Not only does the Bitter melon have certain preferences regarding how much water it receives, but it also cares deeply about how you provide that water. In fact, if you don't use the proper watering technique, you risk harming your tomatoes. The best way to water Bitter melon is to apply the water directly to the soil in a slow and gentle manner. You should not pour all of the water into the soil at once, and you should not do overhead watering for your Bitter melon. Although you should water slowly, you should also water deeply to ensure that all of the soil in which your Bitter melon grows is sufficiently moist.

If you find that you have overwatered your Bitter melon and you are concerned about the associated risk of disease, you should intervene immediately. Often the best approach for an overwatered Bitter melon is to uproot it from its current growing location. Once the plant is out of the ground, you can allow its roots to dry a bit before planting it in a new growing location. Ensure that the new growing location has soil with good drainage. If you grow in pots, you may also want to move your plant to a pot with more or larger drainage holes. In the case of underwatering, all you will need to do is increase the frequency with which you supply water to your plant.

Overall, Bitter melon requires a significant amount of water throughout the growing season. To meet that high water need, you'll need to water early and often throughout the spring and summer. During the earlier parts of the growing season, you should water your Bitter melon about once or twice per week. As the season progresses, you should increase your watering frequency. You may need to water it twice per day or more during summer, depending on the weather. After your Bitter melon have gone through their major seasonal growth phases, you can reduce the frequency of your watering to about once per week until the end of the growing season.

Since Bitter melon are incredibly popular, with many professional and amateur gardeners growing them successfully, we have a pretty clear idea of how to care for these plants. That understanding includes specific knowledge about the precise volume of water an average Bitter melon should receive. Generally, Bitter melon will require about 1 - 1.5 inches of water per week. That volume should be dispersed evenly through your weekly watering. As the weather gets warmer, you may need to supply more water, but in most cases, two inches per week is a good baseline amount.

Underwatering and overwatering can both occur as problems for your Bitter melon, and both these problems can manifest with similar symptoms. For example, foliage discoloration and wilting can both result from either overwatering or underwatering. When your Bitter melon is underwatered, its leaves will be curling and drooping at the beginning. You will see a bunch of leaves turn less vigorous. Underwatering is also likely to cause stunted growth and poor overall development as both the flowers and this plant require a high amount of water. Overwatering is more likely to lead to disease, including rot. Overwatering may also lead to unpleasant smells rising from your plant's soil. The symptoms of underwatering will show up quicker than overwatering. Overwatering can also be evident in soil conditions. Mainly, if you notice a lot of standing water or waterlogged soils, overwatering is likely to occur.

As alluded to above, your Bitter melon's water needs will repeatedly change throughout the seasons. During most of spring and summer, you should water your Bitter melon about once every week. As the heat of summer arrives, you should plan to increase your watering frequency to once or twice per day. In the late summer and fall, towards the end of the harvest period, you can reduce your watering frequency to about once per week. After harvest has ended, you can cease watering as your Bitter melon has reached the end of its life cycle and will require no further soil moisture. The maintenance schedule of Bitter melon will require you to alter the amount of water you provide depending on the plant's current growth stage. Early on, especially if you grow your Bitter melon from seeds, you'll need to provide water often enough to maintain consistent soil moisture, which encourages root development. When the plant becomes old enough to produce flowers, it will likely need even more water. During the fruit development growth stage, your Bitter melon will likely need the most water out of any growth period, at times requiring water more than twice per day. Following that phase, the water needs of Bitter melon will decline significantly.

Whether you grow Bitter melon indoors or outdoors can also play a role in how you water them. Bitter melon that grows outdoors may receive water from natural rainfall, which will reduce the amount of supplemental water you should supply. However, it is incredibly rare for rainfall to adequately replace your watering entirely. Plants that grow indoors, along with any Bitter melon that grows in a container, will need to be watered more frequently than those that grow in the ground outdoors. If you choose this route, please make sure that the plant gets enough water by checking the soil moisture within your pot often to keep your Bitter melon healthy.

Bitter melon is a kind of annual plant so it doesn't need much pruning. You only need to cut off and clean the diseased, yellow or dropped leaves and stems during its growing period. This will help your Bitter melon to stay away from pathogens infection.

During the growth of the plant, yellowing, drying and spotted leaves are produced, and these spotted and discolored leaves need to be trimmed off. If the whole piece of leave is discolored or infected, you will need to cut it off completely. In other situations, you will only need to cut off the discolored or infected part on certain leaves. Bitter melon above the ground will die and dry up in the winter, and the dead plants need to be cleaned up.

Bitter melon leaves are delicate, so take care not to score or bruise them. Unless the leaves are withered or heavily discolored, do not prune the leaves from the lowermost branches unless they’re damaged. They typically grow the largest, so they supply the plant with critical energy to keep it growing right. Please prevent the wounds from water after pruning until they are fully recovered. Remember always sterilize the tools before pruning. When the pruning is finished, please throw all the waste leaves and stems into the trashbins to avoid diseases and bugs.

Sterilize all the tools before pruning; unclean tools will pass pathogens to the plant through wounds; Prune on sunny days because the new cuts will be infected by pathogens if they're distained by rain or water. Throw all the waste leaves and stems into trashbins, they will easily rot and attract diseases and bugs

Expect to prune your Bitter melon every week if it’s growing well or every two weeks if it grows slowly. It is always good to prune it on sunny days because if you prune it on rainy days, the rainwater will distain the cuts and cause the whole plant to be infected.

Because Bitter melon is an annual plant, the pruning should take place basically during the seasons that the plant grows rapidly. During the growth of the plant, yellowing, drying and spotted leaves are produced, and these spotted and discolored leaves need to be trimmed off.

Exact needs vary, but a minimum of 6 to 8 hours per day is a good rule of thumb for Bitter melon to grow and produce fruit.

Bitter melon requires full sun, meaning that it should be grown in a location that gets direct sunlight that isn’t blocked by obstacles such as trees, fences, or buildings. In general, the faster the plant grows, the more hours of sunlight it will need. Morning sun is best for photosynthesis.

Bitter melon should not need to be protected from the sun in most climates. Those who live in a desert or near the equator may find that the sun is too harsh for the types of plants they want to grow, but this is the exception.

All plants need sunlight to convert into energy. Plants that have a short growing season need even more light and energy than those that grow slowly, as they need to complete all their processes to grow and produce fruit within just a few months. The first symptoms of insufficient sunlight in Bitter melon are pale and yellow leaves that are not able to generate enough chlorophyll to keep their healthy green color. The leaves may eventually fall off, and new growth is small and weak. The plant may become leggy and sparse as it stretches toward the available light. Finally, without enough light the plant will not be able to produce large, high-quality edible leaves or fruit. Bitter melon needs to devote a lot of energy into growing leaves and fruits, so if there isn’t enough light available for it to convert, the harvest will suffer.

Bitter melon can get sunburned from intense sunlight, especially when coupled with high temperatures and not having enough water. Afternoon sun tends to be most likely to burn plants. Scalded leaves develop faded patches of light brown to white on the areas at the top of the plant that are exposed to the most sun. They are especially vulnerable to this right after being transplanted from a shadier location to being in full sun. Transitioning plants gradually or providing them with a barrier while they are adjusting can help prevent sunscald in young plants. In many cases, Bitter melon develops leaves that are large enough to protect fruits from the strongest rays of the sun. However, if intense sunlight is in contact with fruits, they can also be damaged. Avoid over-pruning those protective leaves so that the fruits don’t get burned.

Bitter melon may become unbalanced if it gets significantly more light on one side than the other. Ideally, you can plant your Bitter melon in a location away from obstacles that might block light, and where the distribution of sunlight is even on all sides. Be careful about planting tall species next to those that grow closer to the ground. It may not be obvious when the crops are first planted, but over time the taller plants may begin to block the amount of sunlight that can reach the shorter plants. Morning sun helps to dry dew and precipitation, which helps prevent infection from diseases that can develop when water sits on the plant. If you are watering or irrigating your Bitter melon, this should be done in the morning.

There is an ideal temperature range that makes Bitter melon feel at home. Under these temperature conditions, it's unlikely that you’ll have any issues with cold or hot damage to the foliage, but changing leaf colors can absolutely be a sign that Bitter melon isn’t happy. Try to keep your Bitter melon well within its preferred range of 70-85℉(21-30℃), but don’t panic if the temperature creeps up past 85℉(30℃) during the day or down to 70℉(21℃) at night.

If your Bitter melon happens to be planted outside, then there’s not much you can do to try to move it indoors. However, you can certainly provide cover in ways that will help it survive any extreme temperatures that may arise unexpectedly. For instance, you can always use a few stakes and some cloth to put together a shade tent that will block out much of the sun’s intense heat from direct sunlight exposure. Similarly, Bitter melon can be protected from the extreme cold and especially chilly winds by building a small greenhouse around the plant, which will create a greenhouse effect and warm the plant up. This can be done using garden stakes and any sort of clear or translucent plastic you may have around; if you have greenhouse plastic such as polycarbonate laying around, this works perfectly. Remove the greenhouse once temperatures warm up to 40℉(10℃) at night.

Generally speaking, Bitter melon needs to stay within its preferred temperature range all year long. However, that doesn’t mean that care should stay the same all year long. During the warmest months of the year, Bitter melon will need a little extra shade and a bit more of a breeze to help it cope with the hottest days. On the other hand, it may need to be moved away from chilly windows and doors during the cooler months in climates where temperatures drop below 40℉(10℃) at any point in the year.

Keeping your Bitter melon at the right temperature can be fairly simple. Depending on where you grow it, Bitter melon can be fairly easy to accommodate. For indoor growing, you can easily move the plant to different locations within your indoor space that best meet its temperature requirements. Avoid placing it near air conditioning vents, heaters, doors that open frequently, or drafty windows. It is a little more difficult to control the temperature around your Bitter melon if it’s grown outside. Of course, if it’s planted in a pot, you can simply bring it indoors when the temperatures outside get too hot or too cold for Bitter melon, but otherwise, you may need to take different measures to protect it from extreme heat or cold that may damage it irreversibly. Try placing Bitter melon under cover to protect from both the harsh sun that can overheat it and any cold wind that could be potentially deadly for your plant.

Naturally every type of plant requires nutrients to grow properly, but when we grow Bitter melon for its fruit, the harvest will be best if the soil is supplemented to provide more of what plants need. Each of the main macronutrients provides something different to plants. Phosphorus is the key nutrient that promotes the formation of flowers and fruit. Of course, a plant cannot produce flowers and fruit without a proper root system and healthy leaves to absorb sunlight, so the nutrients that support those parts of the plant are also necessary. Without enough of the necessary macronutrients, plants lack vitality, grow more slowly, and may wilt. Plants have to devote a lot of energy to flowering and fruiting, so if they are lacking in these main components that support their processes the resulting fruits will show that deficiency as well.

Bitter melon is a summer crop, and needs to be planted in the spring to produce fruits during the summer months. Check the specific variety to see when it should be planted. Bitter melon requires rich, fertile soil to yield high quality produce. Before planting, mix a 2 inch layer of compost or well-rotted manure into the soil. These materials add nutrients to the soil that can help kick-start growth for your Bitter melon, and also increase the drainage of the soil. Transplants can be fertilized immediately after planting, but seedlings should reach a height of 2 to 4 inches before being fertilized for the first time. For established plants, feed about every 3 to 4 weeks throughout the growing season, until the first frost or when the plant stops producing. Check the specific fertilizer type as well as the variety of Bitter melon to be sure that you are customizing your fertilization schedule to your situation. It is always better to fertilize less if you are not sure.

Avoid giving Bitter melon a fertilizer with too much nitrogen, since this can lead to development of plenty of leaves but not many blooms or fruits. Look for fertilizer with a lower level of nitrogen compared to other nutrients. Don’t fertilize Bitter melon when temperatures are high or when conditions are very dry. Doing so can cause the fertilizer to wash through the soil without being absorbed. Plants also have less ability to absorb nutrients during hot weather, which can allow the fertilizer to stay in the soil and prevent the plants from being able to take up water. This can be dangerous to plants during a drought or heatwave.

The best way to know what kind of fertilizer your Bitter melon needs is to first determine what is already plentiful in your soil and what might be lacking. The best way to understand this is to use a soil test to better understand your soil composition, although many people are able, through trial and error, to successfully grow Bitter melon without doing a test. You can find a commercial fertilizer specifically for almost any variety of Bitter melon, but it’s not necessary to purchase a different one for every vegetable you decide to grow. If you can determine their basic needs along with what is already available in your soil, you will be able to use the same fertilizer for many different plants. Many growers like to use a high-phosphorus fertilizer that supports flowers and fruits. High-phosphorus fertilizers are those that have an NPK ratio in which the middle number is highest, such as 8-32-16 or 10-30-10. That said, some people just use a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 for all of their garden plants to keep things simple.

Different types of fertilizer will come with their own individual instructions, including the need to dilute some varieties or carefully measure out others. Be sure to follow these instructions carefully and do your research so you can avoid over fertilizing your garden. If your Bitter melon is planted in a row, the side-dressing method can be used to be sure that fertilizer reaches the roots but no fertilizer touches the plant itself. This method involves mixing the fertilizer into the soil along the rows on either side, about 3 to 4 inches away from the base of the plant. Water then washes the nutrients into the soil and down to the roots. If side-dressing does not work for the configuration of your garden, you can always apply your fertilizer to the soil around the plant, again staying about 3 to 4 inches away. Granular type fertilizers can be scattered onto the soil, then lightly mixed in to make sure they are incorporated where you want them. Water thoroughly after applying dry fertilizers. Liquid fertilizers are mixed into a watering can and the mixture is used to water and fertilize plants at the same time. Foliar feeding involves spraying the leaves with a specialized fertilizer mix instead of putting nutrients into the soil.

Over-fertilizing Bitter melon can lead to root burn and even the death of the entire plant in extreme cases. More often, the plant will develop a lot of lush green foliage, but the flowering and fruiting will be reduced. With more leaves, there is also the danger of inviting more pests that feed on your Bitter melon. It is possible to over-fertilize with both natural fertilizers or chemical fertilizers, although the latter is more common. Nitrogen is the most likely to cause problems but any nutrient in excess will cause similar problems. When using multiple types of fertilizer of soil amendment, make sure you understand everything that they will be introducing to your soil. If you add several different soil amendments that all contain the same nutrient, you could overdo it before you realize what has happened. Finally, it is important to avoid applying too much fertilizer as it can pollute groundwater. Unused nitrogen is not absorbed into the soil, so it can drain into nearby water sources and cause high concentrations of nitrates. High levels of nitrogen-nitrate are unhealthy for human and animal consumption, so it is very important to only use as much fertilizer as plants need.