The ripening time of small fruit type wax gourd is usually premature or relatively early, and the first female flower node is generally around 10, and individual varieties (such as Beijing string bell) produce female flowers in the third to fifth nodes.

Generally, the ripening time of large fruit-type wax gourd is medium or late, and the first female flower usually occurs on the main vine at 15 node, and then one or two female flowers occur every 5-6 nodes.

2. The two are different in weight:

The fruit of small fruit type wax gourd is small, and its shape is oblate, nearly round or oblong. Fruit is waxed or waxless. Each plant counts several fruits, and the tender fruits are for food, and the fruit weighs about 2-5 kg.

The fruit type of wax gourd with large fruit type is generally larger, usually the single fruit weight is 10-20 kg (or heavier). The shape is like a short cylinder or a long cylinder, and the skin is bluish green or covered with white wax powder. Most of them choose one fruit per plant, mainly to harvest mature fruits.

3. They are different in variety:

Generally, the varieties of small fruit-type wax gourd include a string of bells in Beijing, Wuye in Chengdu, Sichuan, early wax gourd in Nanjing, round wax gourd in Taiwan Province and so on.

The varieties of large fruit-type wax gourd usually include Guangdong green-skinned wax gourd, gray-skinned wax gourd and beef-spleen wax gourd, Hunan pink-skinned wax gourd and Longquan wax gourd, Jiangxi Yangzi-Zhou wax gourd, Taiwan Province green-shelled wax gourd and white-shelled wax gourd, etc.

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