Watermelon
Homeland watermelon is the Kalahari desert in South Africa, hence the requirements for growing conditions: warmth, good light, moderate food, loose air-permeable soil and moderate humidity of air and soil.
We have Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories suitable for cultivating watermelons with climate and soils. In the conditions of the Non-Black Earth Region, in the Urals or in Siberia and in the North-West, watermelons can only be grown in greenhouses on warmed ground. They are pretty good at observing some simple rules. Growing watermelons in a greenhouse is not more difficult than cucumber.
In greenhouses it is better to grow such varieties, in which the weight of fruits does not exceed 2-3 kg. For example, in the North-West, the Sugar Toddler class is excellent.
What does a watermelon like? Good air access to the roots, so it is better to sow on sandy loamy, fertile soils, it is imperative to roll the soil after sowing the soil to reduce the evaporation of moisture from the surface and thereby prevent the formation of a surface crust. Good soil access to the plant roots is facilitated by loosening the soil.
Watermelon is a plant that is thermophilic. For germination, it is necessary that the soil warms up to at least 15-16 degrees of heat at a depth of 10 cm. Optimum temperature for the emergence of shoots is 25 degrees. At this temperature the watermelon will rise in a week. At a soil temperature of 13 degrees, watermelon does not rise, and at 10 degrees the seeds will die.
For growth and development the plant needs a temperature of 25-30 degrees. The average daily temperature should not be less than 15 degrees, and the number of solar, frost-free days should not be less than 120-150, that is, during the whole growing season should be dry, sunny weather. When the temperature drops to - 1 degree, the plant dies.
Watermelon requires good illumination, so it should only be planted on sunny places.
What does not love a watermelon? Acidic, compact or compacting soils should not be planted watermelon on clay or loam. He does not like moist, waterlogged places, cold soils, stagnation of cold air, watering cold( below 20 degrees) water, fresh manure neither in soil, nor as additional fertilizers, excessive doses of mineral fertilizers, prolonged cooling, prolonged overcast or rainy weather. Sharp change of temperature between day and night, he tolerates quite steadfastly, since it comes from deserts, which are characterized by such differences.
Growing watermelons in a greenhouse
In the spring, as soon as the soil permits, excavate a trench on the bayonet of the shovel in the bed and insert dry hay in it, return the soil from the trench to the place above the hay. Put a board on the soil, go through it to compact the soil. Cover the bed and the teplice with a film. Under the double film shelter, the earth will quickly warm up to 15-16 degrees, even if the weather is cool. Hay will start to rot, giving off heat. After about 2 weeks, you can start sowing the seeds of watermelons. It is better to grow early ripening varieties of small size, about 2-3 kg in weight. Now quite a lot of seeds of such varieties are being sold.
Before planting, pour for each meter of the patch in the bucket of rotted manure or compost, add a half-bucket of sand and a liter ash can and dig a little along with the surface layer of the soil to about 10-12 cm deep.
Mark wells at a distance of 40-50 cmfrom a friend, in a single row. Pour well a warm patch( at least 25 degrees) with water and sow 2 seeds per well at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other. The seeding depth is 5-6 cm. Cover the crops with a film or half of the plastic cans.
Once the shoots appear( after about 10 days), the film must be replaced with double lutrasil. If the shoots appeared under the bottles, then one should cover them with one layer of lutrasil on top of the bottles.
Under such cover, shoots are not afraid of freezing even up to - 5 degrees. If a part of the seeds does not rise, transplant into the Empty wells excess shoots from other wells, when the seedlings will have 2-3 real leaves. At this time, bottles of watermelons should be removed, and raise the lutrasil, hanging it on a horizontal trellis above the plants, so that it does not touch their tops.
After the night frost threat passes or night temperature drops below 12 degrees Celsius, lutrasil can be removed and the plants tied with string to the horizontal trellis. Watermelon itself does not cling to the twine, unlike the cucumber, so it must be twisted from time to time by twisting counter-clockwise or tied to it with additional rags.
When the plants are about 60 days old, they will bloom. At first, male flowers appear, and then( approximately in 10-12 days) female. At this point they should be pollinated by hand, since in the northern regions there are no necessary insect pollinators and pollination may not occur. Use the preparations "Ovary" or "Bud" for artificial insemination, as soon as buds of female flowers appear( they have small watermelons).
When the fruits are about the tennis ball, they should be placed in a grid and suspended to a horizontal trellis, otherwise they will terminate under their own weight, since the stalk is weak in them. If fertilization occurred on the lower flowers, then watermelons can be laid on the soil, placing a plank under them, otherwise the fruits will rot.
Each fetus needs about 10-12 leaves, so once the fetus starts and starts to grow, count the fruit of 6-7 leaves above the fruit and tear off the rest with the top of the head. This will stop the further growth of the whip, and the plant will direct all the forces on the growth and maturation of the fetus.
If there is enough leaves, then it is possible and necessary to cut off all lateral shoots. If the number of leaves under the watermelon is insufficient, leave a part of the leaves on the lateral shoots, but cut off the ends of the shoots. In a greenhouse, you can grow only one fruit on one plant. If you leave two fruits, they will be small, although they will fully ripen. The leaves are watermelon carved, so they do not shade the fruit and cut them to thin the plants do not.
Watermelon ripens after fertilization after about a month, the attachment point of the peduncle begins to dry up, and then the peduncle itself begins to dry up. If the stalk has withered, the crust at the watermelon is glossy, shiny, and the fruit produces a sonorous sound when you tap it with your fingers, then the watermelon ripens. At this time, watermelons are removed. At room temperature they are stored no more than two months.
Addition and watering
Watermelon is a drought-resistant plant, it should be watered moderately. He loves not watering, but loosening. Therefore, the soil under the watermelons must be loosened weekly, but not deep, so as not to damage the root system. The greatest need for moisture in his early period and at the time of the initial growth of ovaries.
As soon as fertilization takes place, watermelons will begin to grow rapidly. At this point, they should be watered and fed weekly( 1 tablespoon of azofosca and superphosphate, 1 teaspoon of potassium sulfate and 2 teaspoons of "Uniflor Micro" per 10 liters of water).First, the plants need to be poured with warm water( watering can of 10 liters per five-meter bed), and then fed, giving each plant 1 liter of fertilizing. As soon as watermelons reach a variety size, watering and top-dressing should be stopped.
It can be done differently: before planting, add 5-6 AVA fertilizer pellets to the well, or even better use the powder fraction of this fertilizer( 1/2 tsp) and do not feed any watermelons all summer, but only weekly watering, pouring out approximately 1-2 liters of water under the watermelon, depending on the weather.
Agronorm at watermelon is small: N + P + K = 16, it does not need fertilizing if you make a good pre-sowing dressing by adding half a liter of soil to the ground with sand and a half-liter can of ash per 1 m2 of soil under the digging.
Add 1 tbsp to the landing hole.spoon azofoski, 1 tbsp.a spoonful of superphosphate and 1 teaspoon of potassium sulfate, all this mix well with the soil, water and then either sow dry seeds or plant the sprouted. In watermelon, there is an increased demand for phosphorus( N: R: K at 37: 19: 44), but it needs potassium chloride-free fertilizers more than nitrogen fertilizers.
In addition, watermelon requires trace elements, so all the season with an interval of 10-15days, it should be fed "Uniflorom-micro"( 2 teaspoons per 10 liters of water), sprinkling in the evening on the leaves, or make a sowing in the hole immediately 5-6 pellets of AVA fertilizer, then no need for micronutrient spraying.
Diseases and problems
Watermelons in the Northwest have no pests, except for melon aphids and spider mite.
Of diseases, the most fatal wilting of plants caused by soil fungus fusarium. Fusarium often affects plants with prolonged cooling( below 12 degrees), long and rainy weather or excessive watering, on heavy soils, with poor access to the roots of plants. To prevent fusarium disease, the soil before sowing seeds should be watered with a solution of "Fitosporin".
Every 2-3 weeks of watering, "Fitosporin" should be repeated.
Sometimes watermelons in greenhouses, as well as cucumbers, are affected by anthracnose. Another disease, powdery mildew, affects watermelons not only in the greenhouse, but also in the open ground. Against anthracnose, powdery mildew and any other diseases you should use "Phytosporin" or "Zircon".
For the prevention of watermelon diseases it is useful to spray with a mixture of "Zircon", "Epine-extras" and "Citovita", just like a melon.