More and more people are keen on growing vegetables on their family balconies, but passion and hobbies are not enough. Professional skills and knowledge are essential. Melon is a seasonal fruit with a crispy texture that is very popular among people, so many gardeners want to try growing melons, so let’s first talk about how to handle the seeds before sowing melons!
Muskmelon cultivation technology
1. Seed selection: Take out the seeds from the packaging bag or barrel, remove the deformed, mildewed, damaged, and insect-eaten seeds, and select the remaining seeds. Set aside plump, uniform seeds.
2. Drying the seeds: Spread the selected seeds evenly on clean paper, and choose a sunny, windless and sunny day for drying. When drying, turn it every 2 hours so that the seeds can receive sunlight evenly. By drying, the moisture content of the seeds will be consistent, which will promote the after-ripening of the seeds, enhance the vitality of the seeds, improve the germination potential and germination rate of the seeds, and at the same time, it also has a sterilizing effect.
3. Seed soaking: Generally, the method of soaking seeds in warm soup is used. Put the sun-dried seeds into water at 55-60 degrees. The amount of water should be 5 times the volume of the seeds. Soak the seeds for 20-30 minutes. Finally, remove the seeds and dry them. Then soak the seeds in warm water at 28-30 degrees for 6-8 hours.
4. Germination: Dry the soaked seeds, wrap them in clean wet gauze, and carry out germination at a temperature of 25-30 degrees. Germination will occur in about 24 hours, and when the seeds just begin to turn white, they can be sown. When accelerating germination, try to control the bud growth within 0.5 cm to prevent the germination from being too long. When the buds are too long, it is easy to break the buds during sowing and reduce the emergence rate.
Why do you need topping when growing melons? How to topping? Topping means topping. Topping is a key technical measure for melon cultivation and management. Due to different variety characteristics, melons have different melon-forming habits. Some varieties produce melons early and abundantly on the main vines. For such varieties, it is often appropriate to pick the melons late and use the main vines to produce melons early and abundantly. Some varieties produce melons later and less on the main vines, but the sub-vines bear early and abundant melons. If there are too many, it is necessary to top the main vine and use the sub-vines to produce melons. Some varieties also use the sun vines to form melons. In some varieties, the main vines and sub-vines are late in forming melons, but the first section of the sun vines can produce melons, so the main and sub-vines will produce melons. The vines must be topping, and the sun vines must be used to produce melons. For varieties with main vines and melons, topping can be done after 4 true leaves. For varieties that use sub-vines or sun-vines to produce melons, in order to encourage the plants to produce sub-vines as soon as possible, the tips should be tipped (topped) in the seedbed. That is, when the two true leaves of the seedling are unfolded and exposed, in the morning when the tissue is tender, use a thin stick or bamboo skewer to remove the growth point of the seedling. Be careful when plucking the tips, and plow them in the direction opposite to the growth point. The action should be gentle so as not to damage the adjacent axillary buds. Some use sub-vines or sun-vines to produce melons, but do not plucking the tips, but pinch the tops when the seedlings have 4 true leaves. This method is not as early-maturing as plucking, but the yield is slightly higher and is suitable for mid- and late-maturing varieties.
Precautions during the maturity period of melon fruits
1. Harvest according to market and weather conditions. Each variety has different growth periods under different climate conditions and cultivation methods, which can be recorded The pollination date of the variety is combined with the variety grown and the climate and cultivation methods to infer the maturity date.
2. Maturity can be judged based on the skin color and other characteristics of the variety. For example, the skin color of yellow-skinned varieties turns yellow, the skin color of white-skinned varieties turns white or milky white, and the Elizabethan type matures with Judging by scent and other methods. When the fruit is ripe, the hardness of the fruit will change. You can press the peel at the navel with your fingers to feel elastic, indicating maturity. The bristles on the surface of the fruit or the fruit stem will fall off when gently touched and wiped by hand. When mature, the small leaves and tendrils at the fruit setting node will turn green, turn yellow and dry, which is also a way to judge maturity.