Growing Watermelons And Melons Outdoors

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Pleased with melon

For the past three years, the number one object on my site has been melon in the open field. I studied the possibility of growing melons and watermelons in a warm bed with black plastic. The past years have proved the possibility of obtaining these "southerners" in our climate.

And if in 2011 the emphasis was on growing pumpkins, cucumbers and kavbuza (a hybrid of a watermelon with a zucchini) in this way, then for the next two years I started to master the agricultural technology of high-quality (fragrant and sweet) melons and ripe large watermelons.

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Of course, we were very pleased with the past summer, when out of the observed 145 days of sunshine and simply warm in our area, there were 130. Among them there were also warm days, but with rain. I write about this so confidently because in my garden diary, along with an assessment of the situation in the garden, especially in its melons and gourds, I must give a description of all days of each season. And I always try to react promptly to changes in the weather, be it a cold snap or rain.

Last season, I doubled the area of my melons in comparison with 2012. As a result, I got two 16-meter ridges 1.5 m wide, which I covered with black polyethylene, making cross-shaped slots in it in a checkerboard pattern with a distance of 90 cm between them.

I have already written about the preparation of such a ridge for planting melons in the magazines "Flora Price" in 2011 and 2012. Now I will briefly outline the essence of this technology. On a low, not higher than 10-15 cm, bed, not even dug up, a furrow is made about 40 cm deep (I made two furrows on a bed 150 cm wide), into which layers of straw are laid, poured with a solution of urea for better decomposition, or hay spilled with water.

Then a layer of fresh grass is applied to create additional moisture. For this purpose, beveled succulent snow is very suitable. Placed in the furrow, these two layers are well trampled and covered with humus about 10 cm thick to create a nutrient medium for plants in the first period after planting seedlings. The humus is mixed with the soil from the edges of the furrow.

All this "cake" created from vegetative layers is spilled with water, covered with black polyethylene, which must be pressed along the edges with bricks or other heavy objects so that the wind does not open the film. Experience has shown that this water spill is enough for plants for the entire season. In addition, it is supplemented by rainwater, which easily penetrates the slits in the film. If suddenly the summer turns out to be too hot and dry, you can easily water melons and gourds with warm water in the same slots. I regularly check the condition of the soil, the presence of moisture in it, and it can be seen from the plants if they are missing something.

Last season, I tried to take into account my mistakes of past years. For example, in case of a possible cold snap and the appearance of a threat to melons and watermelons, along each ridge on one side, she laid a spunbond immediately after planting seedlings. This gave me the opportunity to quickly cover delicate plants right along the lashes, protecting them from possible frost.

For watermelons, and I planted them five bushes, I specially allocated a part of the ridge, which I provided with light wire arcs, onto which, if necessary, I threw a spunbond and attached it to the arcs from the wind. During the rain, I did not remove the covering material. It then dried in the sun, and I rolled it up and laid it along the ridge.

I always use seedlings only. I start growing seedlings after May 10, when I move from city to village, and plant seeds there. First, I soak the seeds of melons and watermelons (last year it was May 11), after pecking I plant them in boxes with compost soil. There they develop to form two true leaves. Be sure to harden seedlings. To do this, I put boxes with plants in a greenhouse or greenhouse.

When I see that the seedlings are already ready for planting - they have grown two strong leaves - I check through the slot the condition of the soil in the garden bed, then I make holes, moisten the soil in them and plant the seedlings there. If the weather at this time is not very warm, then immediately cover my plantings with a spunbond, which will lie until the seedlings take root.

Last year, I planted seedlings on one ridge on June 5, and on the second - five days later. After the seedlings rooted, and this was evident from the fact that the next leaves began to grow on the plants, I took off the spunbond and laid it on the edge of the ridge.

I cannot but admit that this melon epic fascinated me so much that every morning I began to inspect the site with melon and enjoyed the excellent view of melon and watermelon bushes. After the formation of the fifth leaf in melons, I pinched the main lash of plants, which allowed the second order lashes with female flowers to appear from the axils of the leaves. There were also male flowers. I pollinated the first female flowers myself throughout the entire ridge. This work, of course, was laborious, but I wanted to have a guarantee that the fruits would start.

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The further state of the melon lashes, and they grew and bloomed very intensively, showed that the flowers were already successfully pollinated by insects, since a huge number of ovaries had appeared, some of which had to be removed, and the lashes themselves had to be pinched. This procedure was necessary to ensure the normal development of the first melons I pollinated, so that the whole bush worked only on them. On each bush, I left 2-3 melons, which were pleasing to the eye, developing well. On the second ridge, everything repeated, taking into account the transplanted seedling planting date by five days.

Last season I tested five varieties of melons: Odessa, Altai, Kolkhoznitsa, Sympathy and one melon without a name, I did not know him. Conditionally I called her "striped". All varieties, except for the Sympathy variety, were early and began to ripen together in the beds in early August. The same variety bloomed only in August, and I no longer hoped for her harvest, did not pay attention to her, although her lashes were very beautiful - they had carved dark green leaves, under which small flowers were hidden.

As it turned out later, at the end of August, on seven bushes of melons of the Sympathy variety, 17 pieces of cute dark green elongated melons, which did not have enough time to grow large and ripen by the end of September, on their own and grew imperceptibly under the leaves. They ripened already in the city, and every one of them ripened to a juicy and rather sweet state.

All the other early varieties of my melons ripened together in the beds, and it was a fascinating sight - yellow rather large melons weighing up to 1.6 kg lying on the beds. Our village is located 270 km from St. Petersburg. Alas, my family could not quickly come to me from the city to feast on melons, and a ripe melon does not lie for a long time, even being removed. And at that time I was forced to make up my menu of melons. The neighbors also tasted my melons.

We can say that the harvest of these fruits was my pride in the past season. Juicy, aromatic and very sweet (no worse than southern ones), such that fingers stick together while eating. The harvest was excellent: on the first ridge, 55 ripe melons of the Odessa, Altai, Kolkhoznitsa varieties and four striped melons grew. On the second ridge, 37 melons of the Odessa, Altai varieties and 17 pieces of the late Sympathy variety grew.

The watermelons also made me happy, as they grew well, did not get sick and had time to ripen already in September, and in October the city was simply overripe. This means they have enough nourishment and warmth to grow and mature. All seven watermelons weighed between 3 and 4.5 kg.

Unlike melons, in watermelons, the main whip is fruitful, while I constantly removed the side shoots and plucked out the extra watermelons that had tied up, leaving one fruit on the bush. In addition, she pinched the main lashes, as their growth was very intense.

Now about the agricultural technology on my melon. Ten days after planting the seedlings, I made a light feeding of the rooted plants with ammonium nitrate at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. 10 liters of water to ensure intensive growth of the lashes. The second mineral dressing was made on the twentieth of June - ecofoskoy in the same dose: 1 tbsp. l. 10 liters of water. In the same period, the melons began to bloom, and I began to pollinate the first melons. The very process of pollination consisted of applying pollen from a male flower to a female one. Moreover, for greater reliability, I used pollen from two or even three male flowers.

In mid-July, I watered my melons for the only time in order to pre-prepare melons and watermelons for feeding them with humates. Any humate-containing fertilizer is suitable for this purpose. And, finally, the last mineral feeding necessary for the normal development of melons and watermelons consisted in watering with a solution of potassium sulfate (potassium sulfate) also at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. fertilizers per 10 liters of water. At least 0.5 l of fertilizer was poured under each root.

All melons had a very healthy appearance throughout the season, the plants bloomed profusely and set fruit. Last summer sunny or just warm weather was successfully combined with warm rains. As a result, melons and watermelons quickly poured and ripened in the beds.

I took the first melons in mid-August, and I started to shoot watermelons in mid-September. And if by the look of the melons it was easy to determine the degree of their ripeness, then the watermelon had to be cut.

As you know, the nights in August were quite cold (+ 10 … + 12 ° С) with sunny and often hot days, so I covered the melon at this time at night with spunbond. Spunbond, fixed on wire arcs, was not even removed from watermelons in September, providing comfortable conditions for ripening fruits.

The melon of the Odessa variety was the first to ripen from the melons, followed by the melon of the Kolkhoznitsa variety, and then the striped and Altai melons came up. All of them were pleasing to the eye, being in the garden, and then brought great pleasure as a dessert, because they were extremely sweet. The sizes and weights of all grown melons were different. The largest melons were of the Odessa variety (1.3-1.6 kg), then the Altai varieties (1.2-1.5 kg), and the weight of the Kolkhoznitsa melons was 0.3-0.5 kg, but they were the sweetest. I want to note that the seeds of a melon of the Odessa variety, which have not lost their germination in six years, were taken from a melon that was once bought in Odessa. All other varieties were purchased from a seed store.

All my expectations and labors were justified and rewarded this season, since I have probably never eaten so many delicious melons in my life. The only pity is that the remoteness of my site from the city did not allow my children and grandchildren to enjoy the melon harvest in a timely manner.

Lyudmila Rybkina, gardener

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