The Influence of Cultivation Method on Crop Production of Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

Momordica charantia L. has been used in Asian traditional medicines for a long time (Kumar et al., 2010), but in our country is less know. Some products of fruit extracts are present in the pharmaceutical industry in Romania. Encapsulated products are valued for regulating triglyceride or cholesterol. In Asia (China, Japan and India), the fruits are used for diet of diabetic people and for curing people in natural medicine (Kumar et al., 2010; Fohs et al., 2014). The aim of this paper was to find the best way of cultivation to obtain high yield and quality fruits. This study can help to promote this crop in our country, especially for pharmaceutical industry. Biological material is represented by ‘Enaja’ new cultivar of Momordica charantia L. This was used to establish the early production of bitter gourd. The experiments were carried out in 2015 in a greenhouse belonging to UASMV Cluj – Napoca. As an experimental factor different cultivation way was used (one branch, two branches and main stem). The harvest of early production was in 24.08.2015. Obtained results was statistically interpeted using Duncan test. The higher early production (0,72 kg/plant, respectiv 0,93 kg/sm) was registred if the cultivation way was on two branches. The lowest crop production (0,53 kg/plant, respectiv 0,69 kg/mp) was in case of cultivation on the main stem. The cultivation method on two branches generate differences of 0,19 kg/plant and 0,24 kg/mp. The differences between cultivation ways were significantly and statistically assured. In the current paper, the best cultivation method for Momordica charantia L. was on two branches. This cultivation method generates the higher early production