Thursday, August 14, 2008
Ridge gourd vegetable farming
Ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) also known as ribbed gourd is a viny vegetable. It requires a trellis or support for its growth and development. It belongs to the cucurbit family & is an important commercial crop fetching good yields and returns
LAND PREPARATION & SOIL
Summer ridge gourds are grown in square pits roughly 50 cm in width & around 20 cm in depth. The soil in the pits have to be repeatedly ploughed till a fine tilth is obtained. 10 to 15 kg organic manure is added to each pit.
Furrows are made in the pits & 4 seeds are sown in each pit. Later after germination, only 2 seeds are retained per pit. This is done to avoid overcrowding.
GERMINATION, CLIMATE AND IRRIGATION
Usually in the summer, germination takes place within 4 days from the date of sowing when conditions are favorable. The young seedlings are highly susceptible to attacks from red pumpkin beetle. To avoid this, imidochloprid @ 0.5 ml per litre is very effective.
Within 2 weeks of germination, climbing support must be provided & the plant starts developing tendrils for this purpose. The tendrils help the plant to grasp the provided support & start climbing. The support in the form of long sticks, plant branches etc must have a height of 6 feet. Even thread of strong thickness can be used & a network between the pits can be created to support the climbing habit of the vine.
germinating seedling 4 days after sowing
It can also be trained on a trellis or pergola. It must be noted that, more support given to the vine, more it will keep growing.
When temperatures are extremely high, more male flowers are formed & this will reduce the yields. Similarly, when temperatures are cold, quality & quantity of yield is also affected.
Light irrigation is followed after the seeds are sowed. After germination irrigation every alternate days is useful. Care must be taken to see that water does not stagnate in the pits , as it will result in fungal infections & the young seedling will start rotting. For this well drained soils are best suited. Even repeated ploughings will increase the drainage & porosity of the soils.
INTER CULTURE OPERATIONS, FERTILIZER AND PEST MANAGEMENT
Since the plants are grown in pits, not much inter culture operations are required. Weeding must be done during the initial stages or it will compete with the main crop for nutrients. The growing vines must be made to climb the support at all times. Sometimes due to overcrowding, the vines tend to fall
one month after germination, the plants need support for the vines to grow
down on the ground, and this must be checked. At all times, the vines must be made to climb the support. Even tying the vines together , which helps keeping them from falling to the ground is also seen.
The growing vines require a lot of nutrients. Addition of complex NPK fertilizers can be done 30 days after first day of sowing. At this stage when vegetative growth is accelerating, 10 kg of fresh organic manure can be added to each pit with 50 to 100 grams of NPK.
when 40 days old, intercropped with amaranth
Since the vines produce more male flowers, spraying plant hormones can be done at the initial stages of flowering to induce female flowering @ 1 ml per litre.
Red pumpkin beetle is a serious pest during the initial stages when the plant is young with tender succulent leaves. Spraying dimethoate @ 2 ml per litre, or imidochloprid @ 0.5 ml per litre can be very effective.
when flowering starts, inter cropped amaranth can be harvested
When the fruits start to form, another serious pest problem is the attack of Daucus dorsalis & daucus cucurbitae flies. They bore right into the young forming fruits, laying their eggs, which hatch and the larvae feed on the insides of the fruit which will result in rotting of the fruit, making it unfit for consumption.
Spraying the crop is not advised as pesticides will have toxic residue on other growing fruits. The most suitable remedy is the usage of pheromone traps & lures which is very effective in controlling dorsalis & cucurbitae flies.
PLEASE SEE Tfruiting appears after 60 days
ridge gourds ready for harvest
REFER THE OTHER POST FOR USING PHEROMONE TRAPS & LURES IN GOURDS
Another pest is the gregarious Lepidoglossus sps, which uses its needle like proboscis to puncture wounds in the ridge gourd, sucking its juicy nutrients and making the fruit hollow. Since the incidence of this pest is only seasonal, and temporary, it is best advised to manually catch the insect as it is quite large & cannot escape properly due to its heavy weight. The other option is the use of neem extract sprays which act as insect repellents. But pollination may also be affected so since neem based sprays are totally organic, the forming fruits could be sprayed , leaving the leaves and flowers.
from another angle
HARVESTING
The fruits start to form after 60 days from the first day of sowing. Since the fruits are long, care must be taken to ensure the fruit is hanging in a downward direction. When the vines grow long & thick, the developing fruits get entangled in the vines, resulting in fruits getting undesired shape, thus making marketability difficult.
excellent yielding in summer
the disfigured ridge gourd due to entangling with the vines
In summer, the crop will continuously yield for more than 2 months.
Photos and content by Pritham 'Heavy metal farmer' denzil dsouza
Labels:
ridge gourd,
Vegetables
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Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have a query : do we need to prune the main stem of the ridge gourd to encourage lateral growth? Currently my plant is about a month old with only one lateral, which is nearly as long as the main stem. There are no flowers. Any tips?
Many thanks
AG
thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeletethere is no need to prune the ridge gourd as u have said its only been a month. it takes more than 45 days for flowering to occur. rain & extreme cold hamper flower production. and flowering when it does occur , can be seen mostly at night, i.e. the bloom is at night, very rarery seen during day time.
pruning can be done, only when the stem is thick enough & old. this can be done in older plants & not young ones. so its not recommended, as of now, and by the time the plant becomes old, pruning it will again keep the plant in mnore vegetative phase. hence not really recommended.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your prompt response. Though it is less than 45 days, the ridge gourd plant has started putting out flowers. Since the night temp where I live in is below 15C, I have grown the plant indoors. Therefore, I have to hand pollinate the flowers. Unfortunately I do not know which are male or female. Can you please please help? I also have a query for snake gourds, that I will post in the relevant section.
Many thanks in advance.
AG
http://www.thegourdreserve.com/hand_pollination.html
ReplyDeleteplease check this site to see how exactly hand pollination is done..
its very difficult to identify male n female flowers... but male flowers have a long stamina which sticks out with the pollen
but the best i suggest is, keep a tiny bulb in the place where u are growing the plant and leave it on for a few hours at night. this will attract moths & night bugs & they will pollinate the flowers. this is the best & in nature too, the night flowers are pollinated this way... cheers
Good day,
ReplyDeleteSome spots on the ridge gourd leaves. Does not look like DM that is on the vegetable cucumber - is it some other viral infection or am I being paranoid?
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahd46f6/n/DSCN0225_JPG
Take care
AH
ha ha,
ReplyDeletethis is no need to worry about.. it looks like an infection, but nothing to worry about. u forget, the older leaves also start aging, so it sould probably be that as well....
Thought I would update you - finally, I have a ridge gourd fruit. See attached pic link.....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.filefactory.com/file/ahga252/n/DSCN0228_JPG
Regards
AG
HA HAH A.. its not ridge gourd.. its bottle gourd... seems like u confused witht he gourds....u have posted bottle gourd pic in my ridge gourd post....
ReplyDeleteits awesome.... so u got only one?? if thats the case, this should be kept for seeds, coz its the best, early yielding, variety n its seeds will be the same too...
unless off course u listen to ur taste buds .. then bon apetite....
This is what happens if one lives in the desert all their life - one does not know the difference between the various types of gourds when they are in the fruit stage!
ReplyDeleteThe seeds were sold to me saying they were that of ridge gourd. I did think the fruit looked a bit unlike ridge gourd, maybe the spikes will come on later is what I was thinking!
God, I am feeling so silly & sheepish! Anyway thanks for the clarification.
Two more female flowers yet to bloom! Not so excited now as I prefer ridge to bottle gourd.
ha ha h thats ok...small lesson for u... ridge gourd seeds are mid size, irregular and black in color...most times they are pointy but black n irregular edges
ReplyDeletebottle gourd seeds are rectangular shaped, and have stripes/ridges on them...
the ridge gourd plant will have yellow flowers n blooming is seen after dark.. i.e. nocturnal bloom
bottle gourd flowers are white in color, and large flowers,
cheers
Hi, i sowed the ridge gourd plant and it is now flowering..but i dont know why the flowers are falling after one day...is that okay if this happening in the beginning stage or do i need to take any special care for this problem...please help..thanks
ReplyDeletedont worry about ridge gourds... they have like a million flowers... and nearly all of them fall off.... its very common... and if u notice. flower fall is very prominent during day time, or early mornings.. and reat of the day teh flower buds are closed. it opens only during night
ReplyDeletecheers
Nice pics. We just started growing ridge gourd and we love it. The fruit was produced within a month. We have two gourds hanging from our plant. I am not sure when to harvest it. Any tips on how to determine when its ready to harvest?
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that all my turya is getting dry from bottom in early stage and then full turya dried in early stage.
ReplyDeleteIs this due to some disease as in very early stage sometime or sometime after few weeks this happens to turya.
Regards.
JAIPALGOSAI
dont worry about ridge gourds... they have like a million flowers... and nearly all of them fall off.... its very common... and if u notice. flower fall is very prominent during day time, or early mornings.. and reat of the day teh flower buds are closed. it opens only during night
ReplyDeletecheers
thanks karthik for visiting my blog...
ReplyDeletethe ridge gourd can be harvested/lucked when it reaches optimum length. for that i need to know if yiur gourds are local or hybrid variety. also i need to know if they are dwarf or long variety. in any case, u can pluck them when are long and tender, not over ripe. u can do the fingernail test & just prick the skin of the gourd gently. if it pricks with ease, then its tender and juicy. if the skin is tough n not easily penetrable then it might be over ripe & keeping it too long will only make it more upfit for consumption. u can keep them for seeds
This is a very nice blog. Lot of information. However, I have a question. I did not put a trellis for this creeper.. IS it okay to grow this on the ground? Will the yield be any different?
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting my blog.... ridge gourds are climbers and not creepers, which means they prefer to climb rather than just creep on teh ground. there is nothing wrong in growing ridge gourd on the ground, but the yield will be affected. we tried it as well, and apart from low yield, we also got plenty of disfigured fruits since there is no scope for vertical growth. if your ridge gourd variety is small size then there wont be much problem, but i still prefer to use any kind of support.. thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response..
ReplyDeleteDo you have any procedure in your blog here, that shows how to make a trellis?
Thanks
Chunnu
Thanks a lot. I will probably plan on making for the next season. I will let it go for this season.
ReplyDeleteYou site is a wealth of information.. Glad I came across it and that you are responding immediately.
Good Job and Good Luck.
thanks for the comments, much appreciated. i have still over 50 posts and nearly 400 more photos and videos still to upload, but not finding time. once i do, then the blog will be a lot better
ReplyDeleteI am regularly checking this blog. Keep those new posts and pictures coming.. Is this your hobby to grow vegetables. Looks like you have lot of knowledge.
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDelete1. ridge gourd needs plenty of sunlight, as it is a day loving plant. having said that, it requires at least 8 hours min of sunlight for it to flower and get quality fruits. other wise i feel it will only grow and remain in vegetative stage and will later die due to lack of sunlight
2. there is no immediate problem if u have bitter gourd along with ridge gourd. one may feel that the ridge gourd is tasting bitter because it is planted next to each other, but it cannot happen, simply because, the rate of pollination between species is very very rare. in simple words, the ridge gourd requires its own pollen and the bitter gourd too requires its own species pollen. so do not worry
truly good blog. i learned lots! thanks
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteHope the blog is still active. Please can you let me know what the optimum temperatures are for growing ridge gourd? Also please advise if its best to sow them indoors and transplant them. I live south to London and the temperatures are not above 70 in summer and would like to know if I am being over ambitious about trying to grow them and if I should drop the idea.
Thanks in advance.
hello,
ReplyDeletedue to over heat there are a lot of viruses in my ridge gourd what can i spray in order to reduce viruses...
thanks ragha for checking out my blog... for virus there is sadly nothing that can be done. if the plant is severely infected then u have to uproot the entire thing and burn and destroy. however if its mild, then u need to check its further spread. virus is spread by small insects like leaf hoppers and minors. so u need to get rid of these smaller pests in order to prevent virus spread as these act as vectors. u must use neem sprays @5ml per litre. spray when u seen attack. then spray once every 10 days and later once every 7 days.
ReplyDeletethanks London dweller,
ReplyDeleteridge gourds are tropical and require good amount of sunlight. optimum temperatures are between 29 and 35 degrees centigrade. extreme temps will result in excess flower drop. at the same time its highly succeptable to lower temperatures.
growing seedlings indoors is not a good idea unless u provide good night. even a bulb will do the trick coz it needs lots of light,. it will still germinate but will look pale and lanky. so even if u are growing them indoors, u need to provide good light.
u can grow them provided u get local hybrids that are tolerant to the weather in London. but dont try n grow them from seeds u got here in India coz they will grow but not yield. check out my posts where i have grown ridge gourd hyrdoponically without soils soon
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am trying to grow ridge gourds in pot on my terrace..temperature and light should not be a problem at all..my plant is about 10days old. will it yeild fruits even when its planted in pots? please help.
many thanks
Shivalee
hi Shivalee
ReplyDeleteoff course ridge gourds will grow in pots!!!
the only problem is space for the roots becoming restricted and depending on what fertilizer you provide (organic or chemical) the soil in the pot will harden and become compact.
i have successfully grown ridge gourds in pots using a technique called Simplified Hydroponics which i will post on this very blog soon..
so dont worry and happy farming
Hi
ReplyDeletethanks or your effort on this blog. It is very informative. I live in the US and I have ridge guard plants that are more than 60 days old and they are big too. However, there is not a single flower yet. The summer only last another 2 months and I was concerned it might not Twila anything at all. Any suggestions ?
Thanks
Manjula
hello NM
ReplyDeletei dont think u can change the male flowers to female flowers, nor do i think u get any sex change hormones in the market.... if u do pls let me know.. but u can use certain organic spray and liquids which will increase the number of female flowers... some products are biovita, organic gel, multimin etc... they increase the production of female flowers and hence more yield... but it has to be used judiciously...
hello Padma
ReplyDeletethanks for checking my blog.... there could be several reasons why the ridge gourd didnt grow properly.... i can tell u what the problem is , if u could send me photos to my email address here prithamdsouza@gmail.com
thanks
Hi, Just came across your blog. very informative. great to see step by step pics. I have a Q. my ridge gourd is planted 3 months ago. plant looks healthy. but no flowers. I see some ants eating some tender shoots( not sure what it is) because I never got to see them grow. are they eating the flowers before they even bud? please help
ReplyDeletethanks for checking out my blog...3 months? thats way too long and u should have had yield by now. i think your seeds are faulty...but there can be several reasons... where do u live? light, temperature, nutrients play a very important role in fruit bud formation. and ridge gourds , the flowering is seen once the sun goes down. u wont be able to see th flowering during day time. ants do not eat the tender shoots, but if there is infection due to others like aphids or other bugs, then u will see lots of ants... but ants dont generally attack ridge gourd plants... if u have a photo , send it to prithamdsouza@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteyes, my plant leaves too are being eaten by ants (small black ants); the plant looks weak now, leaves being sucked out of their juices by these ants. I am worried about this problem. I live in north-east USA and am growing a couple of these plants in my small backyard this summer. Any recommendation is much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteAruna, pls send me photos of ur ridge gourd plants, the ones eaten by ants... as its not something i see here happening. prithamdsouza@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to grow rigdegourd in between beetlenut trees.
ReplyDeleteRamesh
yes Ramesh.... its possible... but do remember the plants grow better in the presence of good sunlight
ReplyDeleteHi Thanks for posting good info on ridge gourd cultivaton, I encountered the same issue as Aruna posted earlier, I planted my ridge gourd seeds 2 months back, now the vine is growing fine but no sign of flowers at all. I could see some black spots on the leaves and looks like ants are devouring the plant. Can you please suggest some prevention measures.......Thanks Much
ReplyDeletehello Lakshmi... sorry for the delay in replying... is it possible to send 3 or 4 photos of the ridge gourd plant as i need to first study it and then give u a suitable reply.
ReplyDeletethere can be several factors why there is no flowering. bad seeds, low nitrients, soil conditions, weather, etc etc...
aruna, hi ur blog is fantastic.really it helps me a lot,whn ever i gt problem with my plants i just log on to this.i am grwing ridge gourd in my garden,i cant remm the age of plant,the wine has grwn big,but the problem is the leaves are becomming yellow,burnt looks,more flowers are there but the small fruits becmes wrinkled and falls down,now i am nt able to harvest atleast1 fruit,plz suggest me wht meds i have to spray. thx
ReplyDeletethanks for the lovely comments....truly appreciated.... if the leves turn yellow, its a sure sign of nitrogen deficiency... first the older leaves turn yellow, since Nitrogen is a mobile element and will travel to the younger leaves from older leaves to younger leaves.... u need to first send me some pics to my gmail address prithamdsouza@gmail.com but for now, it seems nitrogen deficiency...add nutrients!!
ReplyDeleteI have a healthy ridge gourd plant and it has abundant flowers,problem is that the baby ridge gourds turn yellow and wither away. what could be tbe problem?
ReplyDeletethank u Mrs tauro,
ReplyDeletethis could be due to insect attack, particularly melon fly/fruit fly which attacks the young developing fruit. a tiny incision is made on the fruits and it is then exposed to various fungus which further attack the fruit and kill it.... but i need to confirm, it will be helpful if u can manage to send me a photo of the problem to prithamdsouza@gmail.com