C'da: Congratuation on breeding a new variety!
Ei-yahe khetiok! Natun kerela-tu amar Bhat kerela-or logot kiba mil ase neki! Xrodhare Ganesh --- Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Raiz: > > > I am a part-time khetiyok ( gardener), among other > things :-). > > I am pleased to announce that I created a hybrid > tita kerela, by > cross breeding a variety of semi-wild kerela that I > collected seeds > of from a vine from the highlands of Jamaica in 2003 > with the long > Assamese variety. This Jamaican variety kerela ( > momordica--bitter > gourd) fruit is really tiny, about 1" in diameter > and about 2" to > 2.5" long, with dainty ( about 3" diameter) leaves. > The fruits are so > small that they are not useful for eating. The > seeds are black, > about 1/4" long X 1/8" wide. I was told by someone > that it is seen in > Florida also, growing wild. > > Just out of curiosity, I pollinated an Assamese > kerela female flower > with a male Jamaican pollen, and vice versa. One did > not work, but > the other did; except I was not careful about > recording which hybrid > fruited, and don't know the exact mix. > > Anyway, I grew a new hybrid plant this spring from > the harvested > seeds. At first, the resulting plant did not > indicate any conspicuous > characteristic. But soon I began to notice that it > is an amazingly > prolific plant, growing like crazy. You can almost > see it growing > :-). Soon a very robust and wildly growing vine took > over the trellis > and spread all over nearby ground, tomato plants and > and overhead > trellis that I built for 'laos' ( gourds) producing > lots and lots of > mid-sized ( 1.5" dia X 3" to 4" long), pale green ( > more white than > green) hybrid fruits. In fact we have so many > fruits, I stopped > picking them, and they are ripening and cracking up > like blood red > flowers with yellow petals. > > The taste is not extremely bitter, like some of our > Assamese little > kerela varieties. You can say it is of medium > bitterness. > > My guess is that it MIGHT become a good garden > vegetable for amateur > urban gardeners as well as rural khetiyoks in Assam, > because the > plant is so robust and prolific. It can also become > a beautiful > screening/landscaping plant at verandas as well as > against ugly , > blank compound walls, because it grows so fast. The > flowers are > mildly fragrant,like all kerela plants. But since > there are so many > flowers, the pleasant aroma could be smelled from a > slight distance. > That makes me think, it could be a fine urban > landscape plant in warm > humid areas. > > If anyone wants seeds to try let me know. I will be > pleased to share some. > > Iti bineet, > > sondon kerela-seed mohonto :-) > ( With apologies to Johnny Appleseed) > _______________________________________________ > Assam mailing list > Assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam > > Mailing list FAQ: > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html > To unsubscribe or change options: > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam > ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list Assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
