Cultivation Of Melons In The Open Field (collective Farmer, Etc.): Agricultural Technology + Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to grow melon outdoors: simple tricks

Is there a person who does not like juicy, sweet melon? We are all waiting for the season when this magnificent southern fruit will be available. Is it possible to grow melons in the open field in our, not the warmest latitudes? Today we will talk about how to provide yourself with melons yourself.

Content

• 1 First step: site selection and seed preparation
• 2 Growing seedlings
• 3 Planting melon seedlings in the ground
• 4 The most popular melon varieties in the middle lane
• 5 Melons of different varieties
• 6 Taking care of the melon during the growth and ripening period
• 7 Video about growing melon outdoors

First stage: site selection and seed preparation

Melon is known to be a very thermophilic plant. Therefore, a site for its cultivation must be selected appropriate: protected from the wind, well lit and warmed by the sun, fertile.

It is necessary to prepare the site in the fall: dig up the bed shallowly (about the bayonet of a shovel), and fertilize the soil with humus at the rate of 3-4 kg per 1 sq. If clay soil prevails on the site, do not forget to push it down using river sand - half a bucket per 1 sq.

In the spring, continue preparing the garden. Dig it up again and apply potash and phosphate fertilizers in the proportions indicated on the package. Add nitrogen fertilizer or rotted manure just before planting melons.

Now start preparing seeds for growing seedlings. You can buy them in the store or prepare yourself.

Try to choose large melon seeds for growing

It turns out that melons have an interesting feature. Seeds from the previous harvest can produce strong, sturdy plants that will not bear fruit. This is explained by the fact that the flowers on such a plant will be only male, and will not give an ovary. For a good harvest, it is better to take seeds that are at least three years old.

When choosing seeds for seedlings, pay attention to those that are larger. Be sure to treat them with a special formula for such seeds, which can be purchased at the store, or a solution of zinc sulfate with boric acid. In this solution, the seeds are soaked for at least 12 hours.

Experts advise hardening melon seeds for growing in the middle lane. Dip them in warm water (up to 35 degrees), take them out, and keep them at a temperature of 18-20 degrees for a day. Then gradually lower the temperature to 0 degrees, and keep the seeds in these conditions for about 20 hours. Raise the temperature again to the primary value. This procedure must be repeated three times in the last week before planting the seeds.

Growing seedlings

For growing seedlings, peat pots or peat tablets with a diameter of up to 10 cm are perfect. You can also use cardboard or plastic cups. The advantage of peat containers is that they can be completely immersed in the ground along with the seedlings without taking them out. Peat will eventually act as a natural fertilizer.

Seeds should be planted in specially prepared soil.

1. Fill cups and pots with vegetable primer. You can prepare such a mixture yourself: 1 part of sand, 9 parts of peat, mix thoroughly, add wood ash at the rate of 1 glass per 10 liters of soil.
2. Soak seeds for 24 hours before planting. Empty seeds will float up, discard them immediately. Thus, you will be culling.
3. Plant 2-3 seeds in prepared pots to a depth of 5 cm. Before the first shoots appear, keep the containers indoors, observing the temperature regime: 18-20 degrees during the day, at least 15 degrees at night.
4. The first shoots should appear in about a week. Thin them, leaving one of the strongest sprout in the pot.
5. After the third or fourth strongest leaf has developed, pinch the seedlings. This promotes the development of side shoots.
6. Seedling care is not difficult at all. The only feature is less watering without water getting on the stems and leaves. To avoid the appearance of a black stem, pour a layer of dry river sand around the stem.

Sowing seeds should be carried out in April, and you can transplant seedlings into the ground after 25 days.

Planting melon seedlings in the ground

So, the melon garden on your site is already prepared. Thoroughly fluff the soil with a rake. Make holes, keeping the distance between them both in length and in width, about 70-80 cm.

Treat the melon sprouts very carefully so as not to damage the roots. It is best to plant seedlings along with the soil in which they grew in a pot or glass. It is in this case that you can be convinced of the benefits of peat cups or tablets: they are simply immersed in a hole and sprinkled with earth.

Observe a distance of 70-80 cm between the holes in which the seedlings will be planted

Before planting, pour water into the hole and add a little humus. Plant the stem so that it does not go deeper. The lump of soil with which you planted the seedlings should protrude slightly above the ground. Water the planted seedlings again and sprinkle with earth.

Shade the seedlings for the first two days to help them take hold. If there are strong temperature differences between day and night, cover the planting with a film, which, moreover, will protect the melons from rain.

The film can be replaced with plastic bottles familiar to everyone. Cut a large (2 to 5 liters) bottle into 2 pieces across. Cover each sprout with half a bottle. It is very easy to remove such a simple design before watering, and then put it back in place.

The most popular melon varieties in the middle lane

1. The Kolkhoznitsa variety, bred by the Biryuchekutskaya experimental station, is the most suitable for the middle lane. It is very stable and therefore widely adopted. Fruits of this variety are round, orange, weighing about 1 kg. The pulp is white, very light and sweet. During the season, the harvest can be up to 100 centners per hectare.
2. Variety Alushta, bred by the Crimean Experimental Station. The fruit ripening period is 70 days. The fruits are oval, large, orange-yellow, weighing up to 1.5 kg. The pulp is white, juicy, sweet. The yield can reach 175 centners per hectare.
3. Zolotistaya, a variety bred by the Krasnodar Research Institute, belongs to the mid-season varieties. Aging period 80-90 days. Fruits are round, yellow with an orange tint, with a weakly expressed mesh. Weight up to 1.6 kg. The pulp is juicy, white. The yield reaches 120 centners per hectare. The variety is very resistant to disease.
4. Variety Desertnaya 5, developed by the Krasnodar Research Institute of Vegetable Economy. Fruits are small in size, shortened-oval, with a fine-mesh surface. Weight reaches 1.6 kg. The pulp is sweet, tender, white-green in color. The variety belongs to high-yielding, can bring from 140 to 160 centners per hectare. The advantages of this variety are in the long-term storage of fruits.
5. Yuzhanka (sometimes the variety is called Water Lily) was bred by the Kuban experimental station VNIIR. The fruits are large, weighing 1.8-1.9 kg, round, with longitudinal ribs, orange-yellow color. The sugar content is the same as that of the Collective Farm Woman. A high-yielding variety, the yield reaches 220-240 centners per hectare.

Melons of different varieties

We take care of the melon during the growth and maturation period

Melon is not very demanding to care for, but nevertheless, certain rules must be followed. During the entire period of growth, the melon needs to be weeded, spud, watered, and loosened the soil around it.

1. Do the first 2 loosening between rows no deeper than 15 cm. Next time loosening is carried out to a depth of 10 cm, and the soil next to the stem is not affected. After the first side lashes appear, huddle the melon, shoveling a roll of earth to the stem.
2. In melon conditions, the culture grows practically without moisture. Therefore, watering should be moderate. If dew falls in the morning, watering should be canceled. It is necessary to water the aisles, so that water does not fall on the whips and leaves.
3. The first pinching is done when the melon is in seedlings. After the melon is planted in the ground and has passed the adaptation period, perform another pinching over the 7 leaves of the main stem. Do the same with the side loops, and then remove the excess flowers, leaving 3 tied fruits at a distance from each other. Remove shoots without fruit so that they do not draw juice.

In addition, the melon needs feeding. For the first time, this is done 2 weeks after planting in the ground. For this, you can use saltpeter, mullein, or chicken manure. The next feeding should be done every 10 days. You can buy complex fertilizers or dilute chicken manure and add ash. Before fruit ripening, feeding can be stopped.

To avoid rotting, place a plank or plywood sheet under the ovary

Weeding the melon beds is carried out only when necessary. Do not forget to regulate the growth of the lashes, they should not fall into the aisles. Place a board or plywood under each ovary to keep the fruit from rotting when it touches damp ground.

When growing melons, always follow three main rules:

• timely protection of seedlings planted in the ground from frost;
• correct formation and pinching of the stems, removal of excess ovaries;
• timely systematic feeding.

This way, you are guaranteed to get a good melon yield.

Video about growing melons outdoors

We hope our tips will help you grow sweet, juicy melons even during our short summer. If you have experience in growing melons in soil, share with us in the comments, tell us about your methods, advise more suitable varieties. Good luck and a warm summer!