Indian farmer grows 2.5 feet bitter gourd, eyes to enter Guinness Book of Records

An Indian farmer Lal Singh has, perhaps, produced the largest known bitter gourd measuring 2.5 feet in length. That’s not all. Almost every bitter gourd in his farm measure between 15 to 24 inches, which is higher than the average size between 6 and 12 inches for commonly found crop in market.

The farmer is a resident of Thana village of district Kangra in Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The region is already known for its bumper vegetable crops such as cucumber, bottle gourd, and bitter gourd in Northern India. Agriculture is the biggest economy for the state followed by tourism industry.

Lal Singh claims that he has used no pesticides or chemical fertilizer to grow the crop. All he used was cow dung manure.

Lal Singh’s crop is attracting a lot of attention in local market. Owing to such a positive feedback, Singh plans to produce quality seeds to be distributed among other farmers for free. “I didn’t sell the bitter gourd crop in the mandi. Initially, I distributed it to my family members, but now after its unprecedented growth I have decided to produce quality seeds of this bumper vegetable crop. The seeds will be distributed among the local farmers free of cost,” Sing said.

Now, Singh is eyeing to get this achievement recorded in Gunnies or Limca Book of Records. However, official status regarding the crop remains to be verified by Dr YS Parmar Horituclutre University of HP.

So far, the largest known bitter gourd was produced by Gurdial Singh Kanwal, a Brampton based man. It measured about 18.5-inches including some two inches of branch on the top. Also, it was the first bitter melon to enter in the Guinness Book of Records.