Winter Melon (Ash Gourd) - A Surprise In Terrace Garden

In this video we share our experience of how a 6 Kilogram Winter Melon (Ash Gourd or Winter Gourd) grew surprisingly easily in our Terrace Garden without much care and concern.

I have been cultivating terrace garden from past two years in Bangalore, India, When you are gardening often you find unknown seedlings sprouting out of Pots (Container), I usually leave these unknown sprouts too see what they are, and this Winter Melon (Ash Gourd) was one of them. Let these plants to grow a bit, Don't cull them off who knows what surprise is waiting for you :)

In fact these surprise plants give immense pleasure than the known plant. When its a known plant you will aware about it flowers and fruits and how much space it may require etc. But with an unknown plant there is always bit of curiosity and learning attached it, which is super fun.

Initially I thought this as Cucumber or Musk Melon vine but as days went on, I could see larger leaves, hairy stems, thick tendrils, buds and flowers. Which raised my doubts of this being something else.

Unlike cucumber plant, squirrels did not attack this Winter Melon (Ash Gourd) In fact when I plant 10 cucumber plant I get only 1 plant which escapes from squirrels attack. Where as Winter Melon (Winter Gourd) somehow managed to escape those squirrels attacks, this may be due to long hairy stems.

When leaf bud came I thought it is pumpkin plant but mystery continued even after it flower because I was very sure that it is not pumpkin :( Then Google came to my rescue to actually confirm that this was indeed Winter Melon (Ash Gourd).

After Winter Melon (Ash Gourd) started to flower it attracted lots of bees which not only pollinated the winter melon but also pollinated other flowers in our Garden. After this successful pollination, I did nothing special regarding plant care or maintenance, I just water it regularly and after about three months got this big Melon :)

-- ABOUT WINTER MELON --
Winter Melon also known as Ash Gourd, Winter Gourd, Tallow Gourd, Chinese preserving melon or White Gourd is a surprisingly easy vine to grow.

It is consumed all through winter in countries of deciduous vegetation such as China, in China it is one of the very few vegetable available in Winter, hence its Chinese name literally means 'Winter Melon'. The Winter Melon (Ash Gourd) can typically be stored for one year. But after cutting the vegetable it should be consumed within two days.

I have also grown Coriander, Mint (Pudina), Ladies Finger (Okra), Bitter Gourd, Papaya, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Spinach (Palak), Egg Plant (Brinjal), Amaranthus, Spring Onions, Hyacinth (Lablab), Sugar Apples and different type of flowers in our Terrace Garden.

Lots more to try, Happy Gardening :)

Winter Melon Pollination Video --    • Bee Pollination - A Beautiful Natural Act  

-- AUDIO CREDITS --
"Montauk Point" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0