Rajendra Parwal-2
Listed as Rajendra Parwal-2 beside Rajendra Parwal-1 in pointed gourd variety lists. We found no release notice, fruit description, trial or yield figure; claims of its fruit number and size have no published source.
Quick facts
- Type
- Vine/root cutting
- Season
- All seasons
- Starts bearing
- Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting
- Seed rate
- Vine cuttings, with one male plant for ten female plants
- Expected yield
- No variety figure published; ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the Swarna varieties as a benchmark
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Disease resistance
- No variety-specific disease record found
- Release
- Name points to Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa (now Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University); no release notice or year found
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Rajendra Parwal-2 is a pointed gourd variety named in variety lists alongside Rajendra Parwal-1. The name points to Rajendra Agricultural University at Pusa, Bihar, now Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, but we found no release notice, year, fruit description, trial or yield figure. No source we could read says how it differs from Rajendra Parwal-1. Like every pointed gourd, it is grown from vine cuttings, it is dioecious, and a field needs one male plant for every ten female ones. The best published guide to what fruit number and fruit size mean for yield is the Bhubaneswar trial of 22 accessions in 2008-10.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Rajendra Parwal-2 only if you can see its mother vines in fruit and your buyer has asked for it. Variety lists name it next to Rajendra Parwal-1, but we found no release notice, year, fruit description, trial or yield figure for either. Sellers sometimes quote a very high number of small fruits for it, and no published source backs that number. The Bhubaneswar trial of 22 accessions shows why you should check: fruits per plant ran from 79.86 to 502, fruit weight from 14.31 to 37.98 g, and the group with the most fruits came second on yield per plant because its fruit was light. Count and weigh before you commit a hectare.
Sowing & cultivation
- Seed rateVine cuttings, with one male plant for ten female plants
- Spacing2 x 1 m in the Bhubaneswar trial; 1.5 x 1.5 m under a trellis in the ICAR Puri example
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Locally stocked in Bihar, so cuttings may be easy to find near you.
- Managed like the better-documented Swarna varieties, so the ICAR trellis and mulching practice carries over.
Things to consider
- No published fruit number, fruit weight, yield or disease record; a high fruit count quoted by a seller has no source.
- Many small fruits can cost you picking labour and may fetch a lower price per kilogram; ask your buyer first.
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Bihar
Many small fruits or fewer large ones
In the Bhubaneswar trial of 22 pointed gourd accessions, plants carried anywhere from 79.86 to 502 fruits, and a fruit weighed anywhere from 14.31 to 37.98 g. The group with the most fruits per plant, 466 on average, was second on yield per plant because its fruit was light. The group with the highest yield per plant, 9.59 kg on average, flowered in under 55 days and had heavier fruit, 32.78 g, and longer fruit, 8.72 cm. So a high fruit count alone does not mean a high yield, and it does not mean more money.
Check three things before you trust any claim about fruit number. First, who counted: a seller, or the trial. Second, over what period: the whole season or one picking. Third, what the buyer pays: small fruit costs more to pick per kilogram, and a retailer may pay less for it. Walk the mother field in the middle of the season, count the fruits on five vines, weigh twenty fruits, and multiply. That gives you a number you can plan with.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This crop is raised from cuttings, not from seed, so you can take your own planting material. Take cuttings only from healthy, well-grown plants that are true to the variety, and never from one that showed disease — a cutting carries its mother plant with it. Where a nursery or a government farm sells clean planting material, that is the safer start.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Pointed Gourd (Parwal) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Starts bearing | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faizabad Parwal-1 | Eastern Uttar Pradesh farmers whose local nursery stocks it; compare with a newer variety | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR-IIVR gives 230 q/ha for its Kashi varieties as a benchmark | Uttar Pradesh |
| Faizabad Parwal-4 | Uttar Pradesh farmers whose nursery stocks it; test it before planting a large block | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR-IIVR gives 230 q/ha for its Kashi varieties as a benchmark | Uttar Pradesh |
| Rajendra Parwal-1 | Bihar farmers whose local nursery stocks it and who can see the mother vines in fruit | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the Swarna varieties as a benchmark | Bihar |
| Rajendra Parwal-2this page | Bihar farmers who can verify the vines in fruit; compare it with a Swarna block | Not published for this variety; ICAR examples for the Swarna varieties: first picking 4–6 months after an October planting | No variety figure published; ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the Swarna varieties as a benchmark | Bihar |
| Swarna Alaukik | Soft-seeded table and sweet-making fruit; eastern plateau and the Odisha coast | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 25–30 t/ha average for the Swarna varieties (ICAR); 107 q from one acre at Puri, Odisha, in 2020 | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
| Swarna Rekha | Buyers who want a striped fruit; eastern plateau and Odisha | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 21.10 t/ha mean for Rekha with Suruchi in the 46-genotype Ranchi trial (2021-23); ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the three Swarna varieties | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
| Swarna Suruchi | A plain light-green fruit from the Ranchi centre; ask for a trial block first | First picking about 4–6 months after an October planting; fruits February to October (ICAR examples) | 21.10 t/ha mean for Suruchi with Rekha in the 46-genotype Ranchi trial (2021-23); ICAR gives 25–30 t/ha for the three Swarna varieties | Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Pointed Gourd (Parwal) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Pointed Gourd (Parwal) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Pointed Gourd (Parwal) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Pointed Gourd (Parwal) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Pointed Gourd (Parwal) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Pointed Gourd (Parwal) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rajendra Parwal-2 the same as Rajendra Parwal-1?
Variety lists give them as two names, Rajendra Parwal 1 and Rajendra Parwal 2, but we found no source that says how they differ in fruit, yield or duration, and none that says they are the same. The Bhubaneswar trial used one accession called Rajendra Parwal without a number. Ask the nursery to show you fruiting mother vines of the exact number you are buying, and keep the two in separate blocks if you ever plant both.
Does a very high fruit count mean a high yield?
Not by itself. In the Bhubaneswar trial the group with the most fruits per plant (466 on average) ranked second on yield, because its fruit was light, while the group that yielded most (9.59 kg a plant) had heavier fruit of 32.78 g and flowered in under 55 days. Fruit weight across all accessions ran from 14.31 to 37.98 g. A fruit count is only useful with a fruit weight beside it, so ask for both.
When should I plant, and when will it start fruiting?
There is no variety-specific advice for Rajendra Parwal-2. The two ICAR farm examples for the Swarna varieties both planted in October: Ranchi in October 2021, with picking from about April, and Puri in October 2019, with picking from February to August 2020. The Ranchi centre's own trial picked through the summers of 2021-22 and 2022-23, after the vines had rested through winter. Use October planting and a first picking in four to six months as a working guide, and confirm the local window with your KVK.
What does a plant cost, and how do I check that I got the right variety?
ICAR records plant prices of Rs 15 in Jharkhand and Rs 20 in Odisha for Swarna plants sold by farmer-entrepreneurs, which is a guide to scale and not a price list for Rajendra Parwal-2. Cuttings of different varieties look alike, so the check is the mother field: ask to see fruiting vines of the same lot, compare fruit colour, shape and size with what your buyer wants, and write the name, the date and the seller on the receipt.
Sourced from: Phenotypic diversity analysis in pointed gourd — Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 33-34, 2010-11 (CHES Bhubaneswar, ICAR-IIHR; includes Rajendra Parwal), Cultivation practices of pointed gourd — slide deck listing promising varieties (secondary source; names only), Shri Sachin Jha: a budding agri-entrepreneur — ICAR (ICAR-RCER, Ranchi; trellis mother block, plant prices), Shri Chandan Kumar Khuntia: a successful farmer-entrepreneur — ICAR (trellis, mulching, fruit the market rejected), Genetic diversity in pointed gourd genotypes under eastern plateau and hill region — Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 94(7), 2024 (ICAR-RCER, Ranchi). editorial policy.