Planting scheme for watermelons and melons in the open field

Watermelon and melon are associated with the taste of summer, and every gardener dreams of growing delicious fruits on his plot. Watermelon has long been used as a healing diuretic medicine to cleanse the body. Melon crops are thermophilic and grow in warm climates, therefore, to grow and plant watermelons in the open field, you need to have special knowledge.

It is imperative to find out in advance whether it is possible to plant melons if a cucumber, pepper, pumpkin or zucchini grows nearby.

Can watermelons and melons be planted nearby?

Melons belong to the pumpkin family. Crops are very healthy and contain a huge amount of vitamins. If you learn how to properly grow these plants, you can get a high yield of delicious fruits.

Melon is quite suitable for "neighborhood" with watermelon. Plants tend to grow. It is not recommended to plant them together too close..

Melons are prone to infection with various similar diseases. Therefore, if you plant next to it, you need to understand the risks of spreading diseases from one culture to another.

And melons and watermelons tend to sprout

Correct sowing of seeds for seedlings at home

Seeds for seedlings are planted approximately 60 days before disembarkation in open ground... This means that in the middle of March, the seeds should be purchased. You can buy them in any specialized store or ask those who have already managed to grow a high-quality harvest of watermelons and melons.

It is impossible to get a good harvest from the seeds of last year's watermelon. The best seeds to plant are 5 years ago... It is important to understand that only any early-maturing varieties with a ripening period of up to 70-85 days are suitable for our climate. It is better to give preference to hybrid varieties that are more adapted to adverse conditions.

When preparing seeds, make sure they are not empty. For this, seeds are immersed in a container with water, everything that surfaced can be safely thrown away... Watermelon seeds germinate more slowly than melon seeds. Therefore, it is recommended to scald watermelon seeds with boiling water, for better germination, and only then sow.

Preparing for planting and soaking

1. Soak. Each individual type of seed must be wrapped and soaked in cloth rags and keep in a humid environment until germination... You can also soak in special napkins.
2. If the seeds have already hatched, but there is no way to plant them in a timely manner, you can leave the seeds in the refrigerator.

Home-grown seeds are planted in separate small pots with a diameter of 10 cm, preferably peat. The soil should be a mixture of: humus, sod land 3: 1, add peat, sawdust, humus 3: 1: 0.5.

It is planted in each pot 2 seeds each to the depth 5 cm... Moisten the earth with a spray bottle.Cover the top of the container with cling film and put in a warm place +25 degrees.

It will take 40-45 days to grow watermelon seedlings, and 30 days for melon.

It will take about 40 days to grow watermelon seedlings.

Growing recommendations

• when the seeds germinate, transfer them to sunlight at a temperature +22 degrees... Remove the film;
• the best place for seedlings is a windowsill on the south side of the house;
• a week after sowing, feed the seedlings with mineral fertilizers, another week - infusion of mullein with superphosphate.

Landing in open ground

When planting in open ground, you need to focus on the climatic conditions, the selected crop variety, the readiness of the seedlings.

Soil selection

Before planting melons in open ground, you need to choose a place for planting. Exotic plants love sunny places where there is no shade and wind.

Melons love nutritious soil and sunny plots of land

Melons and watermelons need rich soilsas well as those that withstand moisture well. The ideal option is sandy and sandy loam soil with a hydrogen index of 6-7 units.

Site preparation is carried out in the fall. When digging, add 4-5 kg ​​of manure per square meter, superphosphate 40 g., Potassium salt 30 g. and ammonium sulfate.

Preparing watermelon seedlings

When the seedlings appear 5-7 leaves, she is ready to be transplanted into the open ground. Best time - the end of May... However, you need to be guided by weather conditions so that the air temperature remains at +15 degrees at night.

A week before planting in open ground, the seedlings need to be hardened to a daytime temperature of + 16 + 20 degrees.

Seedlings are ready for transplanting after 5-7 leaves appear

Open Ground Landing Pattern - Depth and Distance

For planting in open ground, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. In the garden, holes should be made at a distance 0.5-0.7 meters apart according to the checkerboard pattern. Leave a gap of 70cm between the rows.
2. Seedlings are placed in the holes so that the surface remains only a few top leaves... The soil should be crushed, and sprinkled with sand around to protect the plant from rot.
3. After planting, the crop should be watered with summer or slightly warmed water.
4. To protect a young plant from the scorching sun, you need to close the sprouts with moistened plastic or paper caps for 2-3 days.

10-14 days after planting, you need to feed the crop with a solution of ammonium nitrate 20g per bucket of 2 liters for each bush. During the period of the appearance of buds, you need to feed the melons with mullein infusion.

Seedlings are planted in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of about half a meter

Features of growing melons

To ensure free access of oxygen to the roots, the soil needs to be constantly loosen to a depth of 10 cm... With the development of side loops, spud the culture. In order for the plant not to spend all its energy on gaining mass during the growth period, you need to pinch the main stem. For the full development of melons, three shoots are enough.

When fruit ovaries appear, 2-6 of the strongest and largest specimens are left on the bush. To reduce the load on the lash, it is recommended to tie the fruits into nets and hang on a support... The fruits are placed on foil pads to prevent rotting.

When the melons begin to sing, it is recommended to reduce watering to the very minimum. Thus, you can increase the concentration of sugars in ripening fruits. You need to harvest the fruits when they are already well ripe.

To reduce the load on the lash, the fruits can be hung in a net

If the watermelons will be used for storage and transportation in the future, it is better to take a berry not fully ripe.

Benefits of planting in open ground:

• in warm weather, you can achieve maximum ripeness fruits;
• daily watering of the crop is not required;
• yields can be increased by observing the basic rules for soil selection and planting seeds for seedlings.

It is quite possible to grow watermelons and melons in a summer cottage. Some even grow them in bags or greenhouses. If you follow all the recommendations, then by the end of summer you can enjoy sweet, sugar fruits. The main advantage of growing melons in your garden is the absence of chemicals.

Growing watermelons and melons in the greenhouse and in the open field is not very difficult. Some summer residents refuse to plant melons, considering it inappropriate to occupy a large area of ​​the site. Meanwhile, these crops get along well together and give an excellent harvest, subject to certain rules. In a compact garden plot, you do not need to set aside a separate place for melons and watermelons, they can be planted nearby and enjoy juicy sweet fruits.

Seed treatment before planting

Seed material is planted in peat molds at the end of April. Before sowing, it is advisable to warm the seeds well indoors or near a heating device. It is also recommended to soak them in warm water and disinfect them in one of the solutions:

• hydrogen peroxide solution is prepared at the rate of 10 tablets per liter of water;
• a weak solution of manganese or boron of 0.05% concentration;
• "Epin extra", a stimulant is diluted as follows: 6 drops of a dietary supplement per 100 ml of water;
• "Zircon", the solution is prepared at the rate of 2-4 drops of liquid per liter of water.

Treatment with biostimulants will not only destroy pathogens, but also allow plants to adapt to temperature disasters, and also increase crop yields. Soaking is carried out in a cotton bag, which is immersed in heated (approximately 60 °) water, the liquid is allowed to drain and left for a day. During this time, the seeds should swell and crack a little. If this does not happen, it makes no sense to plant them in the ground: the culture will turn out to be weak. When planting, 2 seeds are placed in each mold, in the future this will allow you to remove a weaker branch.

Advice

Simultaneous soaking and warming of seeds is the best preparation for seedlings. Melons are watered only with water at room temperature, while it is necessary to ensure that it does not irrigate the leaves. Seedlings of melons and gourds are quite capricious and require good lighting, warmth and careful watering.

Special soil is sold in stores, but you can prepare it yourself. For this purpose, mineral fertilizer "Kemira universal" is added to the suitable soil. For each pot, 1 teaspoon is enough, then the earth is mixed well. The seeds are buried to a depth of 2-3 cm and watered. Under favorable conditions, the first shoots appear on the 5-6th day, and in a week you can see the first leaf.

Growing melons in a greenhouse

Planting melons in indoor ground is carried out at the end of May. By this time, the soil will have warmed up enough, and frost will not damage the root system. It is recommended to pre-harden young plants, for this they are taken outside at a temperature of 13-15 degrees or the air in the room is cooled to these figures. The best seedling age for planting is approximately 25-30 days.

Before planting, the soil is tightened with plastic wrap, in which holes are cut for peat containers. This allows not only to protect heat-loving crops from low temperatures, but also increases productivity. Fertilizers are additionally applied to the holes: humus, ash or mineral additives. From above, the nutrient components are covered with a layer of earth.

In the greenhouse, the optimal temperature and light conditions should be maintained. The temperature should be 20-25 ° during the day and 15-18 ° at night. Watered sparingly and infrequently with warm water. To prevent condensation from occurring, the greenhouse must be periodically ventilated. Watermelons and melons are quite sensitive to excess moisture, their seedlings can rot, and the fruits themselves grow watery and tasteless.If it gets colder outside, cover the soil and young seedlings with foil, cotton cloth or paper.

Advice

At the time of planting melons in the greenhouse, you can have time to harvest young cabbage, early radish and greens. This not only warms up the soil additionally, but also saves space.

Landing order

The scheme of planting in open ground is as follows. The distance between plants should be 40-50 cm for watermelons and 50-60 cm for melons. When grown together in a greenhouse, watermelons and melons are planted in a checkerboard pattern. Peat containers are buried shallowly into the ground, a gap of about 3 cm should remain between the leaves and the ground. This trick will further protect the plant from disease and decay.

When planting, the scheme and the distance between the rows are taken into account. Usually it is recommended to plant in 2 rows, between which a piece of land 50 cm wide is left. The next planting of melons in the ground is carried out at a distance of 80 cm from the first rows.

Care for melons in the greenhouse

Caring for watermelons and melons is not difficult and not too laborious. Young shoots can be covered with cut plastic bottles, this protective frame allows for increased yield. As the plant grows, the bottle is removed or replaced with a higher shelter. When the stem has increased sufficiently in length, it is attached to a special support - a trellis, you can tie the top with a thread to the ceiling of the greenhouse. Heavy fruits are placed in nets, cardboard boxes. The main thing is that they do not come into contact with the ground.

Advice

7-10 days after planting, you can feed with nitrogen fertilizer - urea or saltpeter, for this, 20 grams of the substance are diluted in 10 liters of water.

Care for melons consists in loosening the soil, watering and feeding. It is necessary to ensure that weeds do not appear between the shoots after planting. Young plants are watered once a week, then it is allowed to do this twice a month.

Watermelons and melons are drought-resistant crops, they germinate in the southern regions, where the absence of rain for a long time is considered normal. When the first fruits appear, watering is stopped. Watering the melons should be done carefully, making sure that no water gets on the root part of the stem. Otherwise, the crop can be damaged by rot.

Every 2-3 weeks the soil should be fertilized with mullein infusion and minerals. During feeding, a small handful of ash can be added to each hole.

Artificial pollination in a greenhouse is carried out with a male flower, it is determined by its impressive size. The flower is picked and applied to the female flowers. The crop should not be watered before pollination so that excess moisture does not affect the quality of the pollen. Many gardeners attract bees to pollination: they open the doors of the greenhouse, put saucers with sugar syrup.

Plant formation

As they grow, the stems are bred in different directions. In the future, they are tied to wooden or metal trellises.

To teach a good harvest, you need to follow the rules.

• The apical part of the stem is cropped on melons. This procedure will be sufficient for early maturing varieties. Late melon varieties are docked differently. In addition to removing the top, the side parts are also inspected, their thickness and power are assessed. Young lashes are removed, leaving 3-4 strong branches.
• You will have to tinker with watermelons. The cultivation of this culture is carried out in one stem, it is selected by the presence of shoots in the leaf axils. The stems, on which there is no ovary, are removed, the rest are pinched. When the culture grows above the trellis size, repeated pinching of the apical lash is carried out at the level of the 4-5th leaf.

Features of growing in the open field

Before planting plants in open ground, you should decide on a place. Watermelons and melons prefer to grow in slightly elevated, gently sloping areas that are well warmed up and illuminated by the sun's rays.Here they grow better, bear fruit abundantly and ripen early.

Care is carried out by loosening the soil, removing weeds and excess lashes. In the process of growth, several inter-row soil treatments are carried out. The first - when young leaves appear, to a depth of 6-8 cm, the second - when 5-6 true leaves appear, loosening can be combined with top dressing.

Harvest watermelons and melons as they ripen. The ripeness of watermelons is determined by the drying of the antennae in the axils of the leaves, the disappearance of dullness and the appearance of shine, and the clarification of the peel of the fruit. If you knock on a watermelon, a dull sound appears, but to distinguish it, you need to have practical skills.

Advice

Melon ripeness is determined by the dried stalk.

Are melons compatible?

Can watermelons and melons be planted nearby? These crops consume similar chemicals from the soil and require roughly the same treatment methods. If you plant them side by side, this will greatly simplify the care procedures: watering, garter, groundbait. However, melons and gourds greatly impoverish the soil, and they can be planted in the same place only after a few years. To prevent this, watermelons and melons should be regularly fed with mineral fertilizers.

Collecting seeds from watermelons and melons when planting them together is not recommended, since mutual pollination occurs. The result of such a hybrid may not be very palatable.

If you are the owner of a large plot of land, it is better to plant these crops in open ground in different parts of the garden. If the site is small, then they can be planted nearby, nothing terrible will happen. The proximity of melons with each other will not affect the yield.

Watermelons and melons on open field ridges are most often grown in the southern regions, but the use of competent technology, as well as the correct choice of varieties, allow you to grow a completely decent crop of melons and gourds in the middle zone of our country, as well as in more northern regions.

The best melon varieties for outdoor use

A correctly selected variety is one of the components of obtaining a high-quality and plentiful harvest of such a thermophilic melon culture as a melon in a backyard gardening environment.

If even late-ripening varieties and hybrids can be used for cultivation in the southern regions, then in central Russia and areas of risky farming it is necessary to give preference to early and early-ripening varieties, the yield of which is formed as soon as possible.

Name	Group affiliation	Description of the fetus	Fruit weight, kg	Dignity
"Titovka"	Ultra-productive variety	Short-oval shape with a smooth orange surface and thick, white, tender, sweet and juicy pulp	0,75-3,65	Amicable ripening of fruits, resistance to bacteriosis and aphid aphids
"Assol"	Early maturing disease-resistant variety	Oval-rounded, with a yellow-orange surface and orange, fleshy, sweet, very aromatic flesh	Up to 1.2	Resistant to stem ascochitosis
"Summer resident"	Unpretentious early ripening variety	Spherical or oval, with a segmented yellow surface and light yellow, sweet and juicy, aromatic pulp	1,5-2,1	Excellent taste and good marketability
"Cinderella"	Early maturing, consistently productive variety	Oval shape, with a smooth yellow mesh surface and light creamy, juicy and crunchy pulp	1,15-2,25	Resistance to low and high temperature indicators of air
"Kolkhoz Woman-749/753"	Disease-resistant and high-yielding, early maturing variety	Spherical yellow-orange fruit with a viscous, sweet, tender and very tasty pulp	1,5-2,1	Resistant to stem ascochitosis
"Early-133"	Transportable, early ripening, productive variety	Oval-round fruits with a smooth yellow surface and white, thick, crumbly dense, tender and sweet flesh of good taste	1,5-2,1	Resistance to fusarium wilt and anthracnose damage
"Sembol-F1"	Early maturing unpretentious hybrid form	Oval shape with a dark yellow surface and very sweet, light green, fragrant pulp	1,3-2,3	Excellent taste and good marketability

The best varieties of watermelon for open ground

It is easiest to grow thermophilic watermelons in open ground conditions in the south of Russia., and in other regions, amateur melon growers most often prefer greenhouse cultivation of sweet berries. However, in recent years, several fundamentally new, very promising for cultivation in far from ideal conditions, varieties and hybrids of watermelon have been obtained.

How to grow a watermelon (video)

Name	Group affiliation	Description of the fetus	Fruit weight, kg	Dignity
"Crimson Glory-F1"	Dutch hybrid early maturing	Rounded, smooth, light green with green stripes and pink, friable flesh	12,1-15,1	Disease resistance, good transportability, long-term storage
"VNIIOB-F1"	Drought tolerant early ripening hybrid	Oval, smooth, green, with dark green, spiky stripes and pink, juicy, dense and tender pulp	2,2-6,2	Transportable, layered, resistant to bacterial spotting
Dolby-F1	Early maturing, transportable hybrid	Rounded, smooth, light green, with dark green stripes and light red, delicate flesh	10,0-14,0	Lonely, with high resistance to fusarium and anthracnose
"Memory of Kholodov"	Early maturing disease-resistant variety	Rounded, greenish-white, with red, tender and juicy pulp	2,8-5,5	Possesses excellent taste and high commercial characteristics
"Rapid"	Early ripening variety	Round, smooth, green, with dark green stripes and red juicy flesh.	3,5-4,9	Anthracnose resistant
"Sugar baby"	American early maturing variety with anthracnose and powdery mildew resistance	Round, smooth, dark green, with poorly expressed stripes and bright red, very juicy and sweet pulp.	3,1-5,1	Good yield, high sugar content, excellent crop transportability
"Eden-F1"	Early maturing, high-quality and productive hybrid	Rounded, smooth, light green, with dark green prickly stripes and red, grainy, tender and juicy pulp	Up to 5.7	Transportable, easy-going, highly productive

Direct seed planting

Today, in the conditions of home gardening, three methods of growing melons and gourds are actively used:

• direct sowing of a crop with seeds in open ground;
• planting ordinary potted seedlings;
• planting grafted seedlings.

The first two options for growing melon and watermelon are most often used.

Also read: White Swede strawberry: characteristics of the variety and reviews of gardeners

We plant the germinated seeds in a permanent place in the open ground only after the soil warms up well and the threat of recurrent frosts has passed. It is advisable to drop a couple of seeds into each planting hole, which will allow in the future to leave only one, the most developed plant in the hole.

Before the emergence of mass shoots, it is advisable to cover the crops with a non-woven covering material or garden film. Optimum temperature indicators for seed germination should be above 15-16 ° C. Seedlings at this air temperature appear within two weeks.

Growing seedlings

Only knowing what kind of soil melons and gourds love, you can properly prepare the soil for growing high-quality seedlings:

• all melons and gourds love soils that are neutral and light enough, but rich in organic compounds;
• it is allowed to grow watermelon and melon on dry and salted soils with sufficient fertility indicators;
• it is impossible to cultivate melons and gourds in areas represented by acidic and too moist soils;
• best used for planting and ridges with light medium loamy soils, avoiding growing on sandy and heavy loamy soils;

Growing melons in the open field (video)

• under deep digging of soil, it is recommended to bring half a bucket of humus or manure;
• clay soils should be improved by the introduction of humus and coarse sand at the rate of a bucket for each square meter of the planting area;
• ready-made soil for growing seedlings should be improved with basic complex fertilizers;
• in the spring, when preparing the site for planting seedlings, 15-25 g of potassium salt and 35-45 g of superphosphate must be added for each square meter;
• a very good result is given by the spring application of nitrogen fertilizers at the rate of 15-25 g per square meter of the planting area.

It should be noted that the sowing of melons and gourds for seedlings must be carried out no later than mid-end of April., which will allow in a month to get a strong and well-developed plant, ready for planting in a permanent place. The melon must be planted in a permanent place with a distance of a meter from each other. The planting pattern for a watermelon when placing two plants in a nest is 2.1 x 2.1 m, and with the method of alternating one plant in a nest with two seedlings is 1.5 x 1.8 m.

Melon care

Care for the melon should be extremely competent, since this melon culture is very responsive to correct agricultural technology and forms the highest, high-quality yield when performing the following activities:

• melon is more moisture-loving than watermelon, so you need to water the plant weekly;
• the plants should be fed three times during the growing season;
• the first feeding with nitrogen fertilizers is carried out a couple of weeks after planting the seedlings in the ground;
• the second and subsequent feeding is carried out with an interval of two weeks with complex mineral fertilizers;
• weeding and surface loosening of the soil around the plants should be carried out regularly;
• the main stem of most melon varieties is sterile, therefore, unlike watermelons and pumpkins, it must be pinched after the fourth or fifth leaf;

To prevent the melons from cracking, it is necessary to avoid waterlogging of the soil and irrigate with exceptionally warm water.

Watermelon care

Proper care of a watermelon is a guarantee of high-quality and healthy garden products. The agrotechnics of caring for watermelon does not differ significantly from the cultivation of other melons, so you should water, feed, weed the plants and loosen the soil in a timely manner.

Diseases and pests of melons and gourds

When cultivating melon and watermelon, measures aimed at protecting plants from damage by diseases and plant parasites are very important. It is necessary to take into account the fact that sprouts of melons and gourds are highly sensitive to root rot, therefore, seed handling should not be neglected.

In order to protect plants from bacteriosis damage to leaves, watermelons and melons, before the flowering period, it is imperative to treat with the drug "Ridomil-Gold". Immediately after the appearance of the ovaries, it is required to use sparing fungicides with a short waiting period, for which it is desirable to use the drug "Quadris-250".

Melons: shaping (video)

Of the pests, aphids are especially dangerous, against which the aerial part of the plant is sprinkled with a mixture of tobacco dust and ash, as well as a melon fly. Especially often this pest affects melons in the southeast of the Rostov region, as well as in the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, and on the territory of the North Caucasus. For the prevention and protection of plants, organophosphate compounds, neonicotinoids, pyrethroids and other modern insecticides are used.

Attention, only TODAY!

Reviews and comments

Did you find a mistake in the text? Please select it and press Ctrl + Enter. Thank you!

Rating:

(

estimates, average:

out of 5)

Table of contents:

• Greenhouse preparation for sowing
• Sowing seeds and preparing seedlings
• Preparing the greenhouse for planting seedlings
  • Garter of melons and watermelons
• Growing melons and watermelons outdoors
• How to care for plants

Springtime is a rather troublesome period for lovers of summer cottages and gardens. At this time, you need to have time not only to prepare the soil, but also to purchase the necessary seeds. The variety of crops that can be grown on your site is large enough. Melon and watermelon are considered to be a favorite for many. Before you start growing melons, you need to know a lot of subtleties about how sowing and caring for watermelons and melons occurs.

Melon plant formation diagram.

The harvest will please only in one case - if all the rules are followed.

Planting watermelons and melons can take place both in the greenhouse and in the open ground. Which option to choose depends on the weather conditions of a particular region.

Greenhouse preparation for sowing

Melons and watermelons are light and heat-loving plants. Therefore, the choice of a place for sowing must meet all these requirements.

Melon planting scheme.

To understand what time is right for sowing, you need to know that melons are planted in the soil when it warms up to + 18 ° C. This temperature is the minimum, of course, warming up the soil to + 28 ° C will be ideal.

1. For good growth of watermelons, the soil temperature in greenhouses during the day should be + 30 ° С, at night - at least + 18 ° С. This temperature is the most desirable for melons, but not every greenhouse meets these requirements, so gardeners often install additional heating sources.
2. For watermelons and melons, dry soil is more preferable than waterlogged soil. This applies not only to the soil, but also to the air, the humidity of which should not exceed 60%.

When buying seeds, it is imperative to take into account the characteristics of the variety, they should be as close as possible to the condition of the soil, and of course, they should be produced in the areas in which planting is planned.

At first, you should not purchase the seeds of the largest fruits. They will require comfortable growing conditions and sufficient experience of the gardener. Small fruits ripen much faster and produce more ovaries than large fruits.

Back to the table of contents

Sowing seeds and preparing seedlings

Watermelon feeding scheme.

Sowing seeds is best done for seedlings, and not in open ground. Peat cups are very convenient for sowing seeds, which can be transplanted into the ground along with the seedlings, in this case the root system is not damaged. Pots should be chosen not very large - less than 10 cm in diameter.

1. Before sowing seeds, they should be soaked, so the sprouts will appear faster.
2. During the growth of seedlings in pots, you need to use mineral fertilizers. Seedlings are in pots for about a month, during this time it is necessary to make 2 additional fertilizing. Attention should be paid to the growth of seedlings, neighboring plants should not touch.
3. Good seedlings will be in a room with a temperature above + 20 ° C. At night, it is better to lower the air temperature a little, so the plants will not stretch too much.

To plant watermelons and melons, you need to find the largest area in area, the height of the greenhouse should not be lower than 2 m.Do not mix different crops in one greenhouse, as they may have different conditions for development.

Back to the table of contents

Preparing the greenhouse for planting seedlings

After the winter season, the greenhouse needs standard work such as snow removal, aeration and soil preparation.

Planting of seedlings should only take place when the air temperature is stable and there is no night frost. If the greenhouse is not equipped with an additional heating device, then the planting of watermelons should be postponed until the end of May.But even this time can be dangerously low temperatures, so in advance you need to put a film or old rags in the greenhouse in order to have time to cover the seedlings during a cold snap.

After planting the seedlings, for the first time, only airing will be needed, especially if it is above + 30 ° C outside, for this, special vents should be provided in the greenhouse.

The main care of the seedlings begins after 2 weeks, when watering begins. It must be remembered that watermelons should be watered with warm water, while it should not fall on the leaves. During irrigation, the necessary nitrogen fertilizers and fertilizing in the form of ammonium nitrate are applied.

Back to the table of contents

Garter of melons and watermelons

Growing watermelons and melons in a greenhouse requires trellises. Therefore, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the rules for plant garters:

1. It is customary to grow watermelons with one stem; for this, the strongest is selected with the presence of side shoots. Some shoots may not have ovaries, in which case they are removed. Shoots with ovaries are pinched. When the plant grows up and reaches the upper trellis, you can re-pinch.
2. In melons, the first thing to do is to cut off the upper part. After that, you need to select several strong shoots that will go to the trellis, and remove the rest.

They pinch melon plants so that excess energy does not go to the growth of the tops, but accumulates in the fruit.

Back to the table of contents

Growing melons and watermelons outdoors

The scheme of growing watermelons in the ground.

If the planting of watermelons and melons will be carried out in open ground, and not in a greenhouse, then the choice of a site must be taken with special care. The most favorable will be the soil on which previously grown onions, potatoes or cabbage. Of course, it is better to prepare the land for sowing with watermelons in the fall.

To do this, you need to dig the required number of holes and add to each humus or chicken droppings (sand is added for heavy soil). Mix the fertilizer with the soil and leave it there until spring.

Since the summer is often rainy, you need to choose early ripening and hardy varieties of watermelons.

1. It is very important that you cannot plant different varieties of watermelons nearby, otherwise cross-pollination will occur. As a result, the harvest can be poor.
2. With the arrival of spring, when the temperature is warm enough (end of May), the prepared area is plowed with a cultivator. The diameter of the holes must be at least 1 m, and the distance between the holes should be 2 m.
3. Sowing in open ground does not require growing seedlings, dry seeds are sown in holes, spilled with warm water. You need to put at least 2-3 seeds in one hole, since not all will eventually sprout.
4. You should never rush and sow watermelons and melons before the due time. Since the seeds planted in a later period (mid-June), most often overtake their older relatives in growth and give better quality fruits.

When the shoots of watermelons already have 3 strong leaves, one shoot is left in the hole, the rest are removed. But with proper thinning, excess seedlings can be transplanted.

Back to the table of contents

How to care for plants

Care for growing plants consists in frequent watering (in hot weather, watering is carried out 3 times a week). In this case, it is necessary to spill not only the holes, but also the area adjacent to the melons. Soil care is carried out only at the beginning of the growing season, at which time the soil is weeded and loosened. After the growth of the plant, weeds do not need to be removed, they will no longer damage the watermelons.

1. It is imperative to completely eliminate walking between holes. Watermelons have a fairly branched root system that can be easily damaged.

After sowing, after about 1.5 months, the plant is pinched. And when the fruits of the watermelons reach the diameter of the apple, only 2 lashes with ovaries need to be left on the plant. At the same time, you can add fertilizer in the form of chicken manure, for which 1 part of the manure and 15 parts of water are taken.

If you pay attention to the care and fertilize melons and gourds, then in the end all efforts will be rewarded with a bountiful harvest.