Bitter melon is a favorite in Asian and Southeast Asian cooking. It can be stuffed with pink meat or shrimp and steamed or pickled or curried and served with meat or in soup.
Bitter melons are—as their determine suggests–a bitter and mouth-puckering got taste—something similar to the got taste of a grapefruit or very dark chocolate.
The bitter melon is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, which contains squash, watermelon, muskmelon, and cucumbers. Bitter melon can also be grown very similar to cucumbers or cantaloupes then again they are a subtropical plant and require at least 3 to 4 months of warmth to sizzling and humid local weather to mature.
Description: Bitter melon is a vining plant. It has deeply lobed leaves and grows in some way similar to squash, cucumbers, and watermelon producing vines 13 to 16 toes long if left unpruned. Finish end result are oblong and each simple or warty, in most cases about 8 inches (20 cm) long then again fruits can vary in duration between 2 and 10 inches (5-25 cm) long. The fruit shifts in color from green to yellow to orange as it ripens and over-ripens. The flesh has a watery, crunchy texture, similar to a cucumber.
Yield: Every plant will produce 10 to 12 fruits and most likely a few further.
Planting time: Bitter melons are a warm-season crop and are best possible suited to emerging in tropical and subtropical heat and humidity. Increase bitter melons where sunlight temperatures average between 75 and 80°F (24-31°C). Plant bitter melons in overdue spring or early summer time. Sow seed out of doors or set out transplants no quicker than two to a couple of weeks after all chance of frost has passed and the soil has warmed to at least 60 to 65°F (15-18°C).
Site: Bitter melons increase best possible in sizzling and humid climates. Make a choice a warmth, sunny location—at least 6 hours every day–to plant. Plant bitter melons in compost-rich, well-drained soil with a pH ranging from 5.5 to 6.7. Get able emerging beds in advance of planting by the use of together with aged compost and aged manure. Bitter melons can tolerate a lot much less interesting sandy- or siltly-loam soil then again excellent drainage is essential.
Planting and spacing: Sow seeds in holes about half-inch deep (1.25 cm) and spaced 12 inches (30 cm) apart. Sow two seeds in each hole. Seeds germinate in 8 to 10 days, despite the fact that low and high temperatures and soil too dry or too wet can sluggish germination. Energetic vegetation professional on a trellis or fence can also be spaced 9 to 10 toes (2.7-3 meters) apart. Plants allowed to sprawl on the floor should be grown on straw or plastic mulch to prevent fruits from resting on rainy soil where they might rot.
Trellising can reduce sicknesses and make harvesting easier. Place a trellis 6 toes (1.8 meters) high and huge or moderately further next to each plant. When the vine grows to the very best of its trellis, prune or pinch away all lateral branches from the soil up to the 10th node. This may increasingly most likely stimulate the upper branches to increase and convey the following yield. Prune laterals from 2 to a couple of toes long (.6-.9 meters) and prune away the emerging tip when it reaches the very best of the trellis. As a result, the plant will produce a better option of crops and fruit quicker.
Fruit grown from a trellis will increase longer and straighter than those grown on the floor.
Water and feeding: Keep bitter melon planting beds evenly rainy; commonplace water is essential for fruit development and expansion. Aged compost will feed melon vegetation. You are able to moreover add a steady unlock herbal fertilizer very similar to 5-10-10 spherical vegetation early throughout the season. Aspect-dress vegetation with aged compost all over the emerging season as a way to upload nutrients and to help retain moisture throughout the soil. To supply vegetation a boost water with compost or comfrey tea each third week all over the emerging season.
Important different Plants: Beans, corn, peas, pumpkins, and squash. Do not increase bitter melons with potatoes and herbs.
Care: Trellised vines produce striking fruit, which grows long and immediately. Vines allowed to sprawl on the floor should be mulched with straw or plastic to stick fruit from resting on the soil.
The emerging guidelines of trellised vines should be pruned or pinched after they succeed in the very best of the strengthen, as should long lower lateral branches. This may increasingly most likely concentrate the plant’s energy and result in further crops and fruit. Prune when the principle female crops appear; female crops observe male crops.
Pollination: Vines again and again get started flowering about 5 to 6 weeks after planting. Male crops open first, followed in a week or so by the use of female blossoms. Each and every crops are yellow. Female crops have a swelling (the ovary) at the base of the bloom related to a tiny melon. Bees and pollinating insects talk over with each and every blooms, transferring pollen from male to female crops. Maximum regularly male blooms reside absolute best one day; they open throughout the morning and fall from the plant throughout the night time time. Flower drop is not bizarre.
The ovary of pollinated female crops will begin to amplify and fruit will mature in two to 4 months. Mature fruits it will likely be in a position to pick about 12 weeks after planting. They are going to be mild green and juicy with white, bitter flesh.
Hand pollination: Bitter Melons are pollinated by the use of insects and honeybees. If there are crops then again no fruit forms and likewise you to find no bees at art work throughout the garden, then chances are high that you’ll be able to rightfully suspect that pollination has not handed off. Pollination can also be finished by the use of hand—this is true for cucumbers and squash as properly: choose male crops and turn pollen by the use of touching the center part of the male crops in opposition to the center of the female crops. (Female crops have an enlarged phase that looks like a little bit fruit between the flower and the vine stem; males don’t.)
Container Emerging: Bitter melon can also be grown in a pot. Make a choice a container that can grasp at least 5 gallons (19 liters) of potting soil—further is more healthy. Make certain that the container drains properly.
Pests: Bitter melon can also be attacked by the use of spotted and striped cucumber beetles. Cucumber beetles can lift bacterial wilt sickness which is able to objective vines to collapse. Infected vines don’t recuperate. 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 may be able to spread fruit rot. Prevent flies from attaining the fruit by the use of masking fruits with paper baggage secured with twine or rubber bands or wrapping them with newspaper when the fruits are merely an inch or two long.
Keep the garden free of weeds; weeds continuously harbor pest insects.
Illnesses: Bitter melon is at risk of most of the an identical sicknesses that plague squash and cucumbers: fungal sicknesses very similar to powdery mildew, downy mildew, and rust and rots along with watermelon mosaic virus and bacterial wilts. Trellising which is able to building up air waft spherical vines can help reduce fungal sicknesses. For non-trellised vines, use a straw or plastic mulch to stick melons from resting straight away on rainy soil. There’s no remedy for vegetation attacked by the use of viruses. When possible, plant disease-resistant sorts.
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 (10-15 cm) long. The fruits it will likely be a bit of bit pear shaped, with mild green pores and pores and skin and a few streaks of yellow. If fruits stay too long on the vine they’ll over-ripen, turn all yellow, increase too large, and develop into bitter. Finish end result on the an identical vine can vary in their ranges of bitterness—melons each and every immature and overripe can taste very bitter.
The bitter melon has a thin layer of flesh that turns orange to colourful purple when ripe. The flesh surrounds a hollow within hole house with spongy, white pulp peppered with seeds. The fruit it will likely be watery and crunchy very similar to a cucumber.
Bitterness is the result of the alkaloid momordicine found in emerging bitter melons; the darker the color of a bitter melon the additional bitter and intense the flavor of the fruit.
Once melons start to ripen, choose fruits forever each two to a couple of days. The additional you choose, the additional fruits will form.
Seed production: To avoid wasting numerous seed for next season, go away a few fruits on each vine to mature earlier harvest. Mature fruits will damage open and unlock brown or white seeds. Collect the seed, sort it, wash it, and dry it on a countertop, then store it in a groovy, dry spot. It is going to keep viable for 2 to a couple of years.
Sorts: Bitter melons native to India have a slender ground with pointed ends and are coated with triangular “teeth” and ridges. Bitter melons native to China are oblong with blunt ends and have a sparsely undulating, warty ground.
Chinese language language sorts include Large Absolute best, Hong Kong Green, China Pearl, Southern Money Maker, and Hybrid White Pearl.
Indian sorts include India Long Green, India Long White, Hybrid India Green Queen, and Hybrid India Pearl.
Use: To prepare bitter melon, slice the fruit open and remove the seeds and pith. Do not peel. The fruit can also be parboiled or soaked in salted water to reduce bitterness on the other hand it’ll impact the fruits generally crunchy texture.
Bitter melon can also be stuffed (continuously stuffed with pink meat or shrimp and steamed), pickled, or curried and served with meat or in soup. The fruit pairs properly with other powerful flavors, like garlic, Chinese language language black beans, chili peppers, or coconut milk.
A dietary practice: bitter melon is used in standard Chinese language language medicine and in variety medicine to treat Sort 2 diabetes. Additionally it is a other people remedy for treating high blood pressure. The mix of bitter melon and drugs from time to time used to treat hyperglycemia can decrease blood sugar levels to dangerously low levels.
Bitter melon has two occasions the beta carotene of broccoli, two occasions the potassium of bananas, and two occasions the calcium of spinach. It moreover accommodates high amounts of fiber, phosphorous, and Vitamins C, B1, B2, and B3.
Storing and holding: Store bitter melons in a paper or plastic bag throughout the refrigerator between 53-55° F. (11-12°C.). Use within of three to 5 days of harvest. Store bitter melon fruit transparent of various ripening fruits to avoid hastening the ripening process.
Now not bizarre determine: Bitter gourd, balsam pear, karela, bitter cucumber, bitter squash, African cucumber, alligator pear, ampalaya, goya.
Botanical determine: Momordica charantia
Beginning position: Southern China and eastern India
