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Recently, watermelon has become a fashionable serving for summer aperitifs. But still, a sweet and refreshing dish is more familiar as a dessert, especially when there is a small fruit on the table, like the Suga Baby watermelon. Gardeners are happy to grow this southern plant with an early ripening period, bred abroad in the 50s of the XX century.
Characterization
From the time of germination to fruit ripening, the variety develops for 75-85 days. Grown through seedlings and planted in open ground or in a greenhouse, Sugar Baby, as the name of the Shuga Baby watermelon variety literally translates from English, has time to ripen in the warm season of central Our Country. Unpretentious, resistant to the characteristic diseases of melons, the plant quickly spreads through the areas of amateur gardeners. The variety was included in the State Register in 2008, recommended for cultivation in the Central Black Earth region, as a horticultural crop. The originators are Lance CJSC, Moscow, and Agrofirma Poisk from the Moscow region.
One lash of watermelon of this variety can grow 6-12 kg of fruit. The yield per square meter is 8-10 kg. In the southern regions, the Shuga Baby variety is also cultivated for commercial production. Large, weighing 3-6 kg, the fruits of the variety are not as huge as those of high-yielding 10-12 kg watermelons. But sometimes consumer demand turns towards fruits of moderate size, considering them the best, from an environmental point of view. Harvest from plants of this variety is harvested from mid-August.
Siberian melon
Growing watermelon Shuga Baby is also possible in Siberia, you just need to pay attention to the degree of illumination of seedlings and an adult plant. If the light level for ripening watermelon fruits is low, they are tasteless and watery.
- For successful ripening, watermelon fruits require at least 8 hours of exposure to sunlight;
- Plantings of this variety on the slopes of the southern or south-western direction work well;
- You can not plant watermelons in peat soil;
- Sand is poured into the holes for the Shuga Baby variety so that the earth is loose and light;
- Often gardeners for watermelon plants cover the beds with a black film that accumulates heat;
- Scientists agronomists of the Far East successfully grew watermelons planted on mounds covered with a film on the experimental plot. The height of the mounds is 10 cm, the diameter is 70 cm. Three sprouts of watermelons were planted in the hole, stepson plants, and with chasing after 6 leaves. The mounds were closed up according to the scheme 2,1 x 2,1 m.
Description
The plant variety Shuga Baby is medium climbing. Round fruits with dark green, thin but dense skin. On the surface of the watermelon, rather weakly pronounced stripes of a darker shade are visible. When the fruit is fully ripe, the peel acquires a rich dark color. Bright red juicy pulp is very sweet, granular, delicate in taste. There are few seeds in the pulp of Shuga Baby watermelon, they are dark brown, almost black, small, do not interfere with enjoying the delicious honey taste of pleasantly crispy red slices. The sugar content of the fruit of this variety is 10-12%. In garden plots, fruits reach a mass of 1-5 kg.
Advantages and disadvantages
The long period of cultivation and the popularity of the hybrid ambiguously indicate its high qualities. Due to the obvious advantages of the variety, watermelon is a welcome guest on the plots.
- Balanced taste and delicate aroma of fruit pulp;
- Thin peel;
- Early maturity;
- Transportability and keeping quality;
- Ideal size for refrigerator storage;
- The unpretentiousness of the variety to climatic conditions;
- drought resistance;
- Fusarium immunity.
Among the shortcomings of the variety, the small size of the fruit is most often called.
Cultivation
In areas with a relatively short summer, it is possible to grow only early-ripening watermelons, which are completely filled with fragrant juice in three months. Some gardeners sow watermelon seeds in the ground, but such a planting is not always successful due to the vagaries of the weather. With the onset of a sudden cold snap in early summer, the seeds may not germinate, but die in the cold soil. Planting Shuga Baby watermelon through seedlings will ensure that the fruit grows in any weather. The variety does well in film or polycarbonate greenhouses and in the northern regions.
Watermelon seedlings are planted in open ground as soon as the soil at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 12-15 0C. Sandy soils, as a rule, warm up to this temperature in central Our Country by the end of May or early June. Considering that monthly seedlings are planted, it is necessary to sow the seeds of watermelon of the Shuga Baby variety in the last days of April.
Seed preparation
If the purchased seeds are not processed, they are prepared for sowing, preventing the development of common diseases.
- Seeds are disinfected for a quarter of an hour in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate;
- The grains are soaked in some preparation for presowing seed treatment;
- One easy option is to soak the seeds in warm water for up to 12 or 24 hours. The grains swell and germinate quickly in warm soil.
Seeds of the Shuga Baby variety from well-known manufacturers are often purchased with pre-sowing treatment already carried out, covered with a shell. Such seeds are only soaked before sowing in order to germinate faster.
- The seeds are placed in a gauze bag or placed between layers of paper napkins, which are kept moist for three days;
- When the sprout hatches, the germinated seeds are carefully placed in the substrate to a depth of 1-1,5 cm and sprinkled with soil.
Substrate preparation for seedlings
The soil must stand at room temperature so that it is warm for sowing the seeds of the Shuga Baby variety.
- The soil is taken from ordinary garden or turf soil, mixed with humus and sand to make it light and loose. The soil is prepared in a ratio of 1:3:1;
- Another option for the substrate: 3 parts of caked sawdust and 1 part of humus;
- To the substrate is also added to 10 kg of a mixture of 20 g of nitrogen and potassium agents, 40 g of superphosphate.
Care of seedlings
Pots with sown watermelon seeds are left in a place where the temperature is kept up to 30 0C. Sprouts from germinated seeds appear in a week or less.
- So that the Shuga Baby watermelon plants do not stretch out, the container is transferred to a cool room, up to 18 0C;
- A week later, the strengthened sprouts are provided with comfortable warmth – 25-30 0C;
- The substrate is moderately watered with warm water;
- When 2 or 3 true leaves appear, they are fed with a solution of 1 g of superphosphate and 5 g of potassium salt in 2 liter of water.
15 days before the expected date of planting, watermelon seedlings are hardened by taking them out into the air if the plants are moved to the garden. They start from short periods of time – an hour or an hour and a half, gradually increasing the stay of seedlings on the street. By this period, the seedlings already have 4-5 leaves.
Plants in the garden
Growing watermelons of the Shuga Baby variety provides for their planting according to the scheme of 1,4 x 1 m.
- If the plant is led along a trellis, any side shoots should be removed at a distance from the root up to 50 cm of the length of the lash;
- The following branches are pinched after the third sheet;
- Watered with warm water, spending on 1 square. m beds 30 liters of water;
- Watering is limited only when large watermelons have formed, and the process of pulp ripening begins;
- The soil is constantly loosened and weeds are removed;
- Scourges of watermelons grown in spreading are sprinkled with earth in several places so that new roots form for additional nutrition of the plant.
If watermelon seeds are planted directly into the ground in the middle or end of May, they are deepened by 4-5 cm. For quick germination, a mini-greenhouse is made of plastic containers for each hole. As soon as green leaves appear, the plastic is removed.
In the greenhouse
Seedlings are planted according to the scheme 0,7 x 0,7 m. Humus, wood ash and sand are placed in the holes. Watermelon plants are tied up or left to develop in spreading, if the area allows.
- 10 days after planting, Shuga Baby watermelons are fed with saltpeter, dissolving 20 g in 10 liters of water;
- Top dressing with complex fertilizers for watermelons is carried out every one and a half weeks;
- When flowering, if the weather is cloudy and the greenhouse is closed, gardeners need to pollinate watermelon flowers themselves;
- Lateral shoots and excess ovaries are removed, leaving 50-2 fruits on the main lash up to 3 cm long.
A delicious harvest largely depends on the vagaries of the weather, but ingenuity and caring care can ensure the full ripening of the desired fruits.
