Everything you need to know about luffa cultivation, production and harvest. Learn about:- 1. Introduction to Luffa 2. Origin and Distribution of Luffa 3. Composition and Uses 4. Climate Required for Cultivation 5. Soil Required for Cultivation 6. Sowing Time 7. Manurial Requirement for Cultivation 8. Irrigation Requirements for Cultivation 9. Intercultural Operations 10. Harvesting and Yielding 11. Cultivated Varieties.
Contents:
- Introduction to Luffa
- Origin and Distribution of Luffa
- Composition and Uses of Luffa
- Climate Required for Cultivating Luffa
- Soil Required for Cultivating Luffa
- Sowing Time of Luffa Seeds
- Manurial Requirement for Luffa Cultivation
- Irrigation Requirements for Luffa Cultivation
- Intercultural Operations of Luffa
- Harvesting and Yielding of Luffa
- Cultivated Varieties of Luffa
1. Introduction
to Luffa:
The name Luffa has been derived from the word Luffein—a gelatinous substance in these species. In different language, smooth gourd is known as Gilki, Nanua, Ghiaturi in Hindi, Dirghapatola in Sanskrit, Ghia tori in Punjabi, Dundhul in Bengali, Liasada in Sindhi, Bhol in Marathi, Bhar Karela in Assamese, Nunibeera in Telagu, Palo in Nepali, and Thuppa heera kavi in Kannad, whereas, ridge gourd is known as Turi, Arraturai, Jhings turai in Hindi, Jhingaka in Sanskrit, Ramtori and Kali tori in Punjabi, Ghoshalata in Bengali, Trui in Sindhi, Sirola in Gujarati and Marathi, Ramturai in Nepali, Herrakay in Kannad, Ghosal in Konkan, Beera koya in Telgu, Peerakai in Tamil, Cherupeerum in Malayalam and Junhi in Oriya.
Other names in various countries are Skoo ah in Hong, Hechima in Japanese, Sinqua in Cantonese Chinese, Ta tsu kua in Mandarin Chinese, Shui kwa, Sing gwa, See kwa in Chinese, Patola, Patolang, Cabatiti in Filipino, and Muop khia in Vietnamese. It is also known as Chinese okra in the USA.
Both sponge and ridge gourds are cultivated commercially all over the country for edible tender fruits, and a few plants of both the species can easily be seen in the surroundings, like corners or fencings of kitchen gardens and boundary walls of houses, due to their easy culture and availability during the lean period of vegetable production. Its leaves, flowers, and fruits are edible, and the dried fruits of smooth gourd yield sponge for commerce, thus, are good source of foreign exchange.
2. Origin and Distribution
of Luffa:
Luffa is an old world genus, consisting of two cultivated and two wild species. It is difficult to assign with accuracy the indigenous area of Luffa species, as they have a long history of cultivation in the tropical countries of Asia and Africa.
The sponge characteristics described in Egyptian writings indicate that name Luffa or Loofah is of Arabic origin and Chinese name Szkua— dishcloth gourd or towel gourd signifies its mention in early Chinese literature. Sponge gourd is probably a native of South Asia and perhaps of Africa, Australia, and Polynesia. The Sanskrit name Koshataki indicates its early cultivation in India also.
3. Composition and Uses of Luffa:
Composition:
The fruit of sponge and ridge gourds contains water content 93 and 95%, respectively. Sponge gourd fruits are a good source of protein, carotene, calcium, and fibre, while ridge gourd fruits are comparatively rich in mineral matters. A crystalline non-glucosidal bitter compound Amarine is also present in the seeds of wild Luffa. The nutritive status of fruits of both these species based upon per 100 g of edible parts is given in Table 12.1.
The young tender fruits are commonly used for culinary purpose in kitchen for the preparation of different dishes. Being easily digestible and very appetizing, it is a good vegetable for those who are suffering from heart disease, digestive problems, malaria, and other seasonal fever. The fully ripe dried fruits of sponge gourd have large fibrous portion, which is used in various forms, like scrubbers, brush, pad potholder, mats, stuffing material in mattresses, and pillows, sound insulators, filters etc.
Stem, leaves, roots, and seeds of these species have various medicinal and cosmetic properties. The oil extracted from the seeds is known to cure cutaneous complaints, roots for laxative effects and leaf juice for diabetes, and hemorrhoids. Fresh juice of its leaves is dropped into the eyes of children in granular conjunctivitis. It also prevents the eyelids from adhering because of excessive eye secretion at night.
The distinguish features of sponge and ridge gourds are given as under:
4. Climate Required for Cultivating Luffa:
The crop has the wider adaptability in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the country, but it performs best under hot and humid conditions with a temperature range of 25°-30°C. Very high temperature (> 38°C), particularly at early stage of growth, reduces fruit yield due to more number of staminate flowers, whereas, excessive vegetative growth is promoted with high temperature and high relative humidity in rainy season.
The plants bear more pistillate flowers when temperature is comparatively low, days are short, and relative humidity is high. Under shade or very low light intensities, tendency to produce male flowers is more. Ridge gourd in respect to sex ratio is less influenced by the environmental factors than the smooth gourd. Like other cucurbits, Luffa cannot tolerate frost and strong winds. For raising early crop, protection has to be provided in winter months. The low temperature reduced water supply and causes deformation of the fruits.
5. Soil Required for Cultivating Luffa
:
Soils for successful cultivation of Luffa should not crack in summer and waterlogged in rainy season, hence, a well-drained sandy-loam soil with high organic content is highly suitable. Genotypic differences are there for salt tolerance but at high and low salt concentration, growth is restricted, hence, the concentration of salts in soil should be neither low nor high. The soil pH between 5.8-7.5 is desirable for growth and yield of the crop. Obusanya (1983) noticed best vine growth of Luffa aegyptiaca at 6.5 pH.
The soil temperature between 18- 22°C gave maximum germination of the seed. The soil moisture level of 10-15% above the permanent wilting point showed rapid growth of the vines. Like other cucurbits, Luffa during vegetative growth requires good soil moisture rather than excessive moisture content, thus, the crop is mostly grown as a rain fed in rainy season.
6. Sowing Time
of Luffa Seeds:
Luffa is grown twice a year, once in spring-summer, and then, in rainy season. Spring-summer is the main season for its cultivation, and in rainy season, the crop suffers from the attack of several insect-pests and diseases. Generally, ridge gourd can tolerate more high temperature than the sponge gourd. The sowing time is determined by the rainfall and temperature conditions in a particular area.
In northern India, early sowing starts in November in the riverbed and extends up to March for spring-summer crop. The rainy season crop is sown in the month of June-July, which matures in September-October. In central and southern India where winter is neither severe nor long, the sowing can be done round the year.
In this region, the October-November sown crop is harvested in the month of February-March. In hills of north India, the sowing starts in April- May, depending upon the altitude harvested in the month of August.
The seed requirement per unit area for raising a Luffa crop depends upon the viability and germinability of seed, soil type, sowing method, sowing season, temperature, and moisture in the field at the time of sowing. A hectare area requires 4 kg of seed when sown by Kera method, 2.5 kg by dibbling on hills and 600 g by raising nursery in polythene bags or in plastic trays. Use of excess seed per unit area causes overlapping of vines, synthesize less carbohydrate, and produce more staminate flowers than the pistillate.
The seed before sowing should be treated with Thiram or Captan @ 3 g/kg of seed to protect against seed and soil borne diseases. Seed priming with Arappu powder (Albizia amara) enhanced the field emergence and seedling vigor of the Luffa.
The method of planting depends upon the season and system of Luffa cultivation. In spring- summer, generally, flat beds are used and the vines are allowed to creep on the ground, though in rainy season, sowing is essentially done on raised beds and vines are allowed to either slink on raised portion of the beds or climb over the trellis. The critical factor is that water should not touch and spoil the developing fruits on the ground.
In raised bed cultivation, on well-prepared fine tilth land, furrows of 50-60 cm width at 2-3 m distance are made. On both sides of the beds, 2-3 seeds per hill are sown at 60 cm spacing. In pit system, 45 × 45 × 45 cm size pits are made and filled with farmyard manure and topsoil in equal ratio. These pits are spaced at 1.5-2.0 meter width and sown with 4-5 seeds per pit.
The seed placement at 2-3 cm depth in vertical orientation is considered better for the emergence of seedlings. The vines are trained over trellis, arbors, or pandals of 1.5-2.0 meter height. In small homestead gardens, the vines are trailed over thatched huts, walls, fencings, trees, etc. In the areas of heavy rainfall, the seeds are sown in the centers of mounds to facilitate drainage.
The riverbed cultivation is a kind of vegetable forcing, wherein cucurbits are grown under suboptimal conditions during winter months from November to February, particularly in north and northwestern India. In this system, after cessation of southwestern monsoon, trenches or pits having 0.6-0.75 meter depth are made in east-west direction by maintaining 2-3 meter spacing between the rows. Before the sowing of seed, the trenches are filled with farmyard manure or well-composted waste.
In December-January, protection against frost/chilling winds is provided by erecting Sarkanda (Saccharm spp.) grass at 75°C angle on northern sides of the trench. Plants are watered with pots until the taproot of Luffa plants touches the water regime below the ground.
7. Manurial Requirement
for Luffa Cultivation:
The manure and fertilizer requirement depends upon the soil type, system of cultivation, and climatic conditions of the growing region. Luffa requires 10 tonnes well-composted farmyard manure, 40-60 kg nitrogen, 20-40 kg phosphorus, and 20-30 kg potash for one hectare. The farmyard manure should be added 10-15 days before sowing at the time of land preparation. Before preparation of beds, whole dose of phosphorus and potash along with one third of nitrogen should be applied on both sides of the channel.
The remaining dose of nitrogen should be given in two splits near the base of the vines during early part of growing season. The deficiency of nitrogen also reduced the fruit yield to a considerable level in ridge gourd. The use of 10 q/ha vermicompost along with 50 kg nitrogen, 25 kg phosphorus, and 25 kg potash improves the yield and quality of sponge gourd.
Excessive use of nitrogen, frequent irrigation, and high temperature promote more vegetative growth, more male flowers, and consequently, lower crop yield. The excessive vine growth can be pruned manually to promote higher female: male ratio, however, on commercial scale vine growth can be kept in reasonable limit by adjusting the fertilizer doses and frequency of irrigation. It is better to complete all the fertilizer applications just before the fruit set.
8. Irrigation Requirements
for Luffa Cultivation:
The irrigation requirement of Luffa depends upon the type of soil, location, humidity, temperature, wind velocity, wind current direction, and other weather conditions. The first irrigation is applied a day or two prior to the sowing of seeds and the next light irrigation 4-5 days after sowing. Irrigation should not flood the hills where seeds are sown; otherwise surface crust formation may preclude the emergence of seedlings.
Mulching of seed hills after sowing with dry grass, compost, sugarcane tresses, crop residues, or polyethylene film reduces the moisture loss and prevents the crust formation at the time of seedling emergence. The subsequent irrigations should be given at 4-5 days interval in summer, however, in rainy season, it may not be necessary if rainfall is well distributed. The objective should be to keep the root zone moist for rapid development of taproot system.
The irrigation at frequent interval promotes excessive vegetative growth, particularly in heavy soils. The irrigation water should not wet the vegetative parts, especially when flowering, fruit-set, and fruit-development is in progress. The water use efficiency can be doubled with drip irrigation than that of conventional method.
9. Intercultural Operations
of Luffa:
After completion of emergence, two healthy seedlings should be retained on a hill. Weeds can be controlled with two hoeings before spreading the vines on the beds. Soil incorporation of Fluchloralin or Trifluralin (0.75-1.5 kg/ha) or Bensulide (5-8 kg/ha) weedicide before two weeks of sowing or Butachlor (1.0 kg/ha) or Chloramban (2-3 kg/ha) as pre-emergence and Naptalam (2-4 kg/ha) as post emergence after first weeding proved better in controlling weeds of cucurbitaceous vegetables.
Use of Plant Growth Regulators:
Sponge gourd is monoecious in nature, therefore, has a highly variable range of staminate to pistillate flowers ratio. Although sex expression and sex ratio in sponge gourd are genetically governed but are greatly influenced by temperature, day length, relative humidity, soil moisture, nutrients, and other management practices.
All these factors influence synthesis of ethylene in comparison to gibberellins, which are responsible for induction of pistillate and staminate flowers, respectively. Hence, this ratio is amenable to change by modifying environmental factors, using growth regulators, and applying plant nutrients.
Exogenous application of growth regulators effectively influences the growth, yield, and quality of Luffa. Spray of ethrel 2000 ppm suppressed the shoot growth, while ethrel 500-1000 ppm resulted in increased number of branches. As per Saimbhi (1976), repeated sprays of ethrel 460 ppm reduced the plant growth in ridge gourd. The seed treatment or foliar application of ethrel 250 ppm reduced the inter-nodal length in ridge gourd.
The foliar spray of ethrel 100-250 ppm at 2-4 leaf stage for 2-3 times increased the number of pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers in sponge and ridge gourds. Application of NAA 100 ppm, Alar 200 ppm, Planofix 200 ppm, Potassium nitrate 1000 ppm, Penicillin 100 ppm and 2-chloro ethyl phosphonic acid 480 ppm also influenced the yield and quality traits of Luffa. The seed yield of Luffa is increased with 750 ppm cycocel.
10. Harvesting
and Yielding of Luffa:
Fruits of both these species become ready for harvest within 55-60 days of sowing. The growth of Luffa fruits is faster and it attains optimum size within 12-15 days of fertilization. Therefore, fruits should be harvested when reaches about one-forth to one-third in size of the full growth and are still green and non-spongy. The harvesting of long fruited varieties of ridge gourd depends upon the tenderness, not upon the size of the fruit.
Since Luffa fruits are highly perishable in nature, care should be taken during harvesting, pre- cooling, grading, packaging, and transportation. Graded fruits should be of desirable size, uniform shape and colour and free from mechanical injuries. Fruits infested by insect-pests, particularly fruit fly, and diseases should be discarded while packaging for marketing.
Fruits should be properly cleaned (but not with water) before packaging in mulberry or bamboo baskets, corrugated fiber boxes, jute sacks, or in plastic crates for sending to the destination markets. The shelf life of Luffa is only for two days under shade at room temperature.
The sponge used for bathing purpose can be easily separated from skin and flesh by immersing the dry fruits in water for few days. Freezing or boiling water can also be used for this purpose. Once cleansed of seeds and flesh, the fibrous network is dried and for some purposes, it is bleached in hydrogen peroxide solution.
The raising of seed crop is similar to that of cucurbitaceous vegetables, except that of difference in harvesting stage of the fruit. Fruits are allowed to mature physiologically on the plant rather than harvesting at horticultural maturity. Seeds are extracted when fruits are dry and seed rattle inside the shell. After cleaning, dry seed is packed and stored at low temperature and low humidity. The best time for raising the seed crop is summer rather than the rainy season, since harvesting and extraction of seed is convenient in the dry spell.
Sponge gourd and ridge gourd requires 1000 meter isolation distance between two varieties of same species. The undesirable or off-type plants are identified and removed at vegetative, flowering, fruiting, and maturity stages. The average seed yield of Luffa is 200-250 g per plant.
The yield of Luffa depends upon the species, variety, growing season, soil type, nutrition, and cultural practices followed for raising the crop. On an average, Luffa bears 15-30 fruits per vine and yields 100-200 quintals per hectare. Mainly, the number of fruit per vine and length of fruit determine the yield of Luffa, whereas, days to flowering, days to harvesting and fruit girth play secondary role.
11. Cultivated Varieties
of Luffa:
A large variation exists in size and shape of fruits of sponge gourd as well as of ridge gourd. In south India, larger fruits are preferred, whereas, in north, the shorter fruits are chosen. Some strains bear fruits as long as a yard and others are of few inches size.
Description of improved varieties released by various institutes/universities is as under:
i. Pusa Chickni:
An early maturing high yielding variety developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi through a selection from Bihar collection having smooth dark green cylindrical fruits. It bears flowers 45 days after sowing and 15-20 fruits per vine. It is suitable for cultivation in both the seasons. The average yield is 80 quintal per hectare.
An early maturing variety developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi through a selection from local material has a field tolerance to heat and fruit fly. Each vine bears 8-10 succulent, non-hairy, 20-25 cm long, dark green fruits with narrow linings. It takes 45 days in Kharif season and 55 days in spring-summer for first picking of fruits. Its average yield is 122 quintal per hectare.
A variety developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi is suitable for cultivation in both the seasons. It bears 12-16 fruits per vine and takes 50 days for first picking. Fruits are distinctly pale green, non-hairy, medium in size (15-20 cm), straight and slightly curved at stem end with smooth and tender endocarp. Its average yield is 140 quintal per hectare.
A variety developed at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana is suitable for planting in spring- summer and rainy season. It bears long, tender, smooth, and dark green fruits. Each vine bears 15-18 fruits. It takes 60 days from transplanting to first picking, and gives an average yield of 163 quintal per hectare.
A variety developed at Mahatama Phule Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Rahuri through a selection from local germplasm of Maharashtra is suitable for growing in both the seasons. The fruits colour is green with dark green sutures and white flesh. The average yield is 150 quintal per hectare.
i. HRG-14:
An early maturing variety with dark green foliage developed at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar through pedigree selection from a cross between HRG-2 × HRG-7 takes 40-50 days for first picking. Its fruits are dark green, long, thin, sharply edged, slightly curved, and uniform in length with cream-white flesh. The average yield is 108 quintal per hectare.
A variety developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi through a selection from the material collected from Madhya Pradesh bears light green, medium sized and club shaped fruits and takes 60 days from sowing to first flowering. It bears 15-20 fruits per vine. The average yield is 150 quintal per hectare.
A variety developed at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi bears long, thick, green, ridged, tender, and slightly curved fruits that are rich in protein. It bears 10-15 fruits per vine and takes 50 days for first picking. The average yield is 125 quintal per hectare.
A variety tolerant to downy mildew developed at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore bears light green, attractive, and round fruits weighing 100 g per fruit, and each vine bears 40-50 fruits. It is ready for first harvest in 55 days of sowing, and has an average yield of 400 quintal per hectare. The fruits have good cooking quality, especially for stuffing.
A variety with moderately vigorous plants developed at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore takes 55 days to first harvest and bears 10-12 fruits per vine. Fruits are light green in colour with broader stylar end than stalk end. Average fruit length is 45-60 cm with 700 g weight. The average yield is 140 quintal per hectare in duration of 125 days.
A variety with vigorous plants developed at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore bears 8-10 fruits per vine. Green fruits with less seeds, high Ca and Fe content are super long with 90-100 cm length weighing 800 g per fruit. The average yield is 250 quintal per hectare in duration of 120 days.
A variety tolerant to powdery mildew, fruit flies, and red pumpkin beetle developed through mutation breeding takes 60 days to first harvest and bears dark green with shallow grooves, 70-80 cm length, 300 g weight and club shaped fruits. The average yield is 280 quintal per hectare in crop duration of 160 days.
A local strain with hermaphrodite flowers cultivated in Bihar bears small pale green fruits in clusters. In each cluster 5-7 fruits are borne. The average fruit yield is 200 quintal per hectare. It is mainly cultivated in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
A variety developed through selection in Maharashtra gives first harvest 45 days after sowing and bears dark green 30-45 cm long fruits that are tapering at both the ends. Each vine bears 10-12 fruits with an average yield of 120 quintal per hectare.