1Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab
2Soil and Water Management Research Institute, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
Horticultural College and Research Institute for Women Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu
Online published on 21 March, 2016.
An experiment was conducted at Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Aduthurai, during 2010–12 to evaluate the accessions of small type bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L. var. muricata) collected from Tamil Nadu. Bitter gourd vines do not require pandal (support) for cultivation and the vines can creep on ground. The vines grow up to a length of 1.5 m on the ground with the duration of 120 days. Variation in foliage, flowers, size and weight of individual fruits was observed. MCM 12 recorded the highest fruit length (5.48 cm), followed by MCM 18 (5.20 cm). In contrast, the shortest fruit was recorded in MCM 2 (2.27 cm), followed by (2.29 cm). The individual fruit width ranged from 1.36 to 2.52 cm. The accession, MCM 12, registered significantly higher fruit weight (7.48 g) than other accessions evaluated in all three seasons. Number of seeds/fruit ranged from 4.00 to 6.67. In MCM 4, number of fruits/plant was significantly higher than other accessions evaluated in all three seasons. The highest yield was recorded in MCM 12 (2, 146 kg/ha), followed by MCM 4 (2, 024 kg/ha). MCM 4 had 3.8 mg iron, 86 mg calcium and 75 mg vitamin C in 100 g of immature fruits.
Bitter gourd, Calcium, Vitamin C, Iron, Yield, Variability, Bitter gourd, Subtropical
