Bottle Gourd Cultivation

Bottle Gourd is also known as white-flowered gourd, long melon, New Guinea bean and Tasmania bean, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, container, or a musical instrument.

  • India

    1 January - 28 February
  • India

    1 June - 31 July
Bottle Gourd
Bottle Gourd

Scientific Name- Lagenaria siceraria

Family-Cucurbitaceae

Introduction:

  • In India, it is an important vegetable crop.

  • In green stage, the vegetables and leaves with stem are used as a vegetable.

  • Hard shell of the Bottle Gourd is used for different purposes.

  • It is one of the world’s first cultivated plants and it is not grown mainly for food but it is also used as containers.

Local Names:

Bottle gourd has different names in different languages like Sorakya/Anapakaya(Telugu), Soreikai/Chorakkai(Tamil), Chorakaa(Malayalam), Sorekai(Kannada), Ghia/Lauki(Hindi) and Zeeth (Kashmiri).

Location:

  • In India, it grows in almost all the states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh etc.

  • Bihar has the largest production of Bottle Gourd.

Season:

The best time to plant seeds are Summer and Monsoon.

Climate:

  • It requires moist and hot climatic conditions for its cultivation.

  • The Vegetables cannot withstand frost.

  • For 4 months there should be no frost for its better growth.

  • The suitable temperature for its cultivation is 20-32°c.

Bottle Gourd can be grown in a wide range of soils.
Bottle Gourd can be grown in a wide range of soils.

Soil Requirement:

  • It can be grown in a wide range of soils.

  • But it grows best in Sandy loamy soils with a good drainage system.

Land Preparation:

  • 6-7 plowings followed by harrowing should be done to bring the soil to fine tilth.

  • In soil, pH range should be from 6.5-7.5 for its cultivation.

  • For better yield and good quality of vegetable, organic matter or FYM should be added for making the soil rich.

Sowing Time:

  • In the plains for monsoon or rainy crops it is sown from June-July and in the hills in April.

  • For summer crops, it is sown from January to end of February.

Seed Rate:

Generally for bottle gourd farming the seed rate should be between 3.5 kg- 6kg/ha.

Seed Treatment:

Before sowing, seeds should be treated with 10gms of Pseudomonas fluorescens or 4gms of Trichoderma Viridae or 2gms/kg of Carbendazim seeds.

Spacing:

  • Dibbling method is used for sowing vegetable seed at a spacing of 2m to 3 x 1.0m – 1.5m.

  • In a pit, generally 2-3 seeds are sown at 2.5cm – 3.0cm depth.

Bottle gourd can give a yield of up to 100-120 quintal per hectare.
Bottle gourd can give a yield of up to 100-120 quintal per hectare.

Varieties:

DEVELOPING INSTITUTION

VARIETY

SPECIAL FEATURES

IIHR, Bangalore

Arka Bahar

Fruits straight without crook neck medium sized each weighing 1.0 kg at marketable stage, light green and shining fruit, yield of 40-50t/ha

IARI, New Delhi

Pusa Naveen

Fruits are cylindrical, straight and free from crooked neck with average weight of 550g.

NDAU&T, Faizabad, UP.

Narendra Rashmi

Moderately tolerant to pumpkin beetle. Fruits are bottle shaped having shallow neck and average weight 1.0 kg and Yield 30 t/ha.

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

Pusa Komal

Fruits are medium sized with oblong shape and light green skin. They are Tolerant to CMV, early harvest (70 DAS), with a potential yield of 40 t/ha.

 Fertilizer Requirement:

  • 10 kg of FYM (20ton/ha), mixture of 100gms of NPK 6:2:12 as basal and 10gms of N/pit for 30 days should be applied after sowing.

  • Before the last plowing, application of Azospirillum, Phosphobacteria( 2kg/ha) and Pseudomonas ( 3kg/h) along with 50 kg of Farmyard manure and 100 kg of neem cake is needed.

Irrigation:

  • This crop requires immediate irrigation and is very beneficial in this cultivation.

  • Summer crop requires irrigation at an interval of 3-4 days.

  • Winter crops are irrigated when it is required.

  • Rainy season crops do not require irrigation.

  • Drip irrigation method can also be used as it has many advantages.

Harvesting:

  • The crop is ready to harvest in 60-70 days depending upon the variety and season.

  • Medium and tender fruits are harvested depending upon the market requirement.

  • Fruits should be cut from a sharp knife

  • Vegetables should be harvested when they are still green.

  • Harvesting should not be delayed as it causes the bottle gourd to become rotten or dry.

Yield

The expected average yield can be 100-120 quintal/hectare.

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