening skills – but you must have an exotic taste
• Growing Season: May to September (In Zone 7)
• Plant type: Climbing Vine
• Other Names: Bitter Gourd, Momordica charantia, Karela, Pavakka, Haagalakai
  Papailla, Melao de sao caetano, bittergourd, Balsam apple, Balsam pear, K’u kua kurela, Kor-kuey, Ku gua, Pava-aki, Salsamino, Sorci, Sorossi, Sorossie, Sorossies, Pare, Peria laut, Peria
• Growing Structure: A trellis is essential

If you like to eat a variety of vegetables and love the taste of exotic vegetables, then you should not miss bitter melons.

Ok, Ok, I agree. Relishing bitter melons is an acquired taste. If you are squeamish about its taste, before growing them I suggest you get some good recipe (some of which are mentioned in this article) and make a few dishes first. And see if you like them.

So where do I buy these “bitter” veggies? I am glad you asked. If you live near a metro and there are Asian grocery stores nearby, then you can buy them there.

Indian Bitter Melon fruit

Chinese or Indian?

Chinese Bitter Melon

There are two main types of bitter melons. The Chinese variety and the Indian variety. The Chinese type is more succulent and the fruits are decorated on the outside with longitudinal ridges. Delicate spines instead of ridges distinguish the Indian variety. The Indian type is generally more bitter than their Chinese counterparts.

If you have plenty of space, you can grow both Chinese and Indian bitter melons. However if you are limited in space, then make your selection before you buy the seeds.

So why would somebody want to eat these bitter things?

Here are the reasons.

Once you acquire their taste, they can become a delicacy for your palate. And they are excellent source of various vitamins including A, B1, B3, B3, B6, B9, B12, C, E and K as well as Iron and Magnesium

According to wikipedia, 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.

Bitter Melon contains four very promising bioactive compounds. These compounds activate a protein called AMPK, which is well known for regulating fuel metabolism and enabling glucose uptake, processes which are impaired in diabetics.

Growing Bitter Melons in your backyard

You can very easily grow this exotic vegetable on your backyard even if you know nothing about this plant. In this article I will show you how you can do that.

From where can I get the seed?  

That is a good question. You can buy bitter melons seeds from Internet stores or even from eBay. We had great success and high reliability with a small Canadian company called AgroHaitai(http://www.agrohaitai.com/fruit&gourd/bittermelon/bittermelon.htm). We bought excellent quality bitter melon seeds from them for several years now. And always got a bounty of fruits.

Bitter Melon Seeds

What is the growing season or When should I transplant my bitter melon?

We grow them every year in zone 7 from May to September with great success. You can grow bitter gourd (bitter melon) from seed directly by sowing the seed in its final destination. In this case you will lose about a month of growing season because you will have to wait until the last frost is over to plant your seeds outdoors. Alternatively you can start them indoors, by sowing the seeds indoors about a month and a half early (early April in Zone 7). You can then transplant them by the middle of May. This will save you time and will result in longer harvest season.

Selecting your planting location

They need a lot of sun. So find the sunniest spot in your garden. Also make sure you can provide a structure for them to climb on. These are vines, which like to climb up and spread around. Unlike watermelons, they won’t fruit well if they are allowed spread on the ground. Also the fruits will get dirty from the soil and they may get all kinds of insect attack if they are in contact with the soil.

Preparing the ground 

Bitter melons are really easy to grow. If you have good soil, then all you need to do is to make a planting pit by loosening up the soil for about two feet in diameter and about one and half feet depth. Mix a lot of compost or dried manure before you plant the seeds.

Planting the seed

If you are in a colder zone (like me who is in zone seven) please wait until it is warm enough to plant your seeds. Waiting until the beginning to the middle of May (in zone 7) is a good idea. If you plant them earlier, most probably your seeds may rot. If you want to save some time, and would like to start harvesting your fruits sooner, you can sow the seeds indoors by April and then transplant them to their actual location by the middle of May.

On a single pit (2 ft diameter and soil loosened to 1.5 ft deep)  you can plant about five to six seeds about 6 inch apart.

Steps to make the bitter melon seeds germinate faster

Bitter Melon Seeds Starts Germinating - after 14 days of wet paper towel treatment

If directly seeded, the seeds can take almost a month to germinate. There are things you can do to hasten the germination.

1. Socking:
By early April, soak the seed for two hours in tap water. Then put a wet paper towel in a styrofoam plate, spread the seeds and cover it with another wet paper towel. Put the styrofoam plate on the top (not inside) of your refrigator (it’s warmer there). Keep the paper towel moist all the time. After about two weeks, the seeds will germinate.

At this time you can transfer them to your small containers. Let them grow for another 3 to 4 weeks in those containers. By that time they will develop a few new leaves. Now you can transplant them to the field. When you transplant, make sure to provide some artifical shade for a few days to protect the young plants from the sudden exposure to the harsh sun.

2. Breaking the seed coat:
We do a little trick to make them germinate faster by breaking their hard seed coat using pliers. To break the seed coat, you need to hold the seeds between your fingers by their thinnest side and then press them with the pliers on the ridge joining the two halves of the seed.

Breaking open a bitter melon seed for quick germination

Be careful when you do this, if you damage the endosperm inside the hard shell, you will kill the seeds. So, before you use this approach, make sure you have plenty of seeds.

Building a trellis

This can be an easy weekend project for most people. If you build a good wood structure, you can re-use them for years to grow your bitter melons.

What you see on the picture is a trellis built using the following:

1. Posts :  4 numbers (4 inch x 4 inch x 8 ft)
2. Horizontal support frame: 4 numbers  (2 inch x 4 inch x 8 ft)
3. Horizontal runners: 8 numbers(1 inch x 2 inch x 8 ft)

All of these were bought from Lowes. You will be able to find them in the lumber section of Lowes or Homedepot.

Bitter Melon Trellis

Steps to build the trellis

Prebuild the structure (frame) that goes on the top of the posts. You can do it in any flat surface or on your garage and carry it to the location. You will need a helper to carry it as well as to raise it when you want to nail them to the posts.

Putting the Posts

The posts were put into holes dug 1.5 ft deep. To make the posts firmly affixed to the ground, dig a narrow hole using a crowbar. Also after putting the post, when you fill-in the hole, alternate between stones and soil and stamp them into the hole using the crowbar. Pour some water while you are doing this so that the soil will go in between the stones. Once everything is dried up, your posts will be as firm as you want them to be.

Irrigation

If there is no rain you must irrigate your melon plants at least twice a week. If you can, setting up a drip irrigation system can save you a lot of time as well as water.

Young Bitter Melon Plant (Indian Bitter Melon)

Pest and diseases

That’s the beauty of it: None.

We haven’t seen any major pests or diseases attacking these plants. Since they are not native to US, there aren’t major pests or diseases attacking these plants. Moreover, due to the harsh winter preceding and succeeding the growing season there is not much chance for a pest or disease to survive and spread season after season.

Harvesting: Let’s pick these babies, fresh from the vine 

For most early varieties, you should be able to start harvesting your bitter melons about two months after germination. You should harvest the fruits before they are too mature and start ripening. When the fruits are ready for harvest, their spines (or ridges in the case of Chinese variety) will become less pointy. The ends of spines will get round. This is the best time to harvest them. 

If you wait longer, the fruits will ripen into yellow color. Such fruits are not good for cooking.

Collecting Bitter Melon Seeds - The natural way

Let the ants help you - Collecting the seeds for the next season

To collect the seeds, let the fruits ripen in the vine. They will turn yellow in color. If you open the fruits at this time, you will see bright red colored pulp which will cover the seeds. When you collect the seeds, you need to get rid of this bright red mucilage covering the seeds. One little trick we do to avoid messing with the mucilage is to let the fruits ripen and break open naturally. Then the seeds will fall to the ground covered in this mucilage. Ants and small insects relish this mucilage. In a day or so, voila!! You will able to pick the seeds from the ground, wiped clean and dry by ants and other insects.

Cooking and Recipes

There are numerous recipes on the Internet. Given below are some of my favorite recipes.

Bitter Melon Sambal (image courtesy to wikipedia)

Bitter Melon Stir-fry
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/vegetablesrecipes/r/bittermelon.htm

Twenty-One Bitter Melon Recipes
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?foodido=12707,13792,16491&title=bitter%20melon

Garden web
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/asianveg/msg0818541820091.html