Ridge Gourd is a vigorously growing climbing vine with thick green leaves and fleshy long fruits with tough skin and ridges. The vine is almost free from pest attacks and diseases. It can be grown in the ground or in a container with a trellis/net/wall for it to climb on. The fruits are delicious with many culinary uses. The standard germination time is about 3 days and the fruits will appear in about 40-50 days from sowing.

Sunlight : Part to full sun

Watering:

Keep plants moist, but not saturated.

Soil When preparing a site for planting ridge gourd seeds, amend the soil with organic matter, such compost or composted manure. You can spread a 2-inch layer of organic matter on the site and work it the soil as a depth of 6 to 8 inches. A soil pH of 6.5 to 7.0, or neutral to slightly alkaline soil, is used for growing ridge gourds, but do not add lime unless a soil test determines a low pH.

Temperature: It grows best in air temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees F.

Fertilizer:

It needs a fertilizer high in phosphorous and potassium than nitrogen. Bottle gourds need nitrogen to grow vigorously, but excess nitrogen will encourage more leaves instead of fruit. A NPK fertilizer with ratio of 6:10:10 or 4:8:5 can be used. Add about 20 g in the soil for each plant before planting.

Feed every 2 weeks with a liquid fertilizer or comfrey tea fertilizer.

Harvest Season:

This can be the most enjoying part of growing gourds. At Foothills Farm, we normally wait until after frost and the gourd vines have died. After this, it is very easy to find and harvest the gourds. If you want, you check the gourd patch before frost and see if any gourds have already started to dry on the vine. It is okay to harvest these before frost.