What A Watermelon Loves, Shaping And Grafting Watermelons

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

Sweet berry - watermelon

I was prompted to write this article by a question posed by an elderly woman at one of the agricultural exhibitions in Eurasia. She asked: why does she never grow watermelons, and how they should be grown in greenhouses in the North-West region.

I explained to her that many authors wrote about watermelons in great detail in the magazine "Flora Price", adding useful information to the collection of garden knowledge. Why didn't this woman make watermelons? Either the variety was not the same, or it was not pollinated, the woman noticed. Bloomed, but there was no sense.

It turned out that she completely owns the theory of growing this huge berry. And she told me in detail about the flowering of the watermelon, about the fact that female flowers are located at the end of the main lash and in the lashes of the first order, and male flowers are smaller and bloom for one day, female flowers are large, bloom for two days. Male flowers begin to bloom, and then, after 10-15 days, female flowers bloom. The duration from germination to this moment is 75-80 days, and there the cold is close.

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Historians say that Tsar Peter, when he was in the Caspian, admired the local watermelons. He wanted to grow them near Moscow. They hired the best workers, brought the "watermelon craftsmen" from the Volga, the seeds there, even the local soil - all to no avail. So it turns out - Astrakhan watermelons grow better in Astrakhan.

Then, at the show last year, I advised her to try to grow an early ripening hybrid of the Sorento F1 watermelon. And everything worked out for her: two watermelons, 7 kg each, grew on the whip. They ripened well. They turned out to be very sweet. Perhaps the warm summer contributed to this. This year she again came to the exhibition and thanked for the advice in choosing a variety. But she didn't run out of questions. And there were many of them. This time she was already interested: how to get more watermelons on the lash? Is it possible in our area, and why are berries tied faster on the side strings? How to form plants correctly. Question followed question.

And I promised to write an article on growing watermelons to answer not only her questions, but also the questions of many other gardeners in our region who want to grow these delicious berries.

Forming watermelons

I'll tell you right away about the formation of plants. Here are some options. In a greenhouse, a watermelon is grown on a vertical trellis. Twine is tied to each plant. At the same time, they are formed - the two lower lateral shoots (shoots of the first order) are removed, since female flowers usually appear on them late. Shoots on which a female flower has not formed up to the 6-7th node are removed. The main stem is tied to a vertical trellis, the top of it is regularly twisted along the twine and not pinched.

Lateral shoots of the first order of the middle and upper tiers are pinched 2-3 leaves above the female flower. Standardization of ovaries accelerates the formation of the first fruits and improves their marketability and taste. The load on the plant is considered normal - 4-5 fruits weighing 0.8-1.2 kg. If the fruits are large, then leaving more than two does not make sense. If there is an abnormally hot summer, then you can leave more.

Fruits are formed on the main stem, middle and upper lateral shoots, they are placed in special nets, which are suspended from the upper horizontal wire of the trellis or to the greenhouse frame. The distance between plants and rows in the greenhouse is 70 cm. As the lashes grow, they are tied to trellises, and new fruits are hung on nets. No more than 2-3 fruits are left on one plant, the remaining ovaries are removed, preventing them from growing to a diameter of more than 5 cm.

To accelerate the growth of the fruit, pinch the lash, leaving 5 leaves above the fruit. Weak shoots are removed altogether.

Watermelon plants are also formed like this: when the ovaries reach the size of a small apple, the barren lashes are cut off. On one plant, 4-6 ovaries are left, about the fifth leaf above the fruit, the whip is pinched. True, in our climatic zone, the formation of plants can depend on a certain hybrid. But the main thing is to understand that our summer is short, and you can't get a lot of watermelons from one plant.

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When the fifth leaf appears on the watermelon plant, it pinches near the third leaf

In the northern regions, pinching is an important technique. The female flowers of a watermelon are formed faster on shoots that have the third order. When the fifth leaf appears on the watermelon plant, it is pinched near the third leaf (see fig.), Then lateral lashes are formed. Two of them are left, which are pinched over the fifth leaf, while leaving five or six branches of the third order, on which the fruits are tied.

Modern hybrids, the names of which I will list in the article, do not need special formation. They need to be formed into one stem, remove excess shoots. Their fruits are well formed, but they must be rationed, since each variety and hybrid has its own characteristics in formation. Modern watermelon hybrids tend to be disease resistant. In general, it is better to plant plants less often, then there will be less hassle with the formation.

The watermelon plant develops on well-warmed sandy, sandy loam, as well as light loamy soils with a sufficient humus content - everyone knows this, but we do not have the south. Watermelons also need good pollination by bees, and the process of pollination in our conditions does not always go smoothly: a certain temperature, a dry climate and insects are needed.

Vaccinations of watermelons

During the time of Academician Lysenko, they experimented a lot with vaccinations. I will not go into details, however, at the Gribovskaya selection station, after five years of annual grafting, the melons were sown in the ground in 1948. In the first seed generation of melons from grafting on pumpkin, heterosis was obtained in terms of development power and yield, perhaps, a tendency towards parthenocarp was determined. How "happy" heterotic hybrids are obtained in well-known world seed companies is their secret.

But in the "watermelon business" much depends on the hybrid skillfully selected for the specific growing conditions. Grafting watermelon on gourd (lagenaria) and benincasse is already a well-established technique for growing watermelons in Japan. There, only grafted watermelons are grown. Vaccination is widely used in Italy and other countries.

We carried out such work until 1960, and the results were positive. For example, in 1959, the average daily temperature of the outside air for the first 11 days after planting seedlings in the ground was 7.5 ° С, there were several frosts up to -2.4 ° С. By June 1, the watermelons, closed by boxes with a glass bottom, completely died in the non-insulated ground. But grafted onto a gourd and covered with a film, watermelons, even in non-insulated soil, were well preserved, the plants were green, without signs of yellowing.

It is clear that you need to find the best modern hybrids. The already mentioned Sorento F1 has good characteristics: the ripening period from planting seedlings is 54-56 days, it is resistant to fusarium wilt, it forms, on average, two fruits weighing 7-9 kg per plant.

I think that for greenhouses in our climatic conditions, East Asian varietal groups are preferable, they contain a genetic set that is resistant to a more humid climate in which they were formed.

The Russian group of watermelons was selected in our southern steppes, in a dry climate, which is why it is problematic to grow Astrakhan varieties here. On an industrial scale, it may be unprofitable to deal with watermelons in our zone, but for amateur gardeners this is a necessary and interesting occupation. Especially considering the prices and quality of these berries delivered to us by merchants from Turkey.

What does watermelon like?

If you want to grow watermelons, you need to create optimal conditions for them. Or at least strive for them. The optimum temperature for their growth is + 24 … + 30 ° С, the optimum temperature for the growth of roots is + 30 … + 32 ° С, the minimum temperature is + 14 ° С. It is known that the root is an organ that regulates the rate of entry of substances into the aboveground organs.

For a good set, the average daily temperature should be above + 18 ° C. Watermelon in the process of growth and development requires a large temperature difference between the temperature of the day ?? and the night. A high daily temperature improves the quality of the watermelon. The required sum of active temperatures is 2000-3000 ° C.

When the temperature drops below + 15 ° C, the growth and development of watermelon plants is delayed, and prolonged exposure to temperatures of + 5 ° … + 10 ° C has a detrimental effect on them. In the early stages, it shows resistance to low temperatures.

High humidity, rainy weather for a long time, increase the susceptibility of plants to diseases, lead to low productivity, low quality of fruits.

The bright light of the watermelon welcomes, it gives a higher yield and better quality of fruits in sunny weather. A watermelon needs a place that gets 8 to 10 hours of sunlight a day, and is also a plant for short daylight hours. With a shorter 12-hour day, flowering occurs earlier than with a long day, but with an 8-hour day, plant development is inhibited.

Watermelon is most sensitive to a lack of lighting in the phase of 4-5 true leaves, and sometimes our gardeners keep seedlings for up to a month, although on the 20th day it already has three true leaves. And if there is no good backlight during this period, then she experiences stress, this greatly slows down development. Daily lighting should be at least 10,000 lux.

Read the next part. Watermelon hybrids for our climate →

Vladimir Stepanov, Doctor of Biological Sciences

Photo by E. Valentinov