Melons come in different varieties… But they all get along well and togethergrow only in suitable conditions. Because they are not only different, but also capricious. Although their whims are peculiar. And the fact is that melon, unlike many (if not all) garden crops, does not like watering and is afraid of excess moisture. A kind of lover of the Finnish sauna in the open air: hot and dry. And, of course, she also loves to sunbathe in the sun, that is, she is not afraid of direct sunlight at all. Therefore, the southern regions of our vast country are considered the most suitable place for growing melon in open ground. It is a shame, of course, for residents of the middle zone or northern regions that you can’t just go and plant a melon in a summer cottage. Although why not? You can! It turns out that growing melon in open ground is possible not only in the south of Russia.
Choose and prepare the plot
This southern capricious girl feels comfortableonly in warm areas, well protected from cold winds. It is necessary to take care of preparing the planting site in the fall. At this time, the future melon bed is dug up to one spade depth and fertilized with humus at a rate of about four kilograms per square meter. If your site has loamy soil, you can “fluff up” the melon bed by adding half a bucket of clean river sand per square meter. After this, we leave the bed for the winter with peace of mind, and in early spring we dig it up again and fertilize it with potassium and phosphate fertilizers. Look at the proportions and recommendations on the packages of the fertilizers you purchased. Immediately before planting, the soil for the melon is fertilized with rotted manure or special nitrogen fertilizers.
Cooking Seeds
Preparing the soil is just the beginningpreparatory period. In addition to the beds, we also need to prepare seeds for growing seedlings. By the way, such seeds can not only be purchased in a store, but also prepared independently. Melon seeds behave very strangely. Very strong and robust plants grow from fresh seeds of the past harvest, but it is almost impossible to expect fruits from them. The fact is that many male flowers appear on them, and almost no female ones. Therefore, for a good and guaranteed harvest, you need to sow seeds that are two or three years old. Large seeds are selected for sowing, which it is advisable to treat with a special compound purchased in a store. A mixture of solutions (0.05%) of boric acid and zinc sulfate, in which the seeds are soaked for twelve hours, also increases seed germination and enriches them with microelements. Experienced gardeners recommend hardening the seeds for growing melons in the Non-Black Earth Region. To do this, they are first dipped in warm (thirty to thirty-five degrees) water, then taken out and kept for a day at a temperature of about twenty degrees. Then the temperature is lowered to almost zero (but not lower!) and the seeds are kept for another eighteen hours. After this time, the temperature is again raised to twenty degrees. Such hardening must be done three times during the week before planting the seeds.
Growing sprouts
For seedlings we will need peat pots(or peat tablets) with a diameter of about ten centimeters. Cardboard or plastic containers can be filled with special purchased soil for growing garden crops or a soil mixture of the following composition: peat and sand in a ratio of nine to one with the addition of one glass of wood ash per ten liters of soil. Before planting, the seeds can be soaked for a day and the "empty" ones can be discarded. Two or three seeds are planted in each prepared pot to a depth of about five centimeters. Until the first shoots appear, it is necessary to maintain a daytime temperature of at least twenty degrees, and at night - at least fifteen. A week after the emergence of shoots, they are thinned out, leaving one strong sprout in the pots. After the appearance of the third true leaf, the seedlings are pinched, encouraging the development of lateral shoots. Melon seedlings are cared for in the same way as seedlings of other plants. However, melons should be watered moderately and care must be taken to ensure that water does not get on the leaves and stems. To prevent black leg, the soil in seedling pots is sprinkled with a layer of dry river sand. Melon seeds are sown in April, and twenty-five days later the seedlings can already be planted in open ground.
We plant a melon in the ground
For growing melons in open groundIn pre-prepared and fertilized beds, make holes at a distance of seventy centimeters along the length and width of the bed. The seedlings are planted only after warm weather sets in and frosts have passed. In the middle zone, this is the first days of June. The main condition for a successful transplant is to cause minimal damage to the root system. Therefore, melon seedlings are planted together with a lump of earth. Before planting, the holes are thoroughly filled with water, a little humus is added there and the seedlings are planted without deepening the stem. The top of the root ball should slightly protrude above the surface of the hole. After this, the seedlings are watered again and sprinkled with dry earth. For the first day or two, it is advisable to shade the young plants from direct sunlight. If in your region at the beginning of summer there are strong day and night temperature differences, then you can protect the still fragile plants with a temporary film cover. Such mini-greenhouses are left on the beds at night and removed during the day. By the way, these devices will protect your plantings from rain, which melons do not like at all.
We care for melon
During the entire period of cultivation in open ground, melon requires weeding, loosening, watering and hilling. In addition, melon vines need to be pinched all the time.
- Loosening
The first two times it is necessary to loosen the spaces between the rowsto a depth of no more than fifteen centimeters. Then you need to loosen the soil to a depth of ten centimeters, and you don’t have to do this at all directly next to the plant. When the first side shoots appear, the melon is hilled, adding a ridge of earth to the stem.
- Watering
As a melon crop, melon does not like excessivemoisture. Therefore, it should be watered more than moderately. If morning dew falls abundantly at your dacha, then you do not need to water the melon at all. Water the plants between the rows, trying not to splash the leaves and vines with water.
- Topping
The first pinching of melon is carried out at the stageseedlings. After the plants have adapted to the open ground, the main stem is pinched again (above the sixth or seventh leaf). At the same time, the side shoots are pinched in the same way. In addition, excess flowers are removed from all shoots and no more than three fruits are left, which are not set in a row, but at some distance from each other. It is necessary to carefully cut out all non-fruit-bearing shoots.
- Additional fertilizing
The first feeding of melon in open ground is carried outtwo weeks after transplanting the plants. At this point, it is fed with ammonium nitrate or organic fertilizers (mullein, chicken manure). Then it is necessary to constantly fertilize the plants every ten days. You can buy complex fertilizers or water the melon with infusions of chicken manure, mullein, grass with the addition of wood ash. Fertilizing should be stopped as soon as the fruits begin to ripen. You need to weed the melon beds as needed. In addition, regulate the direction of growth of the lashes. As soon as the lash reaches half a meter in length, direct it towards the opposite row so that it does not slide into the gap. It is also necessary to put boards under each fruit that has set so that the melons do not rot from contact with wet soil. In general, growing melons in open ground is not much different from growing cucumbers. If you have cucumbers growing at your dacha, then the melon will not only grow, but also ripen. However, this problem is also quite solvable. Melons picked before frost ripen perfectly at home. And yet, it is better to choose early-ripening varieties of melon for growing in open ground. But the main thing is to observe only three conditions.
Actually grow melon in open groundcan be done almost everywhere, except for the northern regions. But for this reason people invented greenhouses and hotbeds. So go for it: the impossible is possible! We recommend reading:
