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Asian Vegetables
xman_gw

Parwal: How to tell if male or female

xman
11 years ago

Hello,

I have a few parwal plants that are a couple of months old, is there anyway to tell which is male or female? or do I have to wait till they flower?

Parwal Plants

{{gwi:388552}}

thanks,

xman

Featured Answer
  • xman
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi,

    I had a question from another member on how/where I got these Parwal plant...so here are the steps incase somebody else is interested in growing these.

    I actually grew them from seeds. I have been trying to grow Parwal for the last few years, but was not successful till now. In fact I got about a hundred seeds from a Professor in Georgia who was doing some research on these, but none sprouted.


    This year I tried something new and got almost 90% of the seeds to sprout. Here what I did

    1) Go to an Indian store that sells vegetables, and pick parwals that are mature (2 or 4 are enough). Look for ones that look fully developed and have a little yellow color showing on the skin. These are easy to find.

    2) Make sure the parwal are dry (usually they have these soaking in water), if not dry them out with a paper towel.

    3) Place these in a bag of rice (not cooked rice:) ), and in the pantry or something for a few days.

    4) Check every couple of days to make sure you do not have mold growing, you will actually see them changing to a full yellow/orange color very quickly.

    5) The parwal will also start to dry out, and the skin will start to become dry like paper.

    6) After a few days it will fully dry out, at this stage you can keep it out in the kitchen for a few days.

    7) Tear open the Parwal and remove the seeds (seed will be black in color and quite large). Remove all the pulp sticking to the seeds with a paper towel.

    8) Let the seed sit out in the kitchen to dry a couple of days.

    9) Get the soil ready for planting (well drained soil).

    10) Take a container (like a glass) and fill it with lukewarm water from the tap and soak the seeds for 24 hours.

    11) Parwal seeds have a very hard coat so you will have to nick it before planting. I use a large nail cutter for this.

    12) Take the seeds out of the water and dry them with a paper towel, and then using the nail cutter nick a small hole in the seed coat. Do not cut near the growing end, cut into the opposite side.

    Here's how: Hold a seed between your thumb and forefinger. With the other hand, hold the clippers at an angle so that you use one end of the blade, then clip your seed. Your goal is to make a slice through the brown top coat of the seed, not to take a chunk out. Sometimes you can barely see the nick you made and sometimes a piece of the seed coat cracks off and you see the lighter colored inner seed. Both are correct!

    13) Now soak the seeds again in some fresh lukewarm water for 24 hours.

    14) Take the seeds out and plant in the soil at about .25 inch deep. Make sure you keep it in a safe place because rats and squirrels like to dig the seeds out and eat them.

    15) Plants will sprout in about 10 days. Do not water too much, the plants are very hardy.

    16) Plants will not fruit in the first year if grown from seed. There are male and female plants, and for the fruit to develop you need both.

    17) Plants go dormant in winter, and you will have to bring it inside unless you live in Florida or above zone 8


    Hope this helps..let me know if you have any questions.
    xman

    Comments (61)

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