Stop Fruit Drop in Bottle Gourd (Lauki)- Why your Lauki flowers fall off

Last updated on October 28th, 2022 at 03:00 pm

Why do Bottle Gourd fruits drop?

Fruit drop in Bottle gourd (lauki) or bottle gourd fruit not growing is a very common problem whether it’s soil grown bottle gourd plant or Hydroponic Bottle Gourd plant and it could be due to various reasons like nutrient deficiencies, over-watering/under-watering but we are going to mainly discuss here the most common reason of fruit dropping /flower falling in bottle gourd and that is lack of Pollination

Bottle Gourd flowers usually bloom at night and sometimes there is not enough numbers of natural pollinators in our garden and combined with night time blooming, pollination becomes a little difficult. Therefore, we need to Hand Pollinate bottle gourd flowers to ensure maximum fruit conversion

Difference between Bottle Gourd Flowers – Male and Female

In Bottle Gourd, female flowers have tiny bottle gourd forming at it’s base just below the flower while male flowers don’t have any fruit or tiny bottle gourd at it’s base. It appears just like any other flower

Some plants produce flowers that have both male and female parts in single flower while other plants have separate male and female flowers for pollination to take place. Flowers that have both male and female parts are little easier to pollinate, sometimes wind is enough to transfer the pollen to the middle part of the flower

Usually male flowers appear first followed by female flowers a few days later

Bottle Gourd male flower = No fruit at it’s base

Bottle Gourd female flower = Tiny bottle gourd at it’s base

How to Hand Pollinate Bottle Gourd flowers?

To Hand pollinate bottle gourd female flowers, we first need to pluck a male flower from the plant and remove it’s petals to expose it’s middle part (Anther) that contains Pollen. After that, we need to slowly open the petals of female flower to expose it’s middle part (Stigma) too. Now, gently rub the middle part of male flower against the middle part of female flower a couple of times. Make sure you do this gently and don’t use too much force or else female flower may fall off

One male flower can pollinate multiple female flowers but it’s best to use a fresh male flower for every bottle gourd female if male flowers are plenty in numbers. If male flowers are scarce then you can try to pollinate 2-3 female flowers with one male flower

Post Hand Pollination

Once hand pollination is complete and considering it is successful, you can expect tiny bottle gourd at the base of female flower to start getting bigger in a day or two and possibly ready for harvest in about 10-12 days. If you do hand pollination for all flowers then you can ensure maximum fruit production but that also calls for equally balanced measure on other fronts like nutrition, proper watering, adequate sunlight, etc.

If you want to know how to grow Hydroponic Bottle Gourd then you may click this link

I have also made a Hindi YouTube video on How to Stop Flower/Fruit Drop in Bottle Gourds, If you want you can watch the video by clicking the link below

If you want to buy any Hydroponic or Gardening related products online then I have mentioned links to various products in all videos of my YouTube channel, you can click those links and buy from there

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