Growing watermelons
They are considered southern fruits, which delight us with their appearance in the markets at the end of the summer period. It is possible to independently grow watermelons in your garden, even if the natural conditions are far from southern ones. To do this, it is better to choose varieties that are resistant to cold, temperature extremes and drought. There is another option – to breed watermelons in a greenhouse.
Outdoor watermelons: growing
To obtain high yields at the end of the season, you need to try from the very beginning and follow all the rules for planting watermelons:
Growing watermelons in compliance with all the rules will give a sweet harvest in the fall
- Seed preparation. Each seed needs to be rubbed a little with sandpaper – this way shoots will appear faster. Then they need to be warmed up – soak in 50-degree water for half an hour. And the last procedure is disinfection. Fill the seeds with a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes, then leave to dry at room temperature.
- Landing. Held from mid to late April. Prepare the soil – watermelons grow well in humus soil. You can mix it with peat in equal parts. Add a woody zone – 2 tbsp. l. for 1 kg of soil. We take containers at least 10 cm in diameter. Watermelon seedlings do not like transplanting, so you need to plant seeds immediately in separate pots. We immerse the seed in the ground to a depth of 3 cm, cover the container with foil. We put it on the windowsill on the south side, we protect it from drafts. Watering as the soil dries.
- Transfer to open ground. We plant seedlings at the end of May. Carefully take out the seedlings together with the ground and place them in the holes at a distance of a meter from each other.
Young plants need abundant watering once a week. When revealing colors, cut the frequency by half. Watering is not required after the fruit appears.
Watermelons in the greenhouse: growing
The stages of seed preparation and planting are no different from the previous ones. The rest of the activities are carried out in the following algorithm:
- The land in the greenhouse should be prepared in advance, even in the fall. We dig it up and add rotted manure – 2 buckets per 1 m of soil. In the spring we cover the ground with plastic wrap so that it warms up faster.
- Before planting, we dig up the soil in about a week and make the beds. Between them, we put fertilizers in small grooves – hay with manure or humus. We bury and pour hot water.
- We move the seedlings into the beds together with the earth from the pot, otherwise it may die. The daytime temperature in the greenhouse should be around 30 ° C, at night at least 18 ° C. Open the door often to ventilate.
If the stalk of the watermelon begins to dry out, it means that it is ripe. You can harvest. The size of the fruit cannot be used to determine its ripeness; it may be small, but juicy and sweet.