Cultivation of Momordica
MOMORDICA - EXOTIC GARDEN
It is really a decoration of your garden and an exotic fruit on your table.
Momordika - an annual vigorously growing pumpkin liana family - is perfect for vertical gardening, as grows up to 3 m long. Its carved non-green leaves are similar to grape. Momordica blooms all summer with small yellow flowers.
Soon, green bubble fruit appears on the spot of the flowers. Ripening, they change color from green to orange. Diva is given, as from such a tiny flower grows large, sometimes up to 20 cm in length and a diameter of 7-8 cm, the fruit.
Inside the fruit are up to 40 red berries. Inside each berry is a bizarre seed. When ripe, the fruit bursts, opening like a flower.
Fruiting begins in early July, and ends with the first autumn frosts. The taste of momordica somewhat resembles a ripe persimmon. Ripe fleshy fruits are very tasty and useful. They contain a lot of calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron and vitamin B.
Very delicious is a vegetable caviar from Momordica. And we add delicate young shoots and leaves to salads and borsch. All parts of the plant have a somewhat bitter taste, but the bitterness adds spicy dishes. We chop the green fruits with pieces, salt. And then fry with onion in oil. To get rid of bitterness, before consumption, fresh fruits are soaked in salt water for 1-2 h.
It is believed that momordika quickly removes excess fat from the body, which contributes to weight loss.
We also use the healing properties of this miracle plant. With burns, scratches and cuts, it is only necessary to apply a piece of fruit or pulp from its pulp to the damaged area several times, as everything quickly heals. A good remedy for cold is tincture of momordica.
Reference by topic: Growing Momordica and its application
Pour finely chopped fruit without seeds with vodka (100 ml), insist 14 days in a dark cool place, after which we filter and pour into a dark jar. In the autumn-winter period we take on 1 tsp. 3 times a day for 3 days for colds and as a prophylaxis against influenza. This tincture is not only effective for colds, but still perfectly strengthens immunity. This same tincture we rub the diseased joints.
Momordica: planting and care
Growing momordika at home is not difficult. Seeds do not require stratification and have almost 100% germination. Suitable for planting dark coffee seeds. In the autumn I wash them in warm water, freeing from the mucous pericarp, dry it and put it in a glass jar.
I start sowing in early April in disposable cups to a depth of 1-1,5 cm, planting each seed with a rib.
After that, I water and fall asleep with damp earth. Before planting seeds must be soaked for a day in a pink solution of potassium permanganate. At a temperature of + 22-25 degrees, friendly shoots appear after a week. In the open ground seedlings are transplanted only when the temperature on the street is set above 15 degrees and the threat of recurrent frosts passes.
Seedlings of Momordica are very tender; Until she goes into growth, I cover her with cut plastic bottles.
Cold wind, sharp temperature fluctuations, watering with cold water are pernicious to the plant, so I water it only with warm, steady water.
Poor momordica also tolerates dense, waterlogged soils. It is more suitable for loose fertile soils with a weakly acid reaction.
Reference by topic: How to grow Momordica
Perfectly responds to fertilizing with organic fertilizers. And also it is necessary to feed the Momordica with nitrogen fertilizers, and in the period of growth of fruits and superphosphate. To the plant received enough sunlight, I try not to allow thickening and necessarily pull the net around the pergola for support. However, she feels great and near the mesh fence, if its height is not less than 1,5 m.
Do not be afraid and follow my example - plant exotic.
Cultivation of Momordica: question-answer
This year I raised a momordica, but questions remained. How do I sow to increase seed germination, how to care, how to use the fruits? Tell us ...
Anatoly Pavlovich
Here is a Momordica!
MOMORDICA - a creeper of the pumpkin family with bright exotic-looking fruits. We grow momordica harania - a grassy annual plant with two-meter and longer thin shoots, decorated with carved leaves, bright yellow fragrant flowers, and later - uneven fruits that, until ripe, resemble crocodiles. Ripening, the fruits turn orange. The ripened fruit cracks and becomes like a large three-petal flower with a ruby center. This is a juicy pericarp, taste like persimmon. The taste of the fruit itself is closer to the pumpkin with a bitter surface.
Propagation of momordica mainly seeds. Their germination is good. Before sowing, they can be soaked for a day in a pink solution of potassium permanganate. Seeds will rise together if they are planted in the moist soil to a depth of about one and a half centimeters and create warm conditions (not below + 20 degrees). Guaranteed this can be achieved by sowing momordiku in the cups on the windowsill. When is it better to conduct a home planting?
From a glass of momordica planted in warm soil, when the threat of frost passes. We have this second half of May. On seedlings seeds will be given 10-15 days, another two weeks - for growth by seedlings, and it turns out that sowing momordica on seedlings follows in the second half of April. If planted earlier, seedlings will be more difficult to survive in a permanent place after transplantation. Seedlings before planting can once be fed with organic infusion or a solution of complex mineral fertilizer. Good nightshade predecessors are solanaceous, bean cultures.
If the momordica is grown for a crop, and not as an ornamental plant, it is not allowed to thicken, taking off the stepson on the shoots at a height of up to half a meter. One plant leaves no more than three shoots. The rest of the agrotechnics of Momordica, including protection from pests and diseases, can be borrowed from cucumbers. Momordica is pollinated by insects. It grows well on the trellis.
Green eight-ten-day ovaries do not have a bitter taste, they can be used as cucumbers. The ruby pericars of ripened fruits are eaten raw. Edible seeds, flowers, leaves, roots are edible in Momordica. And to eat them in the composition of salads, soups is quite possible, if you know about the curative nature of Momordica. It removes aging, protects against tumors, has antiviral and antibacterial action, increases immunity, anesthetizes, speeds up metabolism, lowers cholesterol in blood, improves eyesight. And this is not all the medicinal qualities that are attributed to Momordica. You just need to enter the menu is not a very traditional plant.
N.Karkacheva, Taman of the Krasnodar Territory
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Cucumbers and pumpkins have many exotic relatives, and some of them grow well in our climatic conditions - for example, momordica.
Momordica quickly forms a vine with dense carved leaves and densely braids any reticular support.
However, do not put this vine near the playground, as its young shoots and leaves are burned, like nettles. In July, on the whips appear green, covered with various outgrowths and thorns fruit. Zelentsy to taste like bitter cucumbers. They say that in the marinade the bitterness disappears, but I have not tried it.
As they ripen, the fruits turn bright yellow, and then the fun part happens. The fruit from the tip cracks and opens with slices that diverge and slightly twist. Dark seeds in red pulp become visible inside. It seems as if the spiked crocodile has opened its mouth gaped with teeth, - for this, the momordica is called the "crocodile cucumber." The pulp, which is surrounded by ripe seeds, has a rather pleasant fruity taste.
This year I already used my own seeds. They germinate for a long time, about 2 weeks. Care of seedlings is the same as for cucumber, but the temperature should be not lower than 20 °. Therefore, in the ground it can be planted when stable heat comes.