1) These are pure desi vegetable seeds
1 packet contains – 100 seeds.
The bitter gourd plant is a fast-growing creeper and is from a family of vines. It is also known as nutritious gourd and bitter melon. Bitter gourd plants vary in shape, size, and colour but the medicinal uses make bitter melon more important and distinct than other medicinal plants.
The most important use of bitter gourd is, it reduces the blood sugar level and is very good for diabetic patients. Bitter gourd has lots of medicinal uses so you can plant them easily in your garden. Scientific Name: Momordica Charantia L.Family: CucurbitaceaBest Season: Throughout the year nutritional Value: 44 kcal, 5.6 g protein, 290 mg calcium, 5 mg iron, 5.1 mg vitamin A, 170 mg vitamin C per 100 g serving.
Seeds Specifications
Common Name Bitter gourd, Bitter melon, Bitter cucumber, Karela (Hindi), Balsam pear, Balsam apple
Height Bitter melon produces vines that grow 13 to 16 feet long.
Bloom Time Year-round
Difficulty Level Easy
Planting And Care
Re-planting bitter gourd: If you wish to re-plant bitter gourd the next season, leave some fruits so that they get completely dried
Once fully dried, the fruit will open and you can collect the white or brown colour seeds for further sowing
Bitter Gourd green Care
Since this is a very fast growing vine, producing many fruits that will rot on moist soil, trellising will reduce diseases and make harvesting easier
When the vine reaches the top of its trellis, it is recommended that all lateral branches from the soil up to the 10th node as well as the growing tip of the vine be cut off as this will stimulate the upper branches and produce a higher yield
Sunlight Partial to full sun
Watering Keep soil consistently moist. Like other squash or melons, bitter melon fruits develop best when soil moisture remains even.
Soil Soil should be fertile, but well-drained, with a pH of 5.5 to 6.7
Temperature 15 to 30 °C
Fertilizer Add compost into the soil before planting. As plants grow, fertilize plants midway through the growing season, or use Bonnie Herb, Vegetable & Flower Plant Food as liquid fertilizer, applying more frequently (according to label directions).
Harvest Season When the fruit turns light green in colour and the inside is white, bitter, and juicy, you can pluck out the bitter gourd (basically it takes 3-4 months of plantation).
Bitter Gourd Uses
Medicinal Use:
Bitter gourd lowers blood glucose levels: Bitter gourd treatments of cell cultures or feeding trials with laboratory animals such as mice or rats show bitter gourd does have blood glucose-lowering properties
Bitter gourd is not like most medicinal drugs, which are effective only in one target organ or tissue; rather, it influences glucose metabolism all over the body
Bitter gourd lowers dietary carbohydrate digestion: The glucose metabolism starts in the gut
Carbohydrates and sugars are metabolized to glucose (one type of sugar) before glucose is transported from the gut to the blood
Bitter gourd reduces the amount of glucose that is released into the blood by inhibiting the enzymes that break down disaccharides into two monosaccharides
This effect is important for the treatment of both Type I and Type II diabetic patients and helps to prevent high blood sugar levels after meals
Bitter gourd plant insulin discovered: The pancreas reacts to increasing blood sugar levels by secreting insulin into the blood
Insulin helps to transport the sugar from the blood to the skeletal muscle and the fat tissue where it is used to produce energy
Insulin will also stop the liver to produce sugar from glycogen storages and to release the sugar into the blood
Thus, insulin is necessary to lower high blood sugar levels
Bitter gourd reverses insulin resistance: Bitter gourd can play a role in the prevention and treatment of Type II diabetes, which is also called insulin-independent diabetes or adult-onset diabetes
