Is there a way to increse the no. of Female flowers in a bottle gours wine. | Container gardening | Commercial Hydroponics farming in India

Hi GG,

I need your help and also some information on the topic subjected above. I have a Bottle Gourd ( the long one ) vine growing in a 12" container in my balcony. After two months of nurturing it seems ready to set fruits as I can see the male and female flowers are sprouting up.

My concern is – I can see at least 8-10 male flowers in the main vine whereas the no. of female flowers are only two. though no one has flowered yet but they are about to flower in 3-4 days. Please help me to understand

• Is it normal?
• Should i expect more female flowers as the vine grow with new shoots. New shoots are also coming up from the main vine.
• Is there a way to increase the no. of female flowers.
• I have just red in a gardening forum to prune / cut the main stem once it reaches to a length of 10 feet. This enhances the growth of female flowers. Is it right?

Plz help me on this as -  this is my first experience of balcony gardening and also it has been an effort and a long wait to see the vine producing fruits and I really expect to be rewarded with good numbers of gourds. You can see the vine pics here.

Thanks in advance..

Viny