Fastest way to grow bitter gourd / karela from seeds
Fastest way to grow bitter gourd / karela. As the vegetable is known to have miraculous medicinal properties its worth growing it in your balcony or terrace garden for sure. Lets take a look at one of the quickest method which will help you grow your Bitter gourd plant in just 3-4 days. Lets dive deep in and have some fun growing our own Bitter gourd.
Phase 1 : Sprouting the seeds
1. Take the seeds from a well grown karela. Prefer taking bigger and brownish seeds.
2. Carefully pinch the seeds on the top avoiding breaking the seed itself.
3. Soak the seeds overnight in a bowl or a cup of your choice, the next day you will notice the seeds sitting down they are the seeds which are going to work, discard the rest of the seeds if any floating over the top.
4. Now take all the seeds and wrap around the seeds into a napkin or a cheese cloth which is suitable to sprout and is airy.
5. Let the napkin or cheese cloth be wet and not drenched in water and let them sit for few days
6. In about 2-3 days only you will see the seeds sprout very nicely.
Phase 2 : Sowing the seeds:
1. Now either take a seedling tray , or a small pot or container and add potting soil mix into them. Suitably add your sprouted seeds and cover with a layer or soil over it. Ensure its about 2-3 cm above the seed level so it covers the seeds well. Spray or add water over the soil to make it wet but not drenched , avoid over watering. Its recommended to place your seeds in a 8-12 inch container directly keeping about 3-5 inch of gap between each seed if you want to grow them direct in there.
2. Keep the container or the seed tray in a semi shaded area , avoiding direct sunlight for now avoding quick drying of the soil medium.
3. After 4-5 days you will see seeds forming beautiful seedlings / young plants. Keep watering them so the top soil is wet, don’t over water at this stage and continue semi shaded light until the seedlines grow up to a fine 3-5 inch plant.
Phase 3: Transplanting the seedlings:
If you placed your seeds in a small container or a seedling tray:
1. Carefully water the seedling to make the soil went, but not drenched. Gently move the soil around the seedling avoiding pressure to the young root system and pull the seedling out.
2. Now take a 8-12 inch of a pot or a growing bag to transplant your seedling. Ensure you keep about minimum 5 inch of space between each seedline planted for a better growth of the plant.
Result: After 7 days of transplanting.
The sprouted seeds if set up correctly, will turn up into beautiful small plants. Let them sit there and grow for a week more till they have more than 2-3 true leaves. And then further transplant them into bigger pots where you want to grow them as fully grown wines afterwards.
Conclusion: In practice this is one of the best medicinal plant you can grow at your home, which is yet beautifully crafted by nature when you see it in wines up your garden or your balcony wall. We would say you should try to grow at least 5-10 seeds and utilize at-least more than half of them till the actual plant lasts as in conditions of over watering, less watering or insects you may tend to lose some of them on their way to fruiting, though we wish you good luck growing your own bitter gourd soon and may all of the seeds turn into a well fruiting plant.
