[Assam] Bhat Kerela Tragedy

[Ganesh Bora]

Dilip da,

I think, it is a matter of pollination! The pollens can be tranfered from another plant (cross pollination) or the same plant (self pollination). As there are not many plants, so there is no cross pollination through wind or insect. Now, somehow if you can induce self pollination, it might work. The self pollination can be through tying two or more flowers tilting towards each other! May be the "Mekhela" can help to create self pollination!!!

We were successful for "Bhul" in Florida by tying many flowers to face each other.

Ganesh





________________________________
From: Dilip and Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com>
To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world <assam at assamnet.org>
Sent: Tue, June 15, 2010 9:28:18 PM
Subject: [Assam] Bhat Kerela Tragedy

We got a Bhat Kerela Alu from Assam, planted it, saw beautiful deep green creepers climbing on the oak trees, saw gazillions of flowers.
But the flowers did not produce the Kerelas that we wanted. The story repeated for about five years. The plant (now plants) comes back every spring and I hack them off wherever I see them - I am that mad at the unisexual behavior of the plant.
Does anybody know a remedy? One of our friends from Assam (Tinsukia to be precise) suggested I put a Mekhela on the plant. Does it work?
And if so, why and how? My scientific mind tells me that the same plant (now several) must produce male and female flowers to produce fruits.
Dilip, Houston, TX