Bottle gourd is mainly a winter vegetable, but thanks to light-insensitive improved varieties developed by agricultural scientists, it is now available in markets all year.
A plant too big for modern farming
Bottle gourd is a vigorous climbing plant with a lot of vegetative growth, which makes it somewhat unsuited to modern commercial farming, rooftop farming or vertical agriculture.
Two new varieties
With this in mind, Professor Dr A K M Aminul Islam, director (research) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), has developed two new varieties, BU Hybrid Lau-1 and BU Lau-1. He expects them to bring a landmark change to modern, commercial bottle gourd cultivation.
One of the high-yielding varieties is a hybrid and the other open-pollinated (OP). Both have very little vegetative growth relative to yield, making them well suited to modern or smart farming. A lower ratio of male to female flowers means the nutrients given to the plant go efficiently into fruit production, so there is less waste and less fruit drop than in conventional varieties.
Because the hybrid is light-insensitive, it can be grown all year, tastes very good, and its flavour changes little in summer.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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