Kantola Spiny gourd propagation

Kantoal is one of  our traditional vegetable in Local context it is known as Thumba karavila. Scientifically Kantola call as (Momordica dioica), commonly known as spiny gourd or spine gourd. this vegetable is famed for its medicinal properties. specially Kantoala vegetable can control blood sugar level. 

	Nutrient	weight
1	Moisture	84.1g
2	Carbohydrate	7.7g
3	Protein	3.1g
4	Fat	3.1g
5	Fiber	3g
6	Mineral	1.1g
7	ascorbic acid, carotene, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin	Small quantities

it has very nice life cycle. 

if you want to cultivate this plant you can 

1. sow seeds
2. propagate from mature vine cutting 
3. plant dormant  tubers

Sow seeds take long time for germinate in natural condition. if you treat seeds by warm water soaking over night period seeds will germinate within 3 to 5 days time. Seeds can remain dormant more than one year live. but generally some seeds germinate after around one month natural condition. negative factor of this method is you cant determine plant gender. Kantola naturally bear only one kind of flowers ether male or female. in order to have fertile crop you will need both male and female vine in 1 to 8 ratio. when you plant seed plants you cant do it because at early age you cant differentiate male plant from female plant both are same morphological. 

Kantola Seed Plant 

propagate from mature vine cutting

Kantoala can propagate from mature vine cuttings. by this methods you can obtain good plant stock based on production performance and tolerance to natural factors. most important factor is you can have both male and female plants in required numbers.

first select parent plants and select vine that is not very old and not very immature. this selected vine need to cut into peaces that contain three leaf knots with leafs and remove one leaf. then make a angle cut at the lower end of the stem cutting and apply a rooting hormone to induce rooting. ( you can plant without rooting hormone if you like) then plant prepared stem cutting in small pot. and leave it in a propagator for 21 days and then acclimatize small plants to natural condition. this is call hardening. then you can plant in field.   

Plant dormant tubers 

Kantoala vine produce a sub soil tuber when it get mature and then die during the dry season and when next rain season come this tuber sprout and new vine comes out. some farmers use this dormant tubers for propagation. if this tubers not get infected by any deices then this tubers give strong plants that will bear fruits sooner than other two planting materials. and if you are properly remove the tubers then you can have male and female tubers separate.