Snake gourd

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Project experiments for 1998 / 1999

Snake Gourd Links

• Purdue University, Indiana
• GPPIS (FAO)

Species: Trichosanthes anguina L.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Crop status: New

Varieties

Darwin producers mostly use open pollinated seed.

Production

Grown commercially in NT, Qld and NSW (Lee 1995).

Climate: Suitable for humid lowland tropics (Gildemacher et al. 1994). Grown from late March to June near Darwin (Kevin Blackburn 1998, pers. comm.). Short daylength promotes growth (Robinson and Decker-Walters 1996).

Temperature: Optimum of 30-35°C with a minimum of 20°C (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Soil preparation: Preferable to grow on raised beds or ridges (Lim 1998).

Seed: Seed is heavier from larger fruit, producing heavier seedlings. Germination is not affected (Devadas et al. 1998).

Plant density: Producers in the Northern Territory grow at 60 cm between plants and 1.5 m between rows (Lim 1998). Sowing requires 4-6 kg / ha (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Trellising: Grown on 2 m high overhead trellises. Climbers must be trained up the vertical supports (Lim 1998). A small weight can be tied to developing fruit to make them grow straight (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Nutrition: Plants respond well to fertiliser, but too much nitrogen can lead to excessive vine growth (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Water: Snake gourd requires a good moisture reserve in the soil, but is sensitive to water logging. Therefore frequent irrigation is necessary (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Flowering: The proportion of female flowers can be increased by pruning (Gildemacher et al. 1994) or application of 150 ppm Ethrel (Ramaswamy et al. 1976). Application of 0.1-0.2% potassium naphthenate on 18 day old plants increased the number of fruits per plant by 20% (Uddin et al. 1986).

Harvest: Picked 3-4 weeks after fruit set at 30-70 cm long, while they are still green and tender (Lim 1998). Harvesting for seed occurs later, at around 35 days (Lakshminarayana et al. 1982)

Yield: 8-10 tons / ha. Fruit weighs 0.5 to 1.0 kg. 6-10 fruit can be harvested from a traditional cultivar, and up to 50 from an improved cultivar (Gildemacher et al. 1994).

Postharvest

Temperature: Store at 15-18°C (Lim 1998).

Relative humidity: Fruit store well under high humidity (Lim 1998).

Shelf life: 2-3 weeks (TK Lim 1998, pers. comm.).

Pests and diseases

Potential viruses are listed at Plant viruses online (Brunt et al. 1996).

Figure 1: High and low prices of snake gourd at Flemington Markets during 1996 (green), 1997 (blue) and the first half of 1998 (red), recorded on a half monthly basis (Flemington Market Reporting Service, NSW Agriculture).

Markets

(click here for exchange rates).

Development potential was rated as low due to the minimal amount of information available (Vinning 1995). Northern Territory growers receive between $2.00 and $3.00 / kg on the local market (Lim 1998).

Chinese use it for a range of medicinal purposes (see Yang and Walters 1992).

Sri Lanka produced 259 969 tons from 3046 ha in 1987 (Lim 1998).

References

Brunt, A.A., Crabtree, K., Dallwitz, M.J., Gibbs, A.J., Watson, L. and Zurcher, E.J. (eds.) (1996 onwards). `Plant Viruses Online: Descriptions and Lists from the VIDE Database. Version: 16th January 1997.'

Devadas, V. S., Rani, T. G., Kuriakose, K. J., Seena, P. G. and Gopalakrishnan, T. R. (1998). Effect of fruit grading on seed quality in snakegourd (Trichosanthes anguina L.). Horticultural Journal 11(1): 103-108.

Gildemacher, B. H., Jansen, G. J. and Chayamarit, K. (1994). Trichosanthes L. In: Plant Resources of South-East Asia: Vegetables. (Ed.: Siemonsma, J. S. and K. Piluek). Wageningen, The Netherlands, Pudoc Scientific Publishers 194-197.

Lakshminarayana, G., Kaimal, T. N. B., Mani, V. V. S., Devi, K. S. and Rao, T. C. (1982). Fatty acid changes during maturation of Momordica charantia and Trichosanthes anguina seeds. Phytochemistry 21(2): 301-303.

Lee, B. (1995). Audit of the Australian Asian vegetables industry. RIRDC Research Paper No. 95/13. Canberra, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation 97 pp.

Lim, T. K. (1998). Loofahs, gourds, melons and snake beans. The New Rural Industries. Ed.: K. W. Hyde. Canberra, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation: 212-218.

Ramaswamy, N., Govindaswamy, C. V. and Ramanujam, C. (1976). Effect of 'Ethrel' and 'Planofix' on flowering and yield of snake gourd (Trichosanthes anguina L.). Auara 6: 187-189.

Robinson, R. W. and Decker-Walters, D. S. (1996). Cucurbits. New York, CAB International 226 pp.

Uddin, M. S., Fattah, Q. A. and Huq, S. (1986). Effect of potassium naphthenate on yield of snake gourd. Bangladesh Horticulture 14(1): 40-41.

Vinning, G. (1995). Market Compendium of Asian Vegetables. RIRDC Research Paper No. 95/12. Canberra, Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation 386 pp.

Yang, S. L. and T. W. Walters (1992). Ethnobotany and the economic role of the Cucurbitaceae of China. Economic Botany 46: 349-367.