Can loofah and bitter melon be planted together?

When cultivating vegetables , in order to achieve the goal of healthy plant growth and sustained high yields, in addition to applying appropriate fertilizers and adopting advanced management techniques, there are also a variety of methods available for reference and application. For example, some vegetable varieties can be planted together to increase each other's yield, while some other vegetables will inhibit each other when planted together. So can loofah and bitter melon be planted together?

Can loofah and bitter melon be planted together?

Loofah and bitter gourd are not suitable to be planted together. Although they belong to the same gourd family, planting them together may lead to seed mingling, making the taste of the loofah bitter. This is because the bitter taste of bitter melon will affect the quality of loofah through pollination, so it is best to plant them separately to avoid this from happening.

How to avoid loofah seedlings?

1. Plant separately

Avoid planting plants of the same family such as loofah and bitter gourd together, as they are prone to cross-pollination during flowering, causing the loofah to become bitter.

2. Artificial pollination

When cultivating in protected areas, you can pick the newly opened male flowers in the evening or morning when there is no dew, and apply pollen to the stigma of the female flowers to reduce the risk of cross-pollination during natural pollination.

3. Control plant growth

By spraying nutrient solution such as brassinolide, the growth of loofah can be regulated so that nutrients can be properly shifted from supplying mainly plant growth to supplying fruit growth, thereby promoting more loofah fruit setting.

4. Reasonable fertilization

Apply less nitrogen fertilizer, more biological fertilizer, and appropriately increase potassium fertilizer to adjust the growth of loofah and promote more loofah fruit setting.

5. Plant management

Build a trellis or hang vines in time, prune (weak and redundant side branches) to make the stems and vines evenly distributed, remove male flowers, tendrils and yellowing old leaves at the bottom, and top the tree in time.

6. Apply fertilizer and water at the right time

After entering the fruit-setting period, generally apply top dressing once every 1-2 harvests, maintain suitable temperature and light, and avoid night temperatures below 13 degrees or daytime temperatures above 30 degrees for a long time, which is conducive to fruit setting.

In summary, these two vegetables cannot be planted together. When planting these two crops, it is recommended to keep a certain distance to reduce the impact on each other. Although their growth habits are similar, they still need to be separated in management to ensure that each vegetable can grow healthily.