Be patient and look closely. They start out VERY small. Right behind the female flower it looks like a thick stem compered to the male flower. Follow up the vine checkng every flower stem and you should find the females too.

Be patient and.... be patient. The plants take a long time before they even start producing any fruit. It's normal.

It also helps when you don't look at it every day... ;)

Thanks a lot, I thought that something was wrong with my plants or something. I guess it doesn't help that I'm out there almost every day scoping out the plants for little melons! About how long does it take for a flower to develop from flower to melon?Thanks a lot for the responses!

vha7777,

All melon plants have male and female flowers. Female flowers have the melon from the beginning. They need to be pollinated (which will occur naturally - as it does in nature without human intervention) in order to get larger. So to answer your question, the females are melons from the start, it's just a question of how large you want it to be before you pick it. If I were you, I wouldn't be expecting melons to eat for another couple of months.

If you wish to read up on the plant, look here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Momordica charantia

When I was 12 my mom dug up rectangles of our backyard, and planted seeds of bitter melon (and Yard-Long beans too), we call it Ampalaya or Paria, and then she took the bamboo that was cleared from the sides of the roads and created horizontal trellises, and we had tons of fruits hanging from them. This being in Spain, where they weren't available and the fact that she's Filipino made even giving bitter melons to friends (mainly Filipino as well) special. :)
Be patient, you'll be fascinated watching the swollen stem grow into a real melon

i found my first bitter melon today! I'm excited, okay, just thought i would share. hopefully many more to come

GREAT!!!
Now you know what to look for and it will be easier to find more. Thanks for the update!

If you are in zone 7, as your name seems to imply, then it is rather unusual that you only get one fruit now. There are more things to watch than simply "be patient". Do you water a lot (you should, especially in these hot summer days), also do your plants have plenty of sun explosure? Bitter melon could be growing with lots of green leaves and yes, with lots of male flowers but not producing many fruits at all, if they are planted in shady area.

I think no fruit around July 5 in Zone 7 is legitimate. Of course a little common sense comes into play as always. The planting out date and environmental conditions will certainly make a difference.

I think I planted in too much shade, haha. That first melon was the only melon that I have gotten so far this summer and I left it on too long and it overrippened! Maybe it will be more productive later one? I've been giving it lots of water so I don't think that's a problem. There are still loads of flowers on it but I think they are all male. I will just have to try planting it somewhere else next year with a bit more sun. My friends have come over with buckets and buckets of them the other week, o well, better luck next time i guess!

vha7777,

As a general rule, anything that bears fruit or flowers requires at least 6 hours of full sun for optimum production.

Removing branches from the bottom part of the vine helps.Removing tips of the remaing branches are also helpful.This will reduce over load of vegetative growth from the vine for a while.If you have enough # of vines , give it a try to one or two of them.
Plant needs more energy in producing female flowers with little bulge of overy ( little swollen thing along with the flower ).

I have bitter melon/ gourd vine which produces only female flowers. Last one month regularly I have been noticing this. What should I do?

suchetamkhrj, Can you take some photos with your phone and post them here?