How fast do bitter gourds grow? Every plant takes time in order for them to grow. Just like the bitter gourd plant which takes a few moments before they grow from seed, becomes a seedling, grows longer, produces flowers, and fruits. Some beginners want to know how fast bitter gourds grow so that they can calculate how much time they need to wait before they can see fruits on the plant for the first time.
How Fast Do Bitter Gourds Grow?
The propagation method of bitter gourd plants is only through seeds. The seeds of bitter gourd take about 5 to 10 days to germinate. It grows quickly and they will appear on the ground during those days.
Most seeds of smaller plants sprout faster compared to seeds of trees. Growing bitter gourds from seeds is easy to do and having more seeds will give you more chances of growing a plant.
Once the seeds of bitter gourd sprout, you need to wait for another 5 days to do transplanting. 15 days after sowing the seeds is a great time to transplant them into the garden. The seedlings have enough height and size during this time. It will be easy to transplant bitter gourd seedlings if you use a seedling tray in sowing them.
Once the seedlings are transferred, they will continue to grow and improve their length for a few meters. You need to add a trellis so that they have something to crawl on. They are going to thrive well on the trellis compared to the ground.
The plant can reach around 2 to 4 meters after 30 days. The vines of bitter gourds will crawl and the trellis will help them grow well. At this point, you can see some male flowers on the plant.
Once the male flowers appear, some female flowers will also grow. The bitter gourd plant has male and female flowers. The plant needs pollination and some insects help the plant to pollinate flowers.
Bees are one of the most common pollinators that roam around on this plant. Those bees transfer the pollen to the stigma of the flower which increases the chance of having more fruits. You can also do hand pollination if there are no bees.
After two to three months, you can see fruits on the plant. It takes 60 to 90 days to see fruits on bitter gourd plants. Some fruits may appear earlier than expected. The size of the fruits depends on the variety.
Some bitter gourds grow small and some grow big. There will be around 15 to 25 bitter gourds per plant or it may go higher up to 40 fruits per plant if the plants will thrive excellently and no pests and diseases attack the plant.
Once the fruits have enough length and are glowing when the sunlight hits them the bitter gourds are ready to harvest. You can get a lot of fruits when harvesting. You can leave some fruits and let them ripe to save seeds from the garden and use them for the next planting season.
The lifespan of a bitter gourd takes about 5 to 6 months. The plant can still produce fruits during that time but it will be smaller. Also, the plant will slowly grow and will stop growing.
The plant will dry up and when it happens most of the fruits are completely ripe and you can save seeds from those fruits. Usually, when the fruit is colored yellow to orange and it gets broken, you will see the seeds are coated in jelly red which indicates you can get them.
Bitter Gourd Growth Rate
The bitter gourd growth rate is measured every month. You cannot measure its growth rate per year because it doesn’t even live for a year. The lifespan of this plant only takes 5 to 6 months or less. The plant can reach a few meters in the first month. And can reach 4 to 7 meters during the next following months.
The vines grow long and they crawl. You need to add trellis to growing them to make sure the vines and fruits are safe. Some pests and diseases from the soil might attack them if the fruits are laid on the ground. By adding a trellis the fruits are in a good place.
The growth stages of bitter gourd are great to know. It will give some ideas on how this plant grows. When you know some of it, you can calculate how long it takes to grow bitter gourds. If you are looking for a plant that grows speedy then you can try to grow this plant in your garden.
Factors That Affect Bitter Gourd Growth
Pests and diseases can affect the bitter gourd plant’s growth. They can make the plant grow slower. So you need to protect the plant from pests and disease. A stream of water coming from the hose will help or use pesticides or fungicides to get rid of them. Another thing is having sufficient water, nutrients, and sunlight will make the plant grow excellent.
It is great to know how fast do bitter gourds grow. By knowing that you can have an idea of how long you need to wait and when the fruits will appear. Sometimes it is hard to wait and it will be exciting when you have some clue about the flowering and fruiting time of the plant.