The Effect of Cultivation Ways on Selected Morphological Characters of Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.) Transplants and Plants, Fruit Yield and Chemical Content.

Bitter gourd or bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is an unknown in Poland vegetable of the Chinese origin commonly used in Eastern Asia to feed and cure diabetic people. In the years 2012-2013, the investigations were carried out on preparing its transplants and growing it in Poland using two ways of cultivation: with the supporting sticks or lying directly on the ground. The received transplants and then plants were analyzed for their selected morphological characters. The collected fruits were analyzed for their ash, dry weight, total protein, fats and carbohydrates, Ca, Mg, K, Na, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu contents. The best transplants were those of 3 leaves, 7 cm high with the biggest leaf's width over 5 cm. The growing the species with the sticks lowered their total fruit yield but increased the weight of an individual fruit. When planting the transplants before June l^st, germinating seeds were produced. When planting after that time, fruit were set but seeds were not ripened. The fruits from plants grown with the sticks had lower dry matter and Mn contents than the ones lying on the ground. The way of cultivation of the plants had no effect on all other analyzed chemical elements and characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]