Do not get Bottle gourd
1,156 views
Skip to first unread message
Narendra sampat
Jan 21, 2013, 5:26:15 AM1/21/13
to Terrace Garden, SULINS, Deepakbhai Suchde
hi,
DO not get Bottle gourd since One year
I have been regularly growing Bottlegourd since one year. I used to get small one and then getting dried. After an year, I just got one bottle gourd in my plant. We were happy and enjoyed.
This happened at MNP too. I have guest from UK who has told that this is perhaps due to shortage of female flowers. Perhaps, in bottle gourd, the number of male flowers produced is in far greater proportion than pistilate flowers.
I want the guidance to improve the number of female flowers in bottle gourd if this is the reason OR else how to get more bottle gourds.Plant is planted in 18" pot.
This time, I have started to follow the procedure of cutting at 8th Nod explained in the book -"Amrut Krushi Vigyan" by Deepakbhai.
regards ---
Narendra Sampat
DO not get Bottle gourd since One year
I have been regularly growing Bottlegourd since one year. I used to get small one and then getting dried. After an year, I just got one bottle gourd in my plant. We were happy and enjoyed.
This happened at MNP too. I have guest from UK who has told that this is perhaps due to shortage of female flowers. Perhaps, in bottle gourd, the number of male flowers produced is in far greater proportion than pistilate flowers.
I want the guidance to improve the number of female flowers in bottle gourd if this is the reason OR else how to get more bottle gourds.Plant is planted in 18" pot.
This time, I have started to follow the procedure of cutting at 8th Nod explained in the book -"Amrut Krushi Vigyan" by Deepakbhai.
regards ---
Narendra Sampat
shreesh ponkshe
Jan 21, 2013, 5:34:57 AM1/21/13
to cityf...@yahoogroups.com, SULINS, Deepakbhai Suchde
I have seen the power of pinching/pruning at the 8th node ... a profusion of female flowers.
However, I had pinched when the plant was pretty young (it did have 13 nodes though) and now there are so many female flowers that the plant is unable to nourish them. I am regularly cutting the female flowers and adding nitrogen, in an effort to have more vegetative growth.
Awaiting my next bottlegourd plant to do better pinching ... I too remember Deepakbhai's advice .. pinch on 8th node after the growth has happened to 13 nodes. Any other advice to keep in mind?
From: Narendra sampat <jaid...@hotmail.com>
To: Terrace Garden <cityf...@yahoogroups.com>; SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 3:56 PM
Subject: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
__._,_.___
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) 
.
__,_._,___
Monica Bathija
Jan 21, 2013, 5:38:27 AM1/21/13
to sul...@googlegroups.com
Does this happen with brinjal too? I got a couple of flowers but they dried and fell.
Do I need to pinch/prune too?
Do I need to pinch/prune too?
--
http://sulins.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sulins (Sustainable Living Indians)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sulins+un...@googlegroups.com.
ikshit attarde
Jan 21, 2013, 6:07:23 AM1/21/13
to sul...@googlegroups.com
I had same problem with watermelon plants. I assumed that it was probably due to low pollination rate - shortage of bees. I didn't hav any success with bees but instead I did manual pollination using brush. It worked in about 50% cases. Not as good as bees! P.s. High nitrogen content during flowering stage will significantly affect fruit yields.
shreesh ponkshe
Jan 21, 2013, 8:32:54 AM1/21/13
to sul...@googlegroups.com, cityf...@yahoogroups.com
Thanks for reminding me Ikshit - I had noticed a similar problem with a certain gourd variety ... its male flowers used to bloom only at night - when there are no bees around. I found it strange ... so I too used to pollinate manually ... worked OK.
From: ikshit attarde <ikshit....@gmail.com>
To: sul...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
shreesh ponkshe
Jan 21, 2013, 8:38:22 AM1/21/13
to cityf...@yahoogroups.com, SULINS, Deepakbhai Suchde
Different plants (rather, family of plants) have different rules. Deepakbhai has good knowledge ... I am not aware of other sources of this knowledge.
He had shown me rules for Cucurbits (watermelon, gourds, pumpkins, etc), Mango and Citrus. But I unfortunately wasn't able to note them down, so all is forgotten. Narendra has mentioned below a book by Deepakbhai ... that might be a good reference.
From: Sarayu Kamat <sarayu...@gmail.com>
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com
Cc: SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>; Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
Yes, this is really interesting. Also, does this pinching concept apply to all flowering plants?RegardsSarayuOn Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Nataraj Krishnamurthy <mailto...@gmail.com> wrote:Interesting facts..Can someone send me the link or brief info on the logic behind pinching the 8th node?
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 4:04 PM, shreesh ponkshe <shre...@yahoo.com> wrote:
I have seen the power of pinching/pruning at the 8th node ... a profusion of female flowers.However, I had pinched when the plant was pretty young (it did have 13 nodes though) and now there are so many female flowers that the plant is unable to nourish them. I am regularly cutting the female flowers and adding nitrogen, in an effort to have more vegetative growth.Awaiting my next bottlegourd plant to do better pinching ... I too remember Deepakbhai's advice .. pinch on 8th node after the growth has happened to 13 nodes. Any other advice to keep in mind?
From: Narendra sampat <jaid...@hotmail.com>
To: Terrace Garden <cityf...@yahoogroups.com>; SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 3:56 PM
Subject: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
hi,
DO not get Bottle gourd since One year
I have been regularly growing Bottlegourd since one year. I used to get small one and then getting dried. After an year, I just got one bottle gourd in my plant. We were happy and enjoyed.
This happened at MNP too. I have guest from UK who has told that this is perhaps due to shortage of female flowers. Perhaps, in bottle gourd, the number of male flowers produced is in far greater proportion than pistilate flowers.
I want the guidance to improve the number of female flowers in bottle gourd if this is the reason OR else how to get more bottle gourds.Plant is planted in 18" pot.
This time, I have started to follow the procedure of cutting at 8th Nod explained in the book -"Amrut Krushi Vigyan" by Deepakbhai.
regards ---
Narendra Sampat
__._,_.___
.
__,_._,___
Narendra sampat
Jan 22, 2013, 2:35:59 AM1/22/13
to SULINS, Terrace Garden, Deepakbhai Suchde
Hi,
Shri Deepakbhai -- I am awaiting to hear from you. I am checking e-mail every 8 hours. Please guide us which plants have this concept of male/female. Even,I noticed in my Pomegranate plant, many flowers came but no fruits !!!
I found this article on web site which cives good picture and self explanatory.
http://desikalakar.blogspot.in/2011/08/hand-pollination-did-wonders-in-my.html
But all the baby fruits on the bottlegourd plant appeared to be rotting or dying on the vine or falling off the plant before developing into a fully grown fruit. I did a lot of search on Google and found out why the baby fruits were dropping off.
The reason for this disaster was inadequate pollination. The bottle gourd plants produce both male and female flowers and are not self pollinating. They need help from pollinators to carry pollen from male flowers to the female flowers.
So may be my garden does not have enough bees to get them started. So now what?
Solution : Hand Pollination.
What is hand pollination?
According to a wiki article on hand pollination
"Hand pollination (also called "mechanical pollination") is a technique used when natural, or open pollination is insufficient or undesirable. The most common techniques are for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation." Hand pollination is only an option on a small scale. "
How to differentiate between a male and female flower?
So how do you differentiate between a male and female flower in the bottle gourd plant. A male flower will have a longer, skinny stem as seen in this picture.
I first tried it out on a single flower.. and yes I was amazed on its wonder. Then I did hand pollinate several flowers.
Hand pollination still does not guarantee 100% success.But you will definitely see the fruits of your labor. I
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:38:22 -0800
From: shre...@yahoo.com
Subject: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com
CC: sul...@googlegroups.com; deepak...@gmail.com
Shri Deepakbhai -- I am awaiting to hear from you. I am checking e-mail every 8 hours. Please guide us which plants have this concept of male/female. Even,I noticed in my Pomegranate plant, many flowers came but no fruits !!!
I found this article on web site which cives good picture and self explanatory.
http://desikalakar.blogspot.in/2011/08/hand-pollination-did-wonders-in-my.html
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Hand Pollination did wonders in my vegetable garden for bottle gourd plant.
I planted bitter gourd (karela) and bottle gourds this year in my vegetable garden. The vines are creeping in all directions and bearing lovely flowers.
 |
| Bitter gourd and Bottle gourd |
 |
| Bottle gourd creeping everywhere |
I am getting a very nice produce from the bitter gourd plant starting with small pretty yellow flowers and converting into pretty spiky karelas. One of my colleague at work even described it as "kind a like dinosaur" due to its spike.
 |
| Spiky Karela - Bitter gourd |
But all the baby fruits on the bottlegourd plant appeared to be rotting or dying on the vine or falling off the plant before developing into a fully grown fruit. I did a lot of search on Google and found out why the baby fruits were dropping off.The reason for this disaster was inadequate pollination. The bottle gourd plants produce both male and female flowers and are not self pollinating. They need help from pollinators to carry pollen from male flowers to the female flowers.
So may be my garden does not have enough bees to get them started. So now what?
Solution : Hand Pollination.
What is hand pollination?
According to a wiki article on hand pollination
"Hand pollination (also called "mechanical pollination") is a technique used when natural, or open pollination is insufficient or undesirable. The most common techniques are for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation." Hand pollination is only an option on a small scale. "
How to differentiate between a male and female flower?
So how do you differentiate between a male and female flower in the bottle gourd plant. A male flower will have a longer, skinny stem as seen in this picture.
 |
| Male bottle gourd flower |
But a female flowers will have a tiny "fruit" at the base as you can see in this picture below. These will rot and drop off if not pollinated.
 |
| Female bottle gourd flower |
How to hand pollinate these flowers?
There are several ways found on the web that many gardeners have used to hand pollinate the flowers.
- Dab an artists brush on the pollen on the male flowers and then brush it against the stigmas on the female flowers. Dark colored bristles help here to see the pollen gathered from the male flower.
- Do the same technique with a cotton swab.
- Pluck the male flower, remove all the petals and just brush it on the stigma of the female flowers.
- There is a very nice tutorial on hand pollination which can be used if you want to avoid cross pollination and preserve the seeds.
Hand pollination still does not guarantee 100% success.But you will definitely see the fruits of your labor. I
 |
| The first bottle gourd from my garden. More than a feet long... :) |
Happy Gardening and hand pollinating!
Please do comment if you tried hand pollination and had success!
Posted by Poonam Agarwal
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:38:22 -0800
From: shre...@yahoo.com
Subject: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com
CC: sul...@googlegroups.com; deepak...@gmail.com
Narendra sampat
Jan 22, 2013, 5:26:47 AM1/22/13
to Terrace Garden, SULINS, ruchi...@yahoo.co.in
Nice to hear - Ruchi.
I am staying on 9th floor at Santacruz west near Juhu police station/Asha parekh hospital in Balaji Tower.
Where you stay ? I have to try now hand pollination. If you are in Mumbai and convenient to contact,do contact my mobile no. is 9323425517.
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com; sul...@googlegroups.com
CC: deepak...@gmail.com
From: ruchi...@yahoo.co.in
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:18:07 +0800
Subject: Re: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
I am staying on 9th floor at Santacruz west near Juhu police station/Asha parekh hospital in Balaji Tower.
Where you stay ? I have to try now hand pollination. If you are in Mumbai and convenient to contact,do contact my mobile no. is 9323425517.
greetings -
Narendra Sampat
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com; sul...@googlegroups.com
CC: deepak...@gmail.com
From: ruchi...@yahoo.co.in
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:18:07 +0800
Subject: Re: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
I to have tried hand pollination, my first attempt was successfull while other 2 failures....i grow it on a window sill on 5th floor. now waiting for more flowers.....
From: Narendra sampat <jaid...@hotmail.com>
To: SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>; Terrace Garden <cityf...@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:05 PM
Subject: RE: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
To: SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>; Terrace Garden <cityf...@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:05 PM
Subject: RE: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
Hi, Shri Deepakbhai -- I am awaiting to hear from you. I am checking e-mail every 8 hours. Please guide us which plants have this concept of male/female. Even,I noticed in my Pomegranate plant, many flowers came but no fruits !!! I found this article on web site which cives good picture and self explanatory.
http://desikalakar.blogspot.in/2011/08/hand-pollination-did-wonders-in-my.html
Thursday, August 18, 2011
I planted bitter gourd (karela) and bottle gourds this year in my vegetable garden. The vines are creeping in all directions and bearing lovely flowers.
|
| Bitter gourd and Bottle gourd |
|
| Bottle gourd creeping everywhere |
I am getting a very nice produce from the bitter gourd plant starting with small pretty yellow flowers and converting into pretty spiky karelas. One of my colleague at work even described it as "kind a like dinosaur" due to its spike.
|
| Spiky Karela - Bitter gourd |
But all the baby fruits on the bottlegourd plant appeared to be rotting or dying on the vine or
falling off the plant before developing into a fully grown fruit. I did a lot of search on Google and found out why the baby fruits were dropping off.The reason for this disaster was inadequate pollination. The bottle gourd plants produce both male and female flowers and are not self pollinating. They need help from pollinators to carry pollen from male flowers to the female flowers.So may be my garden does not have enough bees to get them started. So now what?Solution : Hand Pollination.
What is hand pollination?According to a wiki article on hand pollination "Hand pollination (also called "mechanical pollination") is a technique used when natural, or open pollination is insufficient or undesirable. The most common techniques are for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation." Hand pollination is only an option on a small scale. "
How to differentiate between a male and female flower?
So how do you differentiate between a male and female flower in the bottle gourd plant. A male flower will have a longer, skinny stem as seen in this picture.
|
| Male bottle gourd flower |
But a female flowers will have a tiny "fruit" at the base as you can see in this picture below. These will rot and drop off if not pollinated.
|
| Female bottle gourd flower |
How to hand pollinate these flowers?
There are several ways found on the web that many gardeners have used
to hand pollinate the flowers.
- Dab an artists brush on the pollen on the male flowers and then brush it against the stigmas on the female flowers. Dark colored bristles help here to see the pollen gathered from the male flower.
- Do the same technique with a cotton swab.
- Pluck the male flower, remove all the petals and just brush it on the stigma of the female flowers.
- There is a very nice tutorial on hand pollination which can be used if you want to avoid cross pollination and preserve the seeds.
Hand pollination still does not guarantee 100% success.But you will definitely see the fruits of your labor. I
|
| The first bottle gourd from my garden. More than a feet long... :) |
Happy Gardening and
hand pollinating!
Please do comment if you tried hand pollination and had success!
Posted by Poonam Agarwal
greetings -Narendra Sampat
greetings -Narendra Sampat
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 05:38:22 -0800From: shre...@yahoo.comSubject: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourdTo: cityf...@yahoogroups.comCC: sul...@googlegroups.com; deepak...@gmail.com
Different plants (rather, family of plants) have different rules. Deepakbhai has good knowledge ... I am not aware of other sources of
this knowledge.
He had shown me rules for Cucurbits (watermelon, gourds, pumpkins, etc), Mango and Citrus. But I unfortunately wasn't able to note them down, so all is forgotten. Narendra has mentioned below a book by Deepakbhai ... that might be a good reference.
From: Sarayu Kamat <sarayu...@gmail.com>
To: cityf...@yahoogroups.com
Cc: SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>; Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
Yes, this is really interesting. Also, does this pinching concept apply to all flowering plants?RegardsSarayu
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Nataraj Krishnamurthy <mailto...@gmail.com> wrote:
Interesting facts..Can someone send me the link or brief info on the logic behind pinching the 8th node?
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 4:04 PM, shreesh ponkshe <shre...@yahoo.com> wrote:
I have seen the power of pinching/pruning at the 8th node ... a profusion of female flowers.However, I had pinched when the plant was pretty young (it did have 13 nodes though) and now there are so many female flowers that the plant is unable to nourish them. I am regularly cutting the female flowers and adding nitrogen, in an effort to have more vegetative growth.Awaiting my next bottlegourd plant to do better pinching ... I too remember Deepakbhai's advice .. pinch on 8th node after the growth has happened to 13 nodes. Any other advice to keep in mind?
From: Narendra sampat <jaid...@hotmail.com>
To: Terrace Garden <cityf...@yahoogroups.com>; SULINS <sul...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Deepakbhai Suchde <deepak...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2013 3:56 PM
Subject: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
hi, DO not get Bottle gourd since One year I have been regularly growing Bottlegourd since one year. I used to get small one and then getting dried. After an year, I just got one bottle gourd in my plant. We were happy and enjoyed. This happened at MNP too. I have guest from UK who has told that this is perhaps due to shortage of female flowers. Perhaps, in bottle gourd, the number of male flowers produced is in far greater proportion than pistilate flowers.
I want the guidance to improve the number of female flowers in bottle gourd if this is the reason OR else how to get more bottle gourds.Plant is planted in 18" pot.
This time, I have started to follow the procedure of cutting at 8th Nod explained in the book -"Amrut Krushi Vigyan" by Deepakbhai.
regards ---Narendra Sampat
__._,_.___
.
__,_._,___
Narendra sampat
Jan 24, 2013, 7:54:33 AM1/24/13
to Deepakbhai Suchde, Terrace farming, SULINS, preeti patil, Purvita Kapadia
Respected Shri Deepakbhai,
Thanks for your below e-mail. In fact, after reading recent e-mails,I wanted to write (e-mail saved in draft to complete) and request to please allow us to have short 2 to 3 days trip so that we can have clear picture about growing.I was always hesitant to write this as I have yet unable to grow plants in a miracle soil - Amrut mitti.
Here, we mostly grow plants in pots. Few people have the facility of growing on terrace. Of course, we get good sunlight for 6 to 8 hours.
Thank you for your suggestion to have trip to Krushi Teerth along with like minded friends.Kindly intimate approximate period suitable to you so that all like minded friends can plan a visit.
I am also requesting those friends who wish to visit Krushi Teerth may start sending names. Once we get convenient approximate period from Respected Deepakbhai, we can plan and book tickets for he said trip. This will help us to have clear picture about growing the plant stressful.
Here, we mostly grow plants in pots. Few people have the facility of growing on terrace. Of course, we get good sunlight for 6 to 8 hours.
Thank you for your suggestion to have trip to Krushi Teerth along with like minded friends.Kindly intimate approximate period suitable to you so that all like minded friends can plan a visit.
I am also requesting those friends who wish to visit Krushi Teerth may start sending names. Once we get convenient approximate period from Respected Deepakbhai, we can plan and book tickets for he said trip. This will help us to have clear picture about growing the plant stressful.
A request to Madam Preeti/Purvitaben to organis or help and guide us in proposed trip
regards ---
Narendra Sampat
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:09:27 +0530
Subject: Re: [SULINS] Re: [cityfarmers] Do not get Bottle gourd
From: deepak...@gmail.com
To: jaid...@hotmail.com
First I must congratulate to all the group member and particularly you as this edge you are very keen for your own vegetable grown at the terrace with your energy.
My suggestion is also very simple add ash and give little jerk to your plant which inspired to growth of roots and leading to grow more canopy for harvesting more sunlight sothat you have more fruits and nutrition from the soil.
I also suggest to have trip to Krushi Teerth along with like minded friends with you so that all will get more clear picture about growing the plant stressful.
With love
eepak.
--
Deepak Suchde
Malpani Trust,
Krushi Teerth, 'SHARAN'
At. Bajwada, Post. Nemawar,
Te. Khategaon. Dist. Dewas.
Madhya Pradesh - 455339
+91-9329570960 / 9826054388
http://www.natuecofarmingscience.com
http://www.beyondorganicfarming.in
Deepak Suchde
Malpani Trust,
Krushi Teerth, 'SHARAN'
At. Bajwada, Post. Nemawar,
Te. Khategaon. Dist. Dewas.
Madhya Pradesh - 455339
+91-9329570960 / 9826054388
http://www.natuecofarmingscience.com
http://www.beyondorganicfarming.in
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages