Season and Field preparation

Soil

Sandy loam soils rich in organic matter with good drainage and pH range of 6.5-7.5 is suited for bitter gourd cultivation. This crop requires a moderate warm temperature.

Season

Planting is done on July and January.

Seed rate

1.8 kg/ha

Preparation of field

Plough the field to fine tilth and dig pits of 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm size at 2 x 1.5 m spacing and form basins.

Sowing

Irrigate the basins before dibbling the seeds and thereafter once a week.

Quality seedling production

Bitter gourd is a direct sown vegetable but polythene bag nursery is more advantageous to get early marketing and to avoid more gap filling. Use 200 gauge poly bags of 10 cm diameter x 10 cm height for sowing the seeds. Transplant about 15 days old seedlings to the main field.

Drip irrigation

Install drip system with main and sub-main pipes and place the inline lateral tubes at an interval of 1.5m. Place the drippers in lateral tubes at an interval of 60 cm and 50 cm spacing with 4LPH and 3.5 LPH capacities respectively.

Field preparation

Apply a dose of 200:100:100 kg NPK/ha throughout the cropping period through split application.

After cultivation

Hoeing is done thrice to control weeds. Provide stakes to reach the pandal (2 m). Spray Ethrel 100 ppm (1 ml dissolved in 10 lit of water) four times from 15th day after sowing at weekly intervals.