Watermelon Growing Techniques
Popular watermelon varieties today
- Sugarbaby: Open-pollinated variety, grown for a long time, round fruit weighing about 3-7kg, red flesh, easy to peel off, black seeds, thin shell that can withstand long-distance transport, growing period 65-70 days.
- An Tim Watermelon: Domestic hybrid melon variety produced by the Southern Plant Seed Company.
- Hong Luong Watermelon: Imported hybrid variety with a growing period of 65-70 days, round fruit, light green skin, dark green stripes, red flesh, delicious taste, high yield, suitable for some regions in the Summer-Autumn crop.
- F1 hybrid melon Huynh Chau 548: originated from America. The melon has yellow flesh, long fruit, thin, hard, tough skin, bright green color, faint stripes. The fruit has an average weight of 3 - 6kg. Average yield 20-25 tons/ha, Winter-Spring crop 70-75 days, Summer-Autumn crop 60-65 days.
- Thuy Loi Watermelon: The melon is shaped like a torpedo, slightly round in the middle, with two open ends, thin skin, bright red flesh, fragrant, crunchy and sweet. The fruit is long and round, with a thin skin that is light green and striped, firm flesh, and drains water. Although Thuy Loi melon has a thin skin, the skin is very tough and hard, convenient for cultivation and transportation during the rainy season.
Planting season
Depending on the melon variety and planting purpose: if planting Christmas melons, sow from September 18 to 28 of the lunar calendar, if planting Tet melons, sow from October 10 to 20 of the lunar calendar, if planting January melons, sow in early November of the lunar calendar.
- Seed soaking: Seeds are soaked in clean water for 4-6 hours, then rinsed to remove all the slime and incubated in a thick towel for 24-36 hours. Then select the germinated seeds for planting.
- How to sow seeds: Sow seeds in pots. The pots are wrapped with banana leaves to form a tube 4cm in diameter, 7cm deep, or put in a 6x9cm plastic bag with drainage holes at the bottom. Mix the potting soil with composted manure and rice husk ash in a ratio of 3-1-1, use 1% lime powder and mix well with fungicide before putting in the pots. Use your finger to press a hole in the middle of the pot, place the seeds horizontally and cover with soil mixed with rice husk ash and insecticide to kill ants, crickets... Water the pots enough 2-3 times/day. When the plant has 1-2 true leaves (5-7 days), plant them. Place the pots on the surface of the planting bed (if the soil is wet, place it in the ground, if the soil is dry, place it at ground level).
If sowing directly on the bed, dig a hole 10cm deep, 10cm wide, 50-60cm apart, add powdered soil, decomposed manure, rice husk ash, lime and fungicide like making potting soil. Use your finger to press the germinated seed into the middle of the hole 2-3cm deep, then use powdered soil mixed with rice husk ash and ant killer to fill the hole, then water enough 2-3 times/day for the plant to grow.
Fertilizer
Fertilize with decomposed manure and rice husk ash as much as possible to make a potting soil and put it in the hole; about 200kg of lime powder/ha mixed well into the powdered soil; chemical fertilizer with the amount of fertilizer for 1ha/crop: 230kg of urea + 350kg of DAP + 170kg of potassium chloride.
- Apply about 1/5 of the total amount of fertilizer for the whole crop. It can be applied evenly on the surface of the bed or in rows or holes before the final tilling of the soil.
- After 3-4 days of placing the pot (5-7 days of sowing), use DAP or diluted urea (0.2-0.3%) to water in the afternoon, 2 times/day, increase the amount of fertilizer in the following waterings.
- First top dressing when the melon starts to crawl (12-15 days), make a 25-30cm trench at the base of the melon in the direction it crawls, apply 1/5 of the amount of DAP or NPK fertilizer and then cover with soil.
- Fertilize the second time when the melon starts to flower (20-22 days), dig a 30-45cm trench around the base, apply 1/5 of the total amount of fertilizer and then cover with soil.
- Fertilize the fruit after picking (40-45 days), apply 2/5 of the remaining fertilizer, divide into several applications, 2-3 days apart.
LY (According to Nhanonglamgiau)
