Gourds
The most generous vines in the vegetable garden: gourds. This tag collects our guides for the whole family — bottle gourd (lauki), ridge gourd (tori), sponge gourd, bitter gourd (karela), snake gourd and ornamental gourds — staples of Indian kitchens and increasingly popular worldwide. Gourds share a formula: rich soil, real warmth, generous water and something strong to climb (a single bottle gourd vine will happily bury a trellis). The guides cover hand-pollination for shy fruiters, harvesting at the tender stage, and managing the vigour so the vine feeds you instead of eating the garden.
If a vine flowers heavily but sets no fruit, it is usually pollination rather than health. Gourds carry separate male and female flowers, and an early-morning hand-pollination with a soft brush fixes most disappointing seasons.
