I’ve never expected that growing bitter gourd (Momordica Charantia) naturally without chemicals would be this difficult. I’ve long subscribed to the belief that fruit vegetable is much easier to grow than leafy vegetable. I guess each type has its own set of challenges. Regardless, our chemical-free and organically grown bitter gourd fruit vegetable (from non-GMO heirloom seed) is truly a premium product that is extremely valuable in its own right, given the amount of care that went into growing them.
It was indeed a relief to be able to finally enjoy the fruits of our labour with this first test harvest of naturally grown bitter gourd, albeit a little too late. The bitter gourds have quickly turned this yellow in just two days, as it was still green two days ago. I’ve since informed my worker to do quick checks daily, especially since the wrapping may hasten the ripening process.
I’ve started this patch of bitter gourd about roughly 2 months back. I’ve decided to place the growing trellis for this climbing vege right smack at the vicinity of the arborloo, which is currently not being used (but will be maintained for sentimental reasons). The arborloo sits at what little flat land I have left with at the farm. Flanked by two durian trees with not too bushy a crown, I reckon the sun penetration would serve me well.
Amidst the crazily busy work schedule at the farm, there have been a couple of delays over the course of the past two months. A couple of weeks back, we discovered that almost 10 bitter gourd plants have at their base chewed off by something. We were suspecting rats. 10 plants lost just like that! Had it not been for that incident, we would have even more fruits now.
As I don’t use any herbicides or insecticides, it was just a matter of time before the pests arrive to feast on the young fruits that were just beginning to form, some of which escaped our attention. We started wrapping the fruits to keep fruit flies at bay and kept a closer watch. We used brown paper bags without staplers to wrap the fruits as I was informed by some unverified source that international organic standards do not allow the use for newspaper as the ink used may contain harmful toxins.
Now, the plants are beginning to establish themselves well and more fruits are popping up throughout the vast network of vines weaving their way through a mix of gliricidia, leucaena and bamboo support structure. My experienced worker from Flores told me that these bitter gourds are truly undoubtedly “organic”. He nursed them with only watering, wrapping and addition of sheep manure. His previous growing experience with bitter gourd has involved the use of chemicals.
He explained that those grown conventionally with artificial inputs are fatter but soft to the touch, while these naturally grown ones are firmer to the touch. I suppose these are no less bigger in size if tend to even more religiously. It is easy to understand why organically or naturally grown bitter gourds or any other fruit vegetable for that matter is priced more than conventional produce due to the manual labour involved.
The next plan of action would be to keep the natural vegetation/grass in the area suppressed by mowing it down (eliminate hiding places for pests). The base of the plant has to be mulched to prevent pests from laying eggs and burrowing them in the soil to hatch later, as I’ve come to understand from some basic research. I also need to install some pheromone trap to lure fruit flies away from the fruits. Apart from the usual “compulsory” (or is it so?) wrapping, I would need to implement more good agriculture practice, some of which includes removal of fallen/rotten fruits so that they do not attract fruit flies and removal of damaged vegetation on the vines.
I have to admit my integrated pest management (IPM) practice is still pretty incomplete and flawed as it stands. I have only recently called for the insertion of Lantana Camara, marigold and basil, interspersed with some ulam and a variety of wild flowers. My worker has been quite “conventional” by planting in a “monocropping” manner (single plant variety) and I’ve forgotten to inform him of the inter-planting of different species of edibles and non-edibles.
An increase in biodiversity should keep pests at bay, theoretically I must say. It remains to be proven of its positive outcome in real world action (to me that is), despite the many claims of it in writing. I can even add to the mix, a host of turmeric, misai kucing, chilies, yam, lemongrass, brinjal and okra. Sounds like a tonne of work but highly necessary to pump up the forested nature of this patch. Once established, I should have a proven baseline of an IPM-enabled vege patch that I can scale elsewhere at the farm.
As an added boost, I would need to spray EM, JADAM and apply regular compost and vermicompost to build even healthier soil biology, in hopes of yielding healthier plants that are not susceptible to insect attack. That’s the plan for now. It would also be interesting to note that the ground upon which I’ve planted these bitter gourds is not the most fertile as I’d like. It’s quite rocky and hard in some areas, as I’ve discovered from digging the arborloo years back.
Hopefully, with the implementation of the above-mentioned IPM, I would see better results in a few weeks time. Fingers crossed.
