CHINESE CONTAINER GARDENS - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 201

Luffa, page 44
Luffa acutangula
This is not a plant for indoors unless you have a bay window you want to turn into a
jungle. On a terrace it would be spectacular, but you could grow a number of cucumbers
or melons instead of one of these vines.
Sow seeds in a really large container (5 gallons minimum) three weeks after the last
frost date. Plant 1 inch deep with three or four seeds to a container. Thin to one plant
per container as soon as the third set of true leaves appears.
Keep the soil moist for the two or more weeks the seeds take to germinate. Protect
the seeds and young seedlings if the nights turn chilly. This is strictly a warm-weather
vegetable; if you need a sweater, so will luffa.
Fertilize weekly; this plant grows rampantly. Water copiously. Add a little lime from
time to time because you constantly leach it out with watering, and the soil should be
slightly alkaline.
Bitter Melon, page 48
Momordica charantia
Bitter melon is often grown purely as an ornamental and is worth a spotlight position
since it is spectacular both in the flowering and in the fruiting stage. The copious wa-
tering it requires is much easier to provide in containers than in conventional in-the-
ground gardens. In a container, you know that all the water is going to the melon roots,
not into surrounding soil.
Bitter melon is a trellis plant, whether outdoors or in a greenhouse or sunroom, and
requires full sun. The melons are small enough that they don't require support. The reas-
on for growing the vines up a support is to keep them from taking up all your garden
space.
Sow seeds 1 inch deep in a really large container (5 gallons is the minimum size,
larger is better). Fertilize when flowers appear, and again as the fruits form.