How many bitter gourds per plant? Do you wonder how many fruits you will get from a single bitter gourd plant once they start fruiting? It is nice to have some hints or some ideas on how many fruits you will be harvesting soon from the plant. It takes time to grow a plant and it will be exciting once they start flowering and sooner those flowers will turn into fruits.
Before a bitter gourd plant’s fruit, there are some stages they need to surpass first before they go through the fruiting stages. Those stages are important to help them grow well. The plant starts from a seed, becomes a seedling, matures, starts blooming, and eventually produces fruits.
During those stages, the plant must get enough sunlight, water, and nutrients to grow fast and encourage flowers and fruits. When it happens you will see more flowers and fruits on your bitter gourd plant.
How Many Bitter Gourds Per Plant?
There will be around 15 to 25 bitter gourds per plant. But it can also reach up to 40 fruits per plant if you planted the bitter gourds in a well rich-nutrient soil. The number of fruits that will grow on a single plant will depend on how it is being nourished. When the plant stays healthy, it will produce its average number of fruits but if the plant is not healthy along its journey the fruits may be lesser than what is expected.
The bitter gourd plant matures around 3 months or earlier than that. The plant becomes more mature and ready. When the bitter gourd plant blooms it produces small, yellow flowers. It takes a little bit of time for the flowers to appear but it will be more exciting once they do. The bitter gourd has male and female flowers and not all of the flowers will become fruits. Also, some of the female flowers will drop which is also normal for most plants.
But how long does it take to grow bitter gourds? The bitter gourd fruits will appear a few weeks after the flowers appear. So it will be around 3 months or earlier for the fruits to appear. The fruits are small at first but they increase in size day by day. When the fruits are big and have enough hardness, the bitter gourds are ready to harvest. The plant should fruit as long as they are healthy, but what if bitter gourds are not fruiting what to do?
How To Increase The Yield Of Bitter Gourd?
Taking care of bitter gourd plants is your main focus for it to produce fruits and increase their yield at the same time. Keeping them healthy will keep the lifespan of bitter gourd plants in a good shape. When the plant lives longer it can give you more fruits in the long run.
The sunlight requirements of bitter gourds vary depending on their size and age. Young plants need at least 4 hours of sunlight while mature plants need at least 6 hours of sunlight. But of course, it will be better if they will get more sunlight to help them create more food. The sunlight is also important to encourage the plant to fruit.
The bitter gourd needs water more often especially when there is no rainfall. When there is no rainfall the soil will be dry. And by watering them the soil will be moist and keep the plant thriving well. The plant doesn’t need to be watered as long as the soil is still moist. Also, avoid overwatering the plant to prevent root rot.
Improving the soil nutrients will also help the plant produce fruits and increase the yields. Applying fertilizer to bitter gourd (ampalaya) is a way to improve the soil’s nutrients. The fertilizer will increase the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other elements in the soil. Having abundant nutrients in the soil will help increase the bitter gourd fruit size.
Another thing is you need to control pests in bitter gourd plants. Those pests will affect the growth of the plant. You can keep the plant free from pests by using pesticides. You can use chemical pesticides but you can also use organic ones. Either of the two will work to get rid of pests.
The water hose can also be used to remove pests, the strong blast from the hose can remove pests but make sure to avoid doing it when the plant is already flowering or fruiting. The flowers and fruits will be safer when there is no pest on your tree.
Plant More Bitter Gourd Plants
If you want more yield then it’s better to plant more bitter gourds. Let’s say one plant produces 15 fruits then if you plant 10 bitter gourds you will have 150 fruits. That is a lot of fruit and you can use some of them for cooking and sell the other bitter gourd fruits to earn some money.
You can also let other fruits mature and ripen to save some seeds. One fruit has a few seeds that you can use to grow another plant or you can sell those seeds. It will be awesome to see a lot of fruits on your bitter gourd vines.
It is great to know how many bitter gourds per plant. It will give some new growers an idea of how many fruits they can get from one plant. If you want to have more fruits to harvest then you should grow more than one plant. But you need some space in order to do that. The vines of the bitter gourd are growing wide so some space is needed to grow them well.