Planting melons and replanting melon seeds is a common task for domestic gardeners. It would seem that what is so complicated here and is it possible to learn anything new about this procedure? It's wrong to think that way. There are a number of features, taking into account which you will be able to discover a truly rich harvest in due time. How to plant a melon, when to plant melon seedlings at home and what points a novice specialist needs to take into account - all this is worth learning about in due time.

Selection and preparation of a site

Planting melons in the ground in the period June-July begins with the most basic: choosing a site for seedlings, as well as a complex agrotechnical techniques, making it possible to make the territory suitable for growing agricultural crops.

The first thing you should pay attention to is that the land plot should be open, but at the same time at least partially protected from strong winds. Even in the autumn, it is necessary to begin preparing it for sowing melon seeds. To do this, dig up the area and add humus to the soil. Sometimes the owners personal plots are faced with the following problem: the soil in the garden cannot boast a composition suitable for growing crops. Let's say the soil is too clayey. In this case, you need to add river sand to the ground.

IN spring time immediately before planting melon seeds, the area is dug up again and fertilizers (phosphates and potassium) are added to it. These nutritional formulations are purchased in specialized stores. As for the proportions in which the products are applied to the soil, this already depends on the manufacturer. Therefore, carefully read the instructions that come with the fertilizer you have chosen.

Seed preparation

Sowing melon seeds in open ground includes preparing not only the soil, but also the seed material. To start, the grains after the melon need to be soaked for 20 minutes in a solution of table salt. Those that float can be safely thrown away. The rest should be thoroughly rinsed under running water and dried. Before planting melons in open ground, take into account the fact that the best option is to sow grains that are two or three years old. Another important stage in the preparation of seed material is to soak them in a solution of potassium permanganate to disinfect them.

Growing seedlings

Melon is not only about planting and caring for open ground. In order to avoid problems with the harvest in the future, you can sow agricultural grains for seedlings several weeks before planting. To do this, you will need to purchase special peat pots or tablets. Add regular garden soil to them. An alternative substrate is a mixture of peat with sand and wood ash. Melons are planted in each cup (2-3 seeds are sown).

In order for growing melon at home to be effective, be sure to water the seedlings, but remember: soil moisture should be moderate.

Landing in the ground

The planting scheme for melon seeds is the most important stage for the gardener. How to plant seedlings and grow them correctly? To do this, you need to water it abundantly - then transferring it from the peat cup into the hole will be much easier. Consider the key nuance: the root collar of the plant must remain on the surface of the earth, otherwise the crop may rot in the future.

Since melon plants are often susceptible to fungal attack, it is better to immediately resort to good preventive measures. Treat newly planted seedlings in open ground with river sand. After planting the melons, do not forget to cover the seedlings with wet paper for several days. This way you can much better protect your planted melons from direct sunlight at home. This procedure can be completed after two days.

Knowing how to plant melon seeds, what to plant, at what distance to sow the seeds, when is the best time to plant melons and at what time to replant them, you can ensure the cultivation of melons at home. The process of growing this agricultural crop from seeds both in Russia and Ukraine, in summer time no particular difficulties. By following basic recommendations when planting seedlings in the spring, you will be able to plant melon seeds correctly and be satisfied with the results.

Video “Planting a melon”

In this video you will hear useful tips for growing melons.

Melon is a popular crop that is successfully cultivated all over the world. Therefore, having own plot and the desire to create with your own hands, attention should be paid to the cultivation and rules of planting this favorite summer-autumn delicacy in open ground so that it can look healthy and have a wonderful taste.

IN different regions You can sow melon directly with seeds, or plant it first as seedlings. Cultivation and care must be carried out regardless of the area; shaping and feeding or tying to a trellis may also be necessary.

Melon is a heat-loving plant that need a lot of light. She feels good in hot weather and even drought. The maximum humidity for this crop is 60-70%.

The culture has a massive root system that is capable of obtaining moisture at a depth of up to one meter. This plant requires a lot of free space for intensive development and comfortable growth.

Even though the melon is a southern resident, it can be grown in almost any area, the main thing is to know how to do it. Nowadays, a sufficient number of varieties have been developed that take root well and bear fruit in moderately warm and cold climates.

The most popular melon varieties to plant in the Middle Zone and Ukraine

There are many varieties of melons with different characteristics for open ground. When choosing a variety for planting, it is important to take into account the climate of the area.

According to reviews experienced gardeners, the best varieties to plant at the dacha in central Russia or Ukraine, in the climatic conditions of the Moscow region - Altaiskaya and Kolkhoznitsa.

Early ripening, allows harvesting in 70 days crop growth from the period of seedling formation. The plant is medium in size and forms a vine of moderate length.

The fruits are golden in color and have an oval shape. The ability to achieve 1.5 kg. Tender flesh is light colored Orange color, characterized by sleepiness, sweetness and graininess.

Among the positive characteristics: adaptability to adverse weather conditions, excellent transportability and keeping quality.

Melon belongs to the early ripening variety. The first harvest can be collected after 75 days after disembarkation.

The plant produces small orange-yellow round fruits with a convex stalk attachment. On average, the weight of one fruit is 1.5 kg. The dense pulp and durable crust makes it easy to transport the crop, which can be stored for a week after harvest.

Growing a heat-loving vegetable is difficult in areas with a harsh climate, such as Siberia.

In such conditions, only certain varieties can grow, which include Early 133 and Yantarnaya.

Early ripening variety, growing season - 60-70 days. Fruits are oval-shaped and with peel yellow color. It has white, dense, tender, sweet pulp with excellent taste and aroma. The weight of one fruit is approximately 1.5 kg.

It is valued for its excellent commercial qualities, good transportability and high immunity to major crop diseases.

A mid-early ripening variety. Growing season from germination to ripening of melons 70-85 days. Plant with long vines medium power. Juicy fruits spherical shape with juicy, fairly thick pulp and weight up to 2.5 kg.

What varieties are suitable for sowing in Bashkiria and the Urals

Vegetable growers in the Urals and Bashkiria who want to grow melon on their plots must choose a more suitable variety for the Ural region. The optimal sowing material for melons is Sybarite's Dream and Cinderella.

An early variety that reaches technical ripeness after 50-55 days. The fruits have an original elongated shape and a green striped peel. The mass of one fruit is equal to 400 g.

Juicy crispy whitish flesh with a specific honey aroma and taste. The main advantages are increased productivity, continuous fruiting until frost, and good disease resistance.

The variety belongs to early ripening crops, since the growing season is 60 days, for which the fruits are collected up to 1.5 kg weight.

Melons are yellow in color with a convex mesh pattern. The pulp is white in color and is characterized by juiciness and sweetness. Thanks to its rich aroma, it is valued in culinary matters.

The advantages include high resistance to temperature changes, various diseases and pest attacks. The disadvantage is short storage and poor transportability due to the rather thin rind of melons.

Planting rules

There are several ways to plant a crop:

• sowing seeds;
• seedling method;
• using grafted seedlings.

The simplest available method for any gardener is planting seeds in open ground. Other options are considered more complex and not suitable for everyone.

Preparation for planting seeds

To obtain a high-quality harvest, proper preparation of seeds for sowing is important. Buy planting material in special stores or collect it yourself from fruit grown in your own garden and germinate it at home.

When collecting seeds at home, you must follow the basic rule: prepare only from large-sized sweet melons.

One more nuance is important: only in the third year after collection You can use seeds as planting material. Because from fresh specimens, plants develop with the absence of female inflorescences, as a result of which they do not have the ability to bear fruit.

In order for the seedlings to be friendly and the plants to develop strong, seed material is needed etch in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for an hour. Then soak at 20-25 degrees in a thick layer of gauze, which is immersed in a container so that the water only slightly covers the seeds.

Every 4-6 hours, the seeds need to be ventilated and immersed in water again. The total soaking time is 12 hours. Then scatter the seeds in a thin layer on a damp cloth and keep until the first sprouts appear.

Selecting a site and preparing the soil for planting seedlings

Melon is a light-loving plant that does not tolerate shading. Therefore, areas that are well-lit by the sun and maximally protected from cold winds are suitable for this crop.

When planning to plant a melon beauty in the garden, you need to take into account what crops grew in the garden last year and the neighboring influence different plants for melon. As predecessors there may be garlic, onions, cabbage, peas, beans, winter grains.

Good neighbors that will repel pests, improve taste and promote growth are considered turnip, basil, radish.

It does not get along well with potatoes, which can cause them to wilt, and cucumbers, as the plants can become dusty with each other and become bitter in taste.

Melon is very demanding of soil, so light, medium-loamy soil with neutral acidity, rich in organic matter, is suitable for it.

The area for cultivating the plant must be properly prepared:

• autumn earth dig on the bayonet of a shovel and add humus, if there is heavy soil, saturate it with river sand;
• with the onset of spring, sprinkle the bed, using peat or ash to speed up the melting of snow, then cover it with film to ensure maximum heating of the soil;
• when the surface layer of soil warms up to a temperature of +13 degrees, carry out deep loosening with the addition of potassium and phosphate minerals, strictly observing the amount of fertilizer applied, which is indicated by manufacturers on the packages;
• Before starting the planting process, re-dig the area, filling it with fertilizers that contain nitrogen.

Conditions for proper cultivation and care

Gardeners are recommended to plant melon in the ground only in the southern regions. IN northern latitudes and in the middle zone it is better to grow only using mature seedlings, because melon may have time to sprout from seeds, but will not bear fruit until the cold weather. Favorable time for disembarkation - last days of April.

To do this, you need to follow the following procedure, care for and love the plant properly:

1. Make holes 5-6 cm deep. Planting pattern: 1 m row spacing, row distance 0.7 m.
2. Equip each hole with humus and water with warm water.
3. Place 3-4 seeds in each hole.
4. Water the planted seed and cover it with dry soil.

It is better to carry out the planting process after rain in moist soil, then seedlings will form earlier. If cold weather is expected, you should cover the beds with film at night before seedlings appear.

The fruits are ripe late July - early August. When ripe, the vegetable acquires its characteristic color, the pattern is clearly revealed and the characteristic aroma inherent in melon appears. A signal of full maturity is easy separation from the stalk.

According to lunar calendar Gardeners in 2018 can begin the process of planting melons on March 27-28, from April 20 to 24, and in May on any day from the 19th to the 23rd.

Pledge successful cultivation melon beauty - sunny, warm weather, when pollination and development of sugary juicy fruits actively occur. It is important to choose the appropriate variety and observe simple techniques agricultural technology, dive and pinch seedlings if necessary, and then a rich increase in the melon harvest is ensured.

Definitely the best melons grow in the countries of Central Asia, but in a significant part of our country you can get tasty and aromatic fruits. Sometimes this is done in a greenhouse, but melon loves the sun very much, and the most delicious specimens grow in open ground. If climatic conditions allow, then you must plant it on your site, and growing it is as easy as shelling pears.

What kind of soil does melon like?

Melon is a heat- and light-loving plant that does not tolerate shading, so you need to choose the sunniest garden bed for it. The crop grows well in hot and even dry weather, but humidity above 70% is no longer very good for it. Melon has very powerful roots, penetrating up to a meter deep and extracting the necessary moisture from there. The plant, which is not very large in appearance, requires a large free space for its comfortable existence, so you cannot save on the beds. When choosing a location, it must be taken into account that the plants must be protected from northern winds. At the same time, it is better if it is a small hill where excess water does not accumulate. Moisture has a detrimental effect on melons, causing rot and fungal diseases.

Melons should be exposed to sunlight as much as possible.

Melon is very demanding regarding the chemical and fractional composition of the soil. The plant loves light soils, preferably medium loams with an acidity close to neutral. If clay predominates in the area, when digging it is necessary to add river sand (half a bucket per 1 m2). Acidic soils should be limed in advance by adding dolomite flour, chalk or slaked lime. When choosing a place in the garden, you need to remember what crops grew there before. The best predecessors are garlic, onions, legumes, cabbage, corn, cucumbers. Melon grows poorly after carrots and tomatoes. It should not be planted after repeated cultivation of melons. They can grow in one bed for a maximum of two years in a row, after which a five-year break must be provided.

As with most vegetable plants, it is better to prepare the bed in the fall, although there will be time for this in the spring: melon is not planted very early. The area must be dug up with a shovel, adding the necessary fertilizers. For 1 m2 of beds, about a bucket of rotted manure or good compost is required. In the spring, you need to go over the bed with a cultivator, first adding superphosphate and wood ash (40 g and a half-liter jar per 1 m2, respectively). In order for the soil to ripen and warm up faster, immediately after the snow melts, you can cover the soil with plastic film.

Preparing seeds for planting

Melon can be planted through the seedling stage and by direct sowing in open ground, but seed preparation is the same in both cases. They are not always specially purchased in stores; sometimes they are chosen from the fruit they like, bought for food. The second case will not always lead to success. Firstly, like most crops, melon has hybrids (F1), and taking seeds from them is useless: it’s not clear what can grow. Secondly, markets often sell crops grown in other climates, and planting Central Asian varieties in the middle zone is completely futile. Therefore, it is better to study the literature, find out which varieties are zoned, and buy reliable seeds in a specialized store. If you are planting a melon not for the first time and taking seeds from your harvest, you need to select the largest and sweetest fruits for this purpose.

Important! Do not plant fresh seeds. The best ones are between the ages of three and six years. The fact is that young seeds produce a huge amount of barren flowers: male flowers significantly predominate in number over female ones, and the harvest is scanty.

To disinfect, melon seeds are soaked for 20–30 minutes in a pink solution of potassium permanganate, then washed with clean water. To increase germination, some gardeners soak seeds in solutions of growth stimulants or boric acid with the addition of zinc sulfate. Actually, if pickling in potassium permanganate is necessary, since it significantly reduces the risk of diseases, then growth stimulants are not needed. Good seeds germinate well in warm weather.

Melon seeds are very similar to cucumber seeds and are easy to handle.

When growing melons in central Russia, it is advisable to pre-harden them. To do this, they are soaked in warm water (30–35 °C), after cooling, they are kept in the water for another couple of hours, and then transferred to a damp cloth and sent to the refrigerator for 12–15 hours.

Do I need to soak melon seeds before planting?

If you carry out preparatory operations, the question of the need for soaking is removed by itself. In fact, the seeds are no longer dry, but even slightly swollen. But many gardeners sow them already sprouted, and to do this, after hardening, they are again sent into water at room temperature. After 4 hours, remove and lightly dry. The soaking and drying operations are alternated up to three times, after which the seeds are scattered on a damp cloth and monitored for their pecking. As soon as the shell bursts slightly and the beginnings of roots appear, begin sowing.

Soaking melon seeds is one of the conditions for obtaining a bountiful harvest.

The question of the need for soaking is not idle. We all know the theory called “Vegetable garden for the lazy”. If you do everything “as written”, there will be no energy or time left for life, and especially for work in production. Therefore, we often neglect operations that seem unnecessary to us. The author of these lines (who lives in the Middle Volga region) has never in his life pickled melon seeds or soaked them. It cannot be said that the yields are always high and stable, but there are several beautiful fruits without unnecessary hassle It grows every year in a small garden bed.

Sowing time

The timing of planting melons in open ground depends on whether it is planting seedlings or direct sowing of seeds in a garden bed. Sowing seeds directly into open ground is recommended only for southern regions. An attempt to do this in the middle zone and in the north of the country can lead to the fact that the fruits of even the earliest varieties will have time to set, but will not ripen. The best time to sow melon at home or in a greenhouse for seedlings is the end of April.

Planting seedlings in open ground is possible only when daytime temperatures are stably established at 15–20 o C, and at night they do not drop below 6 o C. In conditions middle zone this does not occur until the end of May. Of course, at earlier times there are also periods of warm weather lasting even up to two weeks, but usually they are replaced by cold snaps, so there is no need to rush to plant seedlings. In the north, the dates shift another couple of weeks towards summer. If it gets sharply cold, and the seedlings have already been planted, they should be covered with non-woven materials, and more solid shelters should be added at night.

Melon seedlings are recommended to be planted in open ground after the threat of return frosts has passed.

Sowing seeds directly into open ground is possible a week earlier. As a rule, the soil in mid-May, even in the middle zone, has already warmed up, the seeds will not die, and by the time they decide to sprout, the threat of frost will go away.

Is it possible to plant melons in June?

It may seem that the melon planting dates can be shifted even to June in order to avoid unnecessary risk. This is quite possible if we are talking about planting strong, prepared seedlings, the seeds for which were sown no later than the beginning of May. Is it possible to sow in open ground in June? This question is quite subtle. Yes, the plants will have time to grow, bloom, produce a harvest, and the early ripening varieties will gain sugar and produce quite edible fruits. But there is another side to the problem.

Melon is a short day plant. This means that for the timely onset of flowering, it needs not too long daylight hours, and in June in the middle zone it reaches 17 hours. Therefore, the sooner the seeds are placed in the ground (even in seedling cups), the less time is required for flowering to begin.

In addition, experience shows that melons sown from mid-May and later produce much fewer flowers than those whose life cycle began earlier, in February-April. Excessive sunlight is not very beneficial for young plants. Therefore, if possible, you should not delay sowing melons.

How to plant a melon

Melon can be sown in a garden bed with seeds or planted with pre-grown seedlings. And if in the south no one is engaged in growing seedlings, then in the northern regions it is impossible to do without it.

Distance between seedlings

Regardless of the planting method, the placement pattern is the same. It is based on the requirements of the plant for its growing conditions. And melons are required in addition usual care also the formation of bushes (removing excess vines, pinching, etc.), without which the harvest turns out to be meager. This means that when planting plants, it is necessary to provide for the convenience of subsequent care for them.

There are different schemes for growing melons, but in any case the plants should grow freely. The most popular is line planting, in which a minimum of 70, and preferably 90, cm is left between the rows. In this case, the holes are made in a checkerboard pattern, but in each of the rows the distance between adjacent holes must be at least half a meter. With denser plantings, caring for the plantation is difficult, and the likelihood of diseases is increased.

Melons need to be given a lot of free space, because they will soon completely occupy it

There are people who like to make a flower bed out of melon plantings. It is made in the form of a circle with a diameter of about one and a half meters. One hole is made in the center of the circle and 5–6 pieces around the circumference.

Planting melon seeds in open ground

Planting melon seeds is as easy as planting most vegetable plants. To do this you need to do the following:

1. In the places designated for planting according to the chosen pattern, make shallow holes up to 5 cm.
2. Add half a glass of wood ash and a teaspoon of urea to each well and mix well.
3. Gently pour warm water into the holes from a ladle until the moisture is absorbed into the soil.
4. Place several prepared seeds in each hole at a distance of 3–5 cm from each other.
5. Cover the seeds with soil and lightly compact the soil.
6. If the weather forecast is unfavorable, cover the bed with spunbond or lutrasil.

Shoots can be expected in 1–1.5 weeks, and when will the most strong plants in each hole, the excess will need to be removed.

Video: sowing melon seeds in the garden

Planting seedlings in open ground

When sowing seeds at home or in a greenhouse for seedlings, it must be taken into account that transplanting seedlings into open ground will take place no earlier than in a month. Only when sowing seeds in peat pots or tablets can this be done a little earlier without disturbing the root system. Taking this into account, the start date for work should be determined.

The optimal soil mixture for seedlings consists of equal parts of turf soil, sand, peat and humus. You can limit yourself to a peat-sand composition, but then peat should make up slightly more than half of the total volume. You can sow in a box, but transplanting melons from a common container into a garden bed will be very painful, and it is better to take a separate glass for each plant. Optimally - peat pots with a diameter of about 10 cm. Sowing is carried out to a depth of about 2 cm, 2-3 seeds per glass, and a little clean sand is poured on top. Before sowing, the soil is slightly moistened. The optimal temperature for growing seedlings is 20 °C during the day and 15 °C at night, but immediately after emergence it is lowered by 3–5 degrees for several days. Moderate watering is needed. After the seedlings grow a few centimeters, one plant at a time is left in the pot.

Each melon plant needs its own cup; you should not disturb the roots when transplanting into the ground

By the time of planting in the garden, the seedlings should have several pairs of true leaves. Planting seedlings has small features:

1. Before planting in open ground, seedlings must be watered well.
2. The seedling must be removed from the reusable container as carefully as possible without destroying the earthen lump. The whole peat pot is planted in the hole.
3. In the designated places, use a scoop to make holes the size of an earthen clod and water them with warm water.
4. Carefully lower the seedlings into the holes so that they are 1–2 cm above the surface of the ground. Deepening is strictly prohibited.
5. Carefully water the seedlings in the garden bed with warm water from a ladle so that the earthen ball drops no lower than the soil level. Add soil without filling the root collar.
6. Sprinkle a thin layer of clean sand around the plants.
7. For the first few days, cover the bed with seedlings non-woven material.

Is it possible to plant a melon in a barrel?

IN last years It became fashionable to plant various vegetables and even strawberries in old, unusable barrels. This saves space in the dacha and makes it easier to care for the plantings. Some gardeners plant melons in this way.

To do this, an old barrel is painted with light paint (the roots do not need overheating) and half filled with hay, straw, mown grass, sawdust and other debris. Several buckets of fertile soil are poured on top, adding a couple of cans of wood ash. The soil is spilled with a solution of potassium permanganate and the seeds are sown in a barrel. In a standard barrel, it is possible to make only two holes; several seeds are placed in them in the same way as in a regular garden bed. For the first time, cover the crops with non-woven material or simply cut-off halves of plastic bottles.

Melons are heat-loving, so they feel good in a barrel. Watering is carried out with warm water, and the fertilizers will ripen by themselves at the right time, since there is grass below. Melon vines can hang freely from the walls of the barrel, but at first they try not to let them do this. Only when a really warm summer arrives can they behave as they please.

You can plant any vegetables in a barrel: cucumbers, pumpkins, melons

If you try, you can build a similar structure on the balcony and grow melons right in an apartment building. Of course, there is no need to drag a huge barrel there, but in a bucket of soil it is quite possible to grow one melon and get several fruits from it.

Neighborhood with other cultures

Our summer resident cannot allow space on the site to be empty, and rightly so. If nothing can be planted next to some plants, then melon is not one of them. The best neighbors for melons are radishes, beans, corn, and herbs. Undesirable neighbors are cucumbers and potatoes. Potatoes emit substances that cause melon plants to wilt, and cucumbers are so related to melons that in some cases they can cross-pollinate, which spoils the quality of the crop. And, of course, there should be no trees near the melon, since shading is contraindicated for this crop.

The question often arises about planting melon and watermelon together. It turns out that they coexist perfectly with each other, especially since their growing conditions are almost the same. However, it is necessary to take into account that both crops grow very much, so when planting you need to leave significant distances between them.

Melon care

Melon care includes the most common agronomic activities. Watering is needed infrequently, only in obviously dry times, but before the fruits appear, it is still advisable to do it weekly: at the root and always with water heated in the sun. When the fruits appear, watering is reduced and then stopped altogether. Loosening with the simultaneous destruction of weeds is possible until the melons have grown and filled the entire space. When side lashes appear, the melon is lightly hilled. Feeding is needed three times:

• 2 weeks after disembarkation;
• at the beginning of flowering;
• at the beginning of fruit growth.

There is no need to give a lot of fertilizers; it is best to limit yourself to diluted mullein.

As soon as the seedlings continue to grow in a new place, their main stem is pinched so that the plant spends all its resources on the formation and growth of fruits. Ultimately, each bush should have one main stem and two side stems. (For hybrids, it’s the other way around: after the third leaf, the side stems are pinched, the main female flowers are formed on the main shoot).

The maximum number of fruits that one bush can bear is 6–7 pieces. Often trellises are installed for melons. In this case, tying is required - these plants do not tend to climb up on their own. If trellises are not installed, care must be taken to ensure that the fruits do not lie on bare ground and rot. Place a piece of board or plywood under each melon.

Growing melons on trellises saves space and protects the fruit from damage.

Features of planting melons in the regions

The main difference in climatic conditions between regions for growing melons is the number of warm summer days. This is what leaves an imprint not only on the conditions for caring for plants, but also on the method of planting them in beds. Growing melons is extremely difficult only in regions with a harsh climate, for example, in Siberia.

Central Russia

In central Russia, a few varieties of melons are grown. The most traditional are Altai and Kolkhoznitsa. It is not easy to harvest a good harvest here, and direct sowing of seeds in open ground is almost never used. First, seedlings are grown at home. Work on growing seedlings begins after April 20, and at the end of May they are transferred under film covers. Hardening of seeds before sowing is mandatory. You can transplant seedlings into open ground no earlier than the tenth of June.

The melon variety Kolkhoznitsa is one of the most popular in central Russia.

The success of the entire event depends on the current weather. In other years, the harvest manages to ripen and is quite decent. But there are very rainy and cold seasons, and then the melon in the open ground may not even start, limiting itself to growing abundant green mass. In good years, melons are successfully grown in the Bryansk, Novgorod, Vladimir, and Kaluga regions. New varieties are appearing, so this crop will soon move even further north.

Moscow region

The Moscow region also belongs to the middle zone, and this is an area in which growing melons is risky. You can get a normal harvest in the Moscow region only by using seedlings. Seeds should be sown no earlier than mid-April; there is enough daylight at this time. Seedlings are planted in early summer on small mounds. They often arrange for this “ smart garden bed": the ground, well seasoned with organic fertilizers, is covered with black film, and melon seedlings are planted in holes cut in it. And even in such a bed, for the first time, young shoots are covered with spunbond overnight. As soon as the flowers begin to appear, the covering is removed: by this time real warmth has already arrived.

Historical fact. In the Moscow region, melons were planted on warm manure beds already in the 16th century. True, they did this using greenhouses, which were opened only on the sunniest days. They used “biofuel” to grow melons – sheep or horse manure, which slowly decomposes and heats the greenhouse. And now they try to plant melons in greenhouses, but sometimes good results are obtained in open ground.

Planting melon in Belarus

The Belarusian climate is similar to Moscow, but milder: in winter there is no sharp alternation of frost and thaw, and spring comes a little earlier. Melons here, as in the Moscow region, are grown through seedlings, which are planted in a permanent place in early summer. Not all varieties in Belarus can produce a good harvest of tasty fruits; hybrids are most often sown: Aikido F1, Caramel F1, Petra F1, etc. Seedlings are planted on ridges with a distance of more than a meter between them. Planting on the plain is used less frequently.

Many people try to sow melons directly into the ground, sometimes this option leads to success, especially in the southern regions: Minsk, Gomel. But even there you can sow in the ground no earlier than the end of May, and the crops have to be covered with film for the first time. Growing melon through seedlings allows you to bring the harvest closer by two weeks, and the use of film coverings gives you an advance in terms of almost a month.

Melon variety Caramel F1 is characterized by stable fruit formation under stressful conditions

Ural region

Summer in the Urals is short and cold, so melons often do not have time to ripen. Here it is necessary to use the seedling method, and often the seedlings are planted not in a garden bed, but in a greenhouse. There are only a few suitable varieties; the most popular are Sybarite's Dream and Cinderella.

Planting seedlings in open ground is possible only in mid-June, and even at this time for the first couple of weeks it is covered with film or trimmed plastic bottles. Most often you have to stretch the film onto a high frame and not remove it for the first one and a half to two weeks. Getting good harvests is not guaranteed in this case either, but most often it is possible to get quite tasty and fully ripened fruits.

Melon of the Sybarite Dream variety has sweet pulp with a delicate aroma

Video: melons in the Urals

Melon is a southern plant, but enthusiasts are trying to plant it in most regions of our country. In harsh regions you cannot do without seedlings; in the middle zone you can sometimes sow melon directly in open ground, and in the south it grows freely after simply sowing the seeds. You often have to take risks, but the Russian summer resident respects the risk and tries to promote this culture further and further to the north.

If you wish, melon can be grown anywhere, even in the North. Juicy, sweet, fragrant melon melts in your mouth and brings pleasure! There are many varieties of melons, different in shape and taste. But they all like to grow in the same conditions - dry and hot air. They do not like excessive watering and moisture. Sunshine for them best friend and comrade, and they are not at all afraid to expose their sides to the open rays of the sun. So it turns out that the best settlement for growing melons in open ground will be the south of our big country.

And how offensive it is to the northern peoples, and even to those who live in central Russia, that they cannot plant a melon in a garden bed or in a country house, and in the fall enjoy the wonderful taste of this southern beauty. But no! Don't be upset! You can grow melon both here, in the middle zone, and in Siberia.

Selecting and preparing a site

Since this southern beauty loves to grow in fertile warm areas of land, and even hidden from the wind, we will cook what she loves. And we’ll start preparing in the fall. In the fall, dig up the melon bed not deeply, using a spade, and apply humus as fertilizer, 3-4 kilograms per square meter. If your site has more clay soil, you will also need to “fluff” it with river sand (half a bucket of sand per square meter).

So we’ll leave the garden bed until spring. In the spring we get to work again: dig up one more time and apply fertilizers with potassium and phosphate. And the proportions will be written on the fertilizer packaging. Before planting, you will need to add rotted manure or nitrogen fertilizers.

Seed preparation

The soil has been prepared, now you need to prepare the seeds to grow seedlings. You can buy seeds in the store, or you can prepare them yourself. Melons, as it turns out, are very interesting plants: From the seeds of last year's harvest, strong and strong plants may grow, but they will not produce hearths. This is because the flowers on them will be male and there may be no ovary. And in order to have a good harvest, it is advisable to take seeds that are three or four years old.

You need to choose large seeds for sowing seedlings and you need to treat them with a compound for such seeds (you can buy them in the store). You can treat the seeds with a solution of boric acid and zinc sulfate. The seeds need to be soaked in this solution for 12 hours.

To grow melon in the Non-Black Earth Region, wise gardeners advise hardening the seeds. Immerse in warm (up to 35 degrees) water, remove and leave for one day at 18 to 20 degrees, then gradually reduce the temperature to 0 degrees and keep the seeds for another eighteen to twenty hours. After this, increase the temperature again to 20 degrees. And this needs to be done three times a day. last week before planting seeds.

We grow seedlings

To grow seedlings, you need to purchase peat pots (or peat tablets) with a diameter of up to ten centimeters. Fill plastic or cardboard pots with soil for garden crops or a soil mixture of the following composition: mix peat with sand (9 parts peat and 1 part sand) and one glass of wood ash per 10 liters of soil.

By soaking the seeds for a day before planting, you can discard the empty seeds (they will float). You need to plant the seeds in prepared pots, two or three at a time, up to five centimeters deep. Pots with seeds should be kept indoors at a daytime temperature of 18-20 degrees until the first sprouts appear, and the night temperature should not be lower than fifteen.

In about a week, the first shoots should appear; they need to be thinned out and one strong sprout left in the pot. When the third or fourth true leaf appears, the seedlings need to be pinched, this can lead to the development of side shoots. Care for the seedlings in the usual way, only water less, and without getting water on the leaves and stems. To prevent black legs, you can sprinkle a layer of river sand around the leg, only dry sand. The seeds need to be sown in April, and only after twenty-five days can they be transplanted into the ground.

Video - how to grow a melon

Planting melons in the ground

In the soil you have prepared, make holes 70-80 centimeters apart from each other both in width and along the length of the bed. During frosts, seedlings cannot be planted; it is better to wait them out. This will be in early June in central Russia.

The most important thing when transplanting seedlings is not to damage the roots of the future melon. It is better to plant it together with the soil in which it grew in the pot. Before planting, pour water into the hole and add a little humus. The seedlings need to be planted so that the stem does not go deep. The lump of earth with which the seedlings were planted should be slightly on the surface of the earth. Water the planted seedlings again and sprinkle with dry soil. The first two days the seedlings need to create shade, so they will be better accepted. If there are strong temperature changes between day and night, create a film covering for the still fragile planting. Such covers can be installed at night and removed during the day. They can be used to protect against the rain that melons don’t like.

If you have your own greenhouse, we recommend that you read the article “Growing melon in a greenhouse.”

Melon varieties

Alushta(Crimean experimental station), ripening period - 70 days. The fruits are large, oval, ripen up to 1.3-1.5 kg, orange-yellow, with rare elongated dark orange streaks. White, sweet, juicy pulp. Tasting score: 4.6. The yield is high, 145-175 centners per hectare.

Dessert 5 (selected by the Krasnodar Research Institute of Vegetable Farming), small, short-oval, fine-mesh surface, reaches 1.6 kg, a lot of pulp, white-green color, very sweet, tender. Tasting score: 4.8. High-yielding variety- 40-160 centners per hectare. It has good keeping quality.

Among the mid-ripening varieties (80-90 days), it is worth noting the variety Golden(created by the Krasnodar Research Institute). The shape of the fruit is close to round, the network is weakly expressed, the color is yellow with an orange tint, weight is 1.3-1.6 kg. This variety has juicy, white pulp. Tasting - 3.9-4.0. The average yield is 120 centners per hectare. The advantage of this variety is its resistance to disease.

Southerner, or it is also called water lily. (Kuban experimental station VNIIR). The fruits are round with longitudinal ribs, orange-yellow, large, 1.8-1.9 kg. Tasting score - 4.7 points. This variety is considered high-yielding; in good years, you can harvest up to 220-240 centners per hectare. Sugar content is like Kolkhoznitsa's.

The most stable, widespread and most suitable variety for the middle zone is Collective farmer(derived by the Biryuchekutsk experimental station). Melons of this variety are orange, round, weighing about 1 kg. The pulp is light, white, unusually sweet. Tasting - 5.0. You can collect about 100 centners per hectare per season.

Melon care

The whole time the melon is growing in the ground, it must be loosened, weeded, watered and hilled. You also need to pinch the melon vines.

Loosening

The first two loosening of row spacing should be carried out no deeper than 15 centimeters. Next time, loosening should be carried out no deeper than 10 centimeters; this should not be done near the melon stem. After the first lateral vines appear, the melon should be hilled up by raking a roll of soil to the melon stem.

Watering

In a melon patch, melon grows almost without moisture, then create the same conditions for it and water as moderately as possible. And if there is dew on the grass in the morning, watering is canceled altogether. You need to water carefully between rows so that water does not get on the leaves and vines of the melon.

Topping

As we said before, the first time a melon is pinched is when it is still in seedlings. After planting the melon in the ground and adapting it, you need to pinch the main stem again (above the seventh leaf). The same should be done with the side lashes, then remove all excess flowers and leave three already tied fruits, which are not next to each other, but at a distance. All shoots that are left without fruit should be removed so as not to draw juices from the main stem.

Top dressing

Melon should be fed. And the first time this should be done after two weeks of planting in the ground. Top dressing can be saltpeter, chicken manure or mullein. And the next feedings are carried out every 10 days. You can buy complex fertilizers for this or also diluted chicken manure and add ash. When the fruits begin to ripen, feeding is no longer necessary.

The beds where melon grows should be weeded only when necessary. The growth of the lashes should be regulated and directed so that they do not fall into the aisles. And under each melon that has set, you need to place plywood or planks, this way you will save the fruits from rotting when they touch wet soil.

When describing caring for a melon, you can understand that caring for it is very similar to caring for cucumbers. And if you know how to grow cucumbers, then you can also grow melons. The melon will also have time to ripen, and if you have to pick it up not very ripe before frost, it will perfectly reach ripeness at your home.

Of course, it is better to take into account the weather conditions of your region and choose early ripening varieties for planting in the ground.

And the main thing to remember is these three conditions:

• protect seedlings planted in the ground in time from late frosts;
• correctly form, pinch and remove unnecessary ovaries;
• Fertilize on time, repeatedly and systematically to stimulate melon growth.

If desired, melon can be grown anywhere, even in the North, there are simply greenhouses there. Try, try and you will definitely succeed!

DachaDecor.ru

How to grow melon?

Who is not familiar with the unique taste of melon, which delights us at the end of summer? You can eat melon just like that, make jam, jams, dry it, or dry it. This dietary product It is useful for everyone, it has a very beneficial effect on health, is easily digestible, and helps with anemia and exhaustion. Melon is necessary for children and old people, as it contains many useful substances, microelements, and vitamins.

Melon has a beneficial effect on human health.

If you have a summer house or small area land with a vegetable garden and a garden, then it is quite possible to grow a melon on your own. Both open ground and a greenhouse are suitable for this. To grow melon, you do not need special agricultural technology; it is enough to properly prepare the soil (and the greenhouse, if the cultivation will be carried out in it), and fertilizers. You will also need patience, because almost all plants require careful care. When growing in open ground, it is necessary to take into account that melon loves warmth, bright light and scanty watering (water is needed only when the top layer of soil is dry). There are also special requirements for the soil, which must be neutral or slightly alkaline and breathable. Mineral fertilizers are used for feeding (very weak solutions), it is necessary to systematically loosen the soil. Melon does not like conditions such as:

Melons are best grown in greenhouses.

• slightly acidic and acidic soils, which differ high density, since this prevents the roots of the plant from eating and breathing normally, and moisture from evaporating;
• stagnant, very humid air, cold drafts;
• watering with cold water, and generally cool weather;
• use of manure as fertilizer, concentrated and excessive doses of mineral and organic fertilizers.

Growing in a greenhouse is more simple, but all the above conditions apply here too. Warm, dry air, lots of light and proper watering. Here's everything you need to get your own sweet, delicious melon!

Conditions for growing melon

In order to grow a melon, all conditions and requirements must be strictly observed. This plant really loves comfortable conditions.

What kind of lighting is required?

For melon of any variety, it is important that the lighting is sufficient, in which case its growth and development will be normal, the lighting intensity ranges from 5000-6000 lux. Despite all the requirements for excellent lighting, melon is a short-day plant. Its flowering occurs earlier with a shortened twelve-hour day, but a day that is too short can inhibit its development, so when growing it is necessary to remember this feature. The time at which the seeds were sown is also important.

The experiments proved that melons that were planted from May to June had fewer female flowers than those that were sown from January to April. That is, excess light is not very useful for young plants, which affects fruiting in adulthood. Growing in a greenhouse makes it quite easy to solve such problems. When organizing additional artificial lighting we must remember that the optimal wavelength for melons is 550 nm at high light levels and 675 nm at lower levels (from 13 W/m2). The optimal time for planting melons is March, when there is sufficient light; growing in a winter-type greenhouse allows you to get large quantity harvest with the best qualities. Planting in December and January will not allow the required number of pistillate flowers to form; neither pinching nor special treatments with growth regulators will help. It is in the initial period that the melon is very sensitive to lighting conditions; in normal light, the formation of pistillate flowers takes up to five days, but when the lighting decreases, it can take more than a month. Growing melons in a greenhouse in the conditions of our region is possible until October, it is at this time that the plant receives everything it needs for its development and fruiting.

Temperature conditions

It is important to ensure proper temperature conditions when growing, since the collective farmer melon, and other varieties, are very heat-loving. Seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of plus fifteen degrees, but twenty-five degrees is considered optimal for their development. thirty degrees Celsius. It is quite difficult to provide such conditions in the open ground in the spring, but growing in a greenhouse is quite suitable for this.

If such conditions are created, the seeds will germinate within forty-eight hours, but at more high temperature this process is delayed. If you drop it below fifteen degrees, then development will stop; at a temperature below ten degrees, the assimilation process will completely stop; at one degree, after two to three hours, the seeds will begin to die.

The collective farmer melon needs a certain ambient temperature throughout the growing season; conditions at plus twenty-eight are perfect for it. thirty degrees and dry air. In general, this variety is an early ripening variety, so compliance with all conditions will allow you to quickly reap an excellent harvest!

Growing in a greenhouse requires compliance with the following temperature schedule:

• after planting, it is recommended to reduce the temperature to twenty degrees so that the seedlings take root better;
• as soon as the seeds have sprouted, it is better to increase the temperature level to twenty-two during the day and eighteen at night;
• after the fruits have set, it is necessary to lower the temperature slightly to nineteen to twenty degrees during the day and to fifteen to sixteen at night.

Great demands are also placed on the soil; its temperature should be at the level of twenty to twenty-four degrees; if growing in a film-type greenhouse, then it is permissible to drop it to fifteen to twenty degrees.

Humidity conditions

Kolkhoznitsa melon, like other varieties, is quite resistant to drought and is not afraid of lack of moisture. But at the same time, its transpiration coefficient is quite high, that is, melon requires a lot of moisture to ripen. Therefore, watering and humidity are considered the most difficult and important option when growing. The need for water varies depending on the period of development; it is highest at the time when lashes and fruits are formed. In general, this process can be divided into the following stages:

Melons are quite resistant to drought, so lack of moisture is not a problem for them.

• 21% of moisture is consumed during the emergence of melon shoots;
• 37% of moisture is lost during flowering and fruit setting;
• 32% is lost during fruit growth;
• 10% . during ripening.

A young plant needs approximately 0.8 liters of water per day, up to one and a half liters on a sunny day and up to three to three and a half. during the period of growth. Growing in a greenhouse requires careful watering, usually it is moderate, but when the first fruits appear, the amount of water must be increased. When watering the plant, you need to make sure that water does not get on the ground parts, as this can cause bacterial and fungal diseases. It is also unacceptable for moisture to get on the root collar. The air humidity in the greenhouse should be at 60-70%; dry air is necessary when the fruits begin to ripen.

Learning to fertilize melons

Growing it yourself in a greenhouse also requires proper fertilizer. This applies to any variety, even such early ripening ones as collective farmer, Altai melon and others. The soil for planting in a heifer should be fertile, but not dense. Before planting, a root layer with a thickness of up to thirty centimeters and excellent drainage is poured. The soil should contain elements such as potassium, calcium, sulfur, phosphorus, sodium, manganese. The use of fertilizers should be minimal; melons respond best to potassium fertilizers. All solutions must be fairly weak; excess or too intense solutions are unacceptable; they cannot be fertilized with manure.

Melon varieties and their features

Today, the most various varieties melons, among which the most popular in our region is the early ripening collective farmer. But others like the Altai melon also stand out. This variety also belongs to the early ripening varieties, it includes such varieties as Luna, Gruntovaya Gribovskaya, Altai ordinary melon, Barnaulka 191, Gorkovskaya 310. Such varieties are resistant to frost and are characterized by high yields, but their taste will be low if not properly cared for.

Golden melon, which belongs to the mid-early varieties, is excellent for greenhouses. Its ripening time from the appearance of the first shoots to tasty fruits is up to eighty days. The melon pulp is pale in color and has a strong melon aroma. Golden melon can be grown in cold climates in film greenhouses without losing its excellent taste. We hope our tips will be useful and you will be able to grow excellent melons. We wish you a good harvest and the first juicy fruits!

ParnikiTeplicy.ru

Planting seeds

Melon seeds are planted in separate pots at the end of April. Pots with a diameter of 8 cm are filled with soil prepared from a mixture of peat and humus, with the addition of turf soil (1: 2: 1). Superphosphate and wood ash are placed in each pot to a depth of 2 cm.

The pots are covered with film to prevent the soil from drying out and placed in a warm place. After the melon sprouts appear, the film is removed.

The temperature in the room should not fall below +18 °C; water the emerging sprouts only with warm water; if growth is poor, feed them with nitrogen fertilizer. The pots should be placed freely, without the leaves touching.

Plants must be ventilated and hardened. Melon seedlings in cloudy weather needs additional lighting. Seedlings ready for planting should have 3 leaves. Seedlings are planted:

• in open ground;
• in the greenhouse.

Planting in unprotected soil

The place for planting melon seedlings is prepared in advance. After thoroughly removing the weed rhizomes, the ground for seedlings is prepared 15 days before planting:

• the melon bed is dug to a depth of 20-25 cm, manure is added;
• a groove 35-40 cm deep is dug in the center of the bed, it is filled with dry leaves or sawdust;
• the garden bed is well watered;
• cover with black film so that the bed warms up well before planting;
• after two weeks they begin planting seedlings.

Transplanting

An important condition for growing melons is low air humidity; when it increases, more than 70% of the plants develop fungal infections. Melon also does not tolerate waterlogging of its roots; you need to plant a melon plant by lifting the root ball along with the soil by 2 cm.

Make a hole for each plant, do not compact the soil, water it so that the plant, along with a lump of earth, settles into the soil. After this, add fertile soil without filling the root collar.

A mixture of sand and charcoal is scattered around the stem of the seedling. Plant the plants at a distance of 1 m in a row, cover the planting with film until rooting, and be sure to ventilate. The seedlings are protected from the bright sun with lutrasil and also protected from the coolness of the night.

vogorodah.ru

MIRAGRO.com - agricultural portal. Agricultural notice board. Agro-forum.

Melon is valued for its excellent taste and pleasant aroma and is used mainly fresh as a dessert. According to the recommendations of the Institute of Nutrition, the consumption rate of melons and melons is 30 kg per person per year, of which 25% (6-8 kg) is melon. Let us recall the basic agrotechnological methods of its cultivation.

Predecessors. The best predecessor for growing melon is winter wheat, especially that which was placed after black fertilized fallow, perennial grasses, and corn for green fodder. An acceptable precursor may be barley. In vegetable crop rotations, melon can be grown after root vegetables, onions, cucumbers and cabbage.

Soils. Melon grows well on soils fertilized with organic fertilizers, preferably on light and medium loamy soils. Soils with a heavy mechanical composition are less suitable for growing melons, however, when applying fertilizers, high yields can be obtained here, but the quality of the fruit decreases.

Melon does not tolerate saline soils well, therefore, when the salt concentration in the arable layer is 0.5-0.7%, incl. 0.05-0.07% chlorine salts, melon plants die.

Pre-sowing tillage. After harvesting the previous crop, the stubble is peeled to a depth of 8-10 cm with disk ploughers LDG-5, LDG-10, LDG-15 or disked with a BDT-7 harrow, mineral fertilizers are applied, plowing is carried out with a plow with a skimmer PN-4-35, PLN- 4-35, PLN-5-35, etc. to a depth of 25-27 cm.

To preserve moisture in the northern regions, autumn plow harrowing is carried out. In the spring, the soil is harrowed (3BZS-1, 0; BZSS-1, 0), two continuous cultivations are carried out with a KPS-4 cultivator: the first to a depth of 12-15, the second to a depth of 6-8 cm. The gap between the first and second cultivation is 2 -3 weeks. Before sowing melons on soils of light mechanical composition, the soil is rolled with ring-spur rollers ZKKSH-6 for the appearance of friendly shoots.

Sowing dates. Early sowing dates ensure a high-quality harvest. Optimal time sowing occurs in the period from April 20 to May 10, or when the soil at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 14-16 ° C. The last date for sowing is June 10.

Seed preparation. When preparing seeds for sowing Special attention is given to the mass of 1000 pieces, which affects the seeding rate and the future harvest, so it is advisable to calibrate the seeds. One of these methods is to calibrate melon seeds by specific gravity - immersing them in a 1-2% solution of table salt, followed by washing with water. High-quality seeds settle at the bottom of the container with the solution, while low-quality seeds float to the surface.

Disinfection, or the destruction of pathogenic microflora on the surface of seeds, is achieved by treatment with chemical disinfectants, solar or ultraviolet irradiation.

To stimulate seed germination in the soil, it is soaked in aqueous solutions of microelements and biologically active substances. Among the biostimulants, the most effective are emistim C, fumar, succinic acid, biological growth stimulant (BSS), and agrostimulin.

Sowing. In the early stages, sowing is carried out with dry seeds. Warming the seeds at a temperature of 35-40 ° C for 3-4 days increases the yield by up to 10-15%, and at 60 ° C for 4 hours up to 24%. Solar heating for several days accelerates the germination of seeds in the soil and has a detrimental effect on pathogens.

At late sowing dates, the seeds are soaked in warm water at a temperature of 25-30 ° C, and when 10% of sprouted seeds appear, they are sown. The depth of seed placement is 4-6 cm. Sowing is carried out using a seeder SPC-6, SUPN-6, SUPN-12 SBU 2-4A, SBN-3. When sowing with a precision seeder, the seeding rate is halved.

Sowing pattern: 1.4 x 0.7; 1.4 x 1.0 m - for early varieties and 1.4 x 1.4; 1.8 x 1.0; 2.1 x 0.5 m - for mid-season and late varieties and hybrids. Sowing rate of melon (weight of 1000 seeds - 38.0-41.0 g) - 1.2-1.6 kg / ha.

Caring for crops. After the emergence of seedlings in the phase of the first true leaf, the first cultivation is carried out with a KRN-4-2 cultivator; KRN-5, 4; KOR-4-2, to a depth of 14-16 cm and manual weeding in rows.

The second cultivation is carried out in the phase of 5-7 true leaves to a depth of 8-10 cm and a second manual weeding is performed, during which one plant is left in each nest.

After the third cultivation, the tops are laid out and sprinkled if necessary.

The main difficulties of the growing season

The duration of the growing season characterizes the degree of early ripening of varieties. It is determined by climatic factors:

• The duration of the frost-free period;
• The sum of active temperatures;
• The amount of precipitation that falls during this period.

For plant development, the length of the growing season is of great importance, i.e. period with temperatures at which the complete development cycle of the plant is possible. The duration of the growing season depends not only on the biological characteristics of the crop or variety itself, but, no less importantly, on the processing conditions.

Melon is very sensitive to environmental conditions and often dramatically changes its varietal appearance with changes in temperature, humidity, light, and the nature of the soil.

The most important valuable economic traits for a variety are more variable. The most studied in melon is the variability of the growing season - one of the main varietal characteristics, which is important in the agroclimatic placement of varieties.

The growing season of melon can be divided into two main interphase periods:

• From germination to the beginning of flowering of female flowers;
• From fruit set to the beginning of ripening.

The period from sowing to germination often depends on weather conditions and the quality of the seed. The increase in the growing season of melon occurs due to the first interphase period (sprouting - flowering). This is explained by unfavorable conditions during the initial period of plant growth, often a lack of moisture in the soil. A lack of moisture, as well as an excess of it, lengthens the growing season of plants.

In some years, the difference between the ripening of mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties is smoothed out. Variability of the growing season is observed due to both phenological phases, but mainly due to the period from flowering to ripening and to a lesser extent from germination to flowering, which should be taken into account. The growing season of melon varies due to both phenophases, but to a greater extent due to the period from flowering to ripening.

The best results can be obtained with correct selection varieties for different growing areas.

Analyzing the individual phases of plant development of different melon varieties, European and especially Central Asian, it should be noted that there is no significant difference between varieties in the duration of the sowing - shoots and flowering - fruit set phases. The greatest differences are observed in melon during the flowering period - fruit ripening. They indicate that when determining the early ripening of varieties and hybrids and when assessing the effect of certain agricultural practices on the early ripening of plants, attention should be paid to the period from flowering to ripening of melon fruits.

Melon varieties are distinguished by their demands on environmental factors and their resistance to unfavorable combinations of them. Being early-ripening in one area, the same variety in other soil and climatic conditions can be mid- and even late-ripening.

Melon fertilizer

Melons are demanding on soil fertility and respond well to fertilizers, especially nitrogen-phosphorus ones. Fertilization is carried out using mineral fertilizer spreaders NBU-0, 5; MVD-0, 6, etc. The optimal dose is considered to be within N60P90K60.

The coefficient of use of fertilizers, especially nitrogen, increases significantly with their fractional use. Applying the entire dose of nitrogen during the growing season in the form of fertilizing significantly increases the yield, but significantly reduces the sugar content in the fruits. High accumulation of sugar and improved taste of fruits is achieved by applying nitrogen fertilizers in the early phases of plant development.

Half the dose - before sowing or during sowing, which provides nutrition to the plants during the germination period - the beginning of flowering, and the second half - in the phase of 4 leaves or before the start of flowering of female flowers. All this helps to increase the yield and sugar content of fruits. You can fertilize with complete mineral fertilizer N10P30K10 during the formation and growth of tops, and the yield increases up to 40%.

Watering melon

Melon plants respond well to irrigation. Obtaining high and stable melon yields in the steppe zone, regardless of weather conditions, is achieved when grown under irrigation. After the first watering (phase of the first true leaf), it is necessary to maintain a period of no watering for up to 40 days and then constantly maintain the lower threshold of humidity at the level of 65-70% of HB. At the beginning of fruit ripening, one or two waterings are sufficient.

When growing melon under irrigation, boundary irrigation, sprinkling and drip irrigation are used.

Sprinkler irrigation is usually carried out on fields with a flat surface.

When irrigated by sprinkling, melon is sown with the same row spacing as in non-irrigated conditions, while the number of plants per 1 hectare is increased by 1.5-2.0 times.

Furrow irrigation is used in fields with a flat surface and slight slopes. The irrigation rate for irrigation by sprinkling and furrows varies depending on weather and soil conditions and ranges from 5000 to 7000 m3/ha.

Features of drip irrigation

With drip irrigation, the increase in yield compared to sprinkling is 50-80%, fruit ripening is accelerated by 5-10 days, saving irrigation water is 40-50%, the amount of fertilizer applied is reduced by 50% by optimizing the nutritional regime taking into account the needs of plants depending on the phase of growth and development.

The peculiarities of the main and pre-sowing tillage are that the peeling is carried out to a depth of 10 cm using hydraulically powered disk cultivators LDG-10. On heavy soils, use the disc harrow BDT-3, 0 in two tracks. An important element pre-sowing tillage is milling with a cultivator KPF-2, 8 or KFKh-3, 6.

In spring, to cover moisture, use toothed harrows BZTS-1, 0 with a clutch. Depending on the weediness and compaction of the soil, one or two continuous cultivations (KPS-4) are carried out with simultaneous harrowing to a depth of 10-12 cm.

After laying out the main and water distribution pipelines along the selected area, they begin sowing; when sowing manually, markings are carried out according to the scheme for planting and laying out irrigation pipelines at a distance of 1.4 m.

In the absence of moisture, watering is carried out to create one continuous moistened line on the soil surface between the drippers, corresponding to an irrigation norm of 200-300 m3/ha. After the emergence of seedlings, they begin inter-row cultivation with the cultivator KOR-4, 2% KRN-4, 2A; KFL-4, 2. In total, during the growing season, three to five inter-row treatments are carried out in combination with manual weeding in the rows. The use of guide slots allows minimizing the protective zone of the row.

A significant reduction in irrigation water costs, acceleration of growth and development of melon crop plants, as well as complete suppression of weed growth in the tape is ensured by covering the irrigation pipelines of the drip irrigation system with opaque polyethylene film (mulch).

With drip irrigation, the timing and norms of watering are set taking into account the condition of the plants and soil. To measure humidity, tensiometers are used, installing one at a depth of 50 cm in a row, and the second at a depth of 30 and 20 cm towards the row spacing from the first, to control the moisture in the root zone of plants. Soil moisture in the 0-40 cm layer within the moisture contour is maintained at 60-70% HB. Vegetative irrigation is carried out with the simultaneous application of soluble mineral fertilizers.

Cleaning. Melon is harvested selectively as the fruits ripen. When the melon fruit ripens, the color and pattern of the bark changes, a network is formed, and in some varieties the stalk separates and a specific aroma appears. For selective collection in field conditions, special conveyors TN-12, TShP-25, TPO-50 or mounted trays are used, which are made from pipes of sprinkler machines, and in the absence of the specified devices - manually with removal to the road. Fruits for storage are harvested in the afternoon in clear sunny weather with the stalk, carefully placed on a straw bedding in one layer and transported to storage.

Selection of varieties

Choosing a variety is the most crucial moment, especially for a beginning melon grower. Today, more than 3,000 varieties of melon are known, and it is sometimes difficult even for experienced melon growers to comprehend the intricacies of such diversity. When choosing a variety, you first need to take into account the weather conditions of your region.

When choosing a melon variety, in addition to early ripening, it is advisable to give preference to varieties with a compact bush shape or short shoots. The latter is especially true if a cover crop is used.

Dido- mid-early variety. From germination to the beginning of fruit ripening - 70-75 days. The fruits are spherical and obtusely elliptical in shape, medium to large in size. The background color of the fruit is yellow, the mesh is solid. The pulp is light cream color, thick (5.0-6.0 cm), crispy, juicy, sweet. Tasting score - 4.8 points.

The weight of an average fruit is 2.0 kg. Productivity - 24.3 t/ha. Transportability is good. The fruits do not crack. The fruits contain 13.0-14.0% dry matter, 10.5% sugar, 30.0-33.0 mg% vitamin C. Seeds are medium in size, color Ivory. Seed yield is 1%, weight 1000 pcs. - 40.0-45.0 g. The variety is relatively resistant to powdery mildew and bacteriosis. Intended for fresh consumption and processing.

Fortune- mid-early variety, from germination to the beginning of fruit ripening - 68-78 days. The fruits are oval in shape, the background color is yellow, of different shades, sometimes with green spots. The mesh is full or partial. Pulp white, thick (up to 6.0 cm), juicy, sweet. Tasting score - 4.4 points.

The weight of an average fruit is 4.2 kg. Productivity on land is up to 28.0 t/ha. The fruits contain 11.5% dry matter, 9.8% sugar, 27.5 mg% vitamin C. Transportability is good. The seeds are medium-sized (length - 14.2 mm, width - 6.8 mm), white. Seed yield is 1%, weight 1000 pcs. - 48.2 g. The variety is highly resistant to fusarium wilt and powdery mildew.

Olvia- mid-season variety, resistant to powdery mildew and fusarium wilt. Intended for fresh consumption and canning. From germination to the beginning of fruit ripening - 75-85 days.

The fruits are short-oval, light yellow in color, with a network of mixed cracks. The pulp is thick, tender, sweet. Tasting score - 4.7 points. The weight of an average fruit is 2.5 kg. Productivity on land is up to 15.4 t/ha. Transportability is good.

New promising melon varieties

Fantasy- a new early-ripening melon variety with a growing season of 62 days. The fruits are spherical and slightly flattened, yellow in color with a partial mesh, the surface is smooth. Average fruit weight 2.9 kg, dry matter content 13.2-14.2%, white seeds, average, 10.0 x 5.0 mm. The pulp is white, 4.3 cm thick, juicy, sweet, productivity of one plant is 2.2 kg. Productivity on dry land is 15.0-18.0 t/ha. The variety is highly resistant to powdery mildew.

Prestige(photo on the right) is a new early-ripening melon variety with a growing season of 65 days. The fruits are oval-shaped with a dense net, yellow-orange in color. The productivity of one plant is 3.6 kg, the average fruit weight is 2.6 kg, the dry matter content is 11.0-12.0%. The pulp is white, average thickness 2.5-3.0 cm, juicy, sweet. Seeds yellow, 12.0 x 5.0 mm. The yield on rainfed soil is 15.0-16.0 t/ha. Highly resistant to powdery mildew.

miragro.com

Growing melon in open ground (collective farmer, etc.): agricultural technology + photos and videos

First stage: site selection and seed preparation

As you know, melon is a very heat-loving plant. Therefore, the site for its cultivation needs to be selected appropriately: protected from the wind, well lit and warmed by the sun, fertile.

You need to prepare the site in the fall: dig up the bed shallowly (about the size of a shovel) and fertilize the soil with humus at the rate of 3-4 kg per 1 square meter. If clay soil predominates on the site, do not forget to fluff it up using river sand - half a bucket per 1 sq.m.

In the spring, continue preparing the beds. Dig it again and apply potash and phosphate fertilizers in the proportions indicated on the package. Just before planting the melons, add nitrogen fertilizer or composted manure.

Now start preparing the seeds for growing seedlings. You can buy them in the store or prepare them yourself.

Try to choose large melon seeds for growing

It turns out that melons have interesting feature. Seeds from a previous harvest may produce strong, robust plants that do not bear fruit. This is explained by the fact that the flowers on such a plant will only be male and will not set an ovary. To get a good harvest, it is better to take seeds that are at least three years old.

When choosing seeds for seedlings, pay attention to the larger ones. Be sure to treat them with a special composition for such seeds, which can be bought in the store, or a solution of zinc sulfate with boric acid. The seeds are soaked in this solution for at least 12 hours.

Experts advise hardening melon seeds for growing in the middle zone. Dip them in warm water (up to 35 degrees), take them out, and keep them at a temperature of 18-20 degrees for 24 hours. Then gradually reduce the temperature to 0 degrees, and keep the seeds in these conditions for about 20 hours. Raise the temperature back to the original setting. This procedure must be repeated three times in the last week before planting the seeds.

Growing seedlings

Peat pots or peat tablets with a diameter of up to 10 cm are perfect for growing seedlings. You can also use cardboard or plastic cups. The advantage of peat containers is that they can be completely immersed in the soil along with the seedlings without removing them. Peat will act as a natural fertilizer over time.

Seeds should be planted in specially prepared soil

1. Fill cups and pots with special soil for vegetables. You can prepare the following mixture yourself: 1 part sand, 9 parts peat, mix thoroughly, add wood ash at the rate of 1 cup per 10 liters of soil.
2. Soak the seeds for a day before planting. Empty seeds will float, discard them immediately. This way you will cull.
3. Plant 2-3 seeds in prepared pots to a depth of 5 cm. Before the first shoots appear, keep the containers indoors, observing the temperature regime: 18-20 degrees during the day, at night - no lower than 15 degrees.
4. The first shoots should appear in about a week. Thin them out, leaving one of the strongest sprouts in the pot.
5. After the appearance of the third or fourth strongest leaf, pinch the seedlings. This promotes the development of side shoots.
6. Caring for seedlings is not at all difficult. The only feature is less watering without water getting on the stems and leaves. To avoid blackleg, place a layer of dry river sand around the stem.

Sowing seeds should be done in April, and seedlings can be transplanted into the ground after 25 days.

Planting melon seedlings in the ground

So, the melon bed on your site has already been prepared. Fluff the soil thoroughly using a rake. Make holes, maintaining a distance between them both in length and width, approximately 70-80 cm.

Please note: under no circumstances should you plant seedlings if frost has not yet passed. It’s better to wait until the final warming, otherwise the melons will die at the seedling stage.

Treat melon sprouts very carefully so as not to damage the roots in any way. It is best to plant seedlings along with the soil in which they grew in a pot or glass. It is in this case that you can be convinced of the benefits of peat cups or tablets: they are simply immersed in the hole and sprinkled with earth.

Maintain a distance of 70-80 cm between the holes in which the seedlings will be planted

Before planting, pour water into the hole and add a little humus. Plant the stem so that it does not go deep. The lump of soil with which you planted the seedlings should protrude slightly above the surface of the earth. Water the planted seedlings again and sprinkle with soil.

During the first two days, create shade for the seedlings to help them grow better. If there are strong temperature changes between day and night, cover the plantings with film, which will also protect the melons from rain.

The film can be replaced with the usual plastic bottles. Cut a large (2 to 5 liters) bottle into 2 pieces across. Cover each sprout with half the bottle. Such a simple design is very easy to remove before watering, and then put back in place.

The most popular melon varieties in the middle zone

1. The Kolkhoznitsa variety, bred by the Biryuchekutsk experimental station, is the most suitable for the middle zone. It is very stable and therefore has become widespread. The fruits of this variety are round, orange, and weigh about 1 kg. The pulp is white, very light and sweet. During the season, the harvest can reach up to 100 centners per hectare.
2. Variety Alushta, bred by the Crimean Experimental Station. The fruit ripening period is 70 days. The fruits are oval-shaped, large, orange-yellow, and weigh up to 1.5 kg. The pulp is white, juicy, sweet. Productivity can reach 175 centners per hectare.
3. Zolotistaya, a variety bred by the Krasnodar Research Institute, belongs to the mid-season varieties. The ripening period is 80-90 days. The fruits are round, yellow with an orange tint, with a weakly defined network. Weight up to 1.6 kg. The pulp is juicy and white. Productivity reaches 120 centners per hectare. The variety is very resistant to diseases.
4. Variety Dessertnaya 5, bred by the Krasnodar Research Institute of Vegetable Farming. The fruits are small in size, short-oval, with a fine-mesh surface. Weight reaches 1.6 kg. The pulp is sweet, tender, white-green in color. The variety is high-yielding and can bring from 140 to 160 centners per hectare. The advantages of this variety are the long-term storage of fruits.
5. Yuzhanka (sometimes the variety is called Kuvshinka) was bred by the Kuban experimental station VNIIR. The fruits are large, weighing 1.8-1.9 kg, round, with longitudinal ribs, orange-yellow in color. The sugar content is the same as that of Kolkhoznitsa. A high-yielding variety, the yield reaches 220-240 centners per hectare.

Melons of different varieties

We care for melon during the period of growth and ripening

Melon is not very demanding in care, but nevertheless, certain rules must be followed. During the entire growth period, the melon needs to be weeded, hilled, watered, and the soil around it loosened.

1. Do the first 2 loosenings between rows no deeper than 15 cm. The next time loosening is carried out to a depth of 10 cm, and the soil next to the stem is not affected. After the first side lashes appear, hill up the melon, raking a roll of earth towards the stem.
2. In melon conditions, the crop grows practically without moisture. Therefore, watering should be moderate. If dew falls in the morning, watering should be canceled. You need to water the row spacing so that water does not get on the vines and leaves.
3. The first pinching is done while the melon is still in seedlings. After the melon is planted in the ground and has gone through an adaptation period, perform another pinching over the 7th leaf of the main stem. Do the same with the side loops, and then remove the excess flowers, leaving 3 tied fruits, located at a distance from each other. Remove shoots without fruits so that they do not draw juice.

In addition, melon needs feeding. The first time this is done 2 weeks after planting in the ground. To do this, you can use saltpeter, cow manure or chicken manure. The following feedings should be done every 10 days. You can buy complex fertilizers or dilute chicken manure and add ash. Before the fruits ripen, fertilizing can be stopped.

To avoid rotting, place a board or plywood sheet under the ovary

Weeding the melon beds is carried out only when necessary. Do not forget to regulate the growth of the lashes; they should not fall between the rows. Place a board or plywood under each ovary to protect the fruit from rotting when it touches wet ground.

Please note: in the climatic conditions of the middle zone the best option There will be a selection of early ripening melon varieties. Even if the melon does not have time to ripen before frost, and you have to pick it prematurely, it will reach ripeness at home.

When growing melons, always follow three main rules:

• timely protection of seedlings planted in the ground from frost;
• correct formation and pinching of stems, removal of excess ovaries;
• timely systematic feeding.

This way you are guaranteed to get a good harvest of melon.

Video about growing melon in open ground

We hope that our tips will help you grow sweet, juicy melons even in our short summer. If you have experience growing melon in the ground, share with us in the comments, tell us about your methods, and recommend more suitable varieties. Good luck and have a warm summer!

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Svetlana Kovaleva Good afternoon, Svetlana is with you, a philologist. During my student years I really wanted to earn money on my own, but I couldn’t find a job in the city in the evening.

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Melon is a fragrant guest on the autumn table. Planting, growing, care

In this article we will talk about a sweet and aromatic representative of the large pumpkin family - melon. It is not without reason that this plant has gained popularity among gardeners and ordinary consumers. The sweet and aromatic pulp of a well-ripened melon can not only significantly lift your mood, but also improve digestion. Let's take a closer look at this melon crop so that growing it is not difficult.

So, melon (Cucumis melo) belongs to the cucumber genus, the pumpkin family and is a heat-loving melon crop. Asia is considered to be the homeland of melon. The fruit of the melon is an elongated cylindrical pumpkin or round shape, of various colors: yellow, green, white, brown, often with green stripes.

The characteristics of the fruits, as well as their number on one plant, depend on the plant variety. Now in central Russia not only adapted melons are ripening, but also southern melons from India, the cultivation of which has become possible using closed soils, where growing conditions as close as possible to natural ones are created. Fruits can ripen from 2 to 6 months.

Melon culture dates back about 400 years. In central Russia, the most common type of melon you can find is the common melon. Therefore, in this article we will dwell in more detail on it and its varieties.

This summer my melons are somehow especially small, most likely due to constant rains and acidification of the soil; the temperature for growth was often insufficient, although the variety itself is of great importance. Last year I planted an early ripening melon and there was no rain for a couple of months of summer. The fruits turned out sugary and very juicy. This year I chose a variety with an average ripening period, but summer let us down.

But you should still adhere to the basic features of growing melon in order to be guaranteed to get a harvest.

Melon planting

So, for melons you should choose open sunny areas, well warmed up, protected from cold winds. Preference should be given to southern slopes.

Choose light soils with a neutral reaction. Melon is resistant to drought and soil salinity, but does not tolerate soil acidification and high humidity. My aunt in Kursk has a huge melon tree in a field in the open sun; such melons are less likely to be affected by diseases and ripen better than their “brothers” in the shade. I have slightly acidic soil in my melon patch, so I always add wood ash before planting. Do not allow the ash to come into contact with the melon root system.

To get a good harvest, the soil needs to be filled with organic and mineral fertilizers. To do this, during the autumn digging it is necessary to add compost or humus, as well as mineral fertilizers in the form of double superphosphate. I liked the yield when adding fresh manure, the fruits were larger.

In central Russia, melon is grown by seedlings. To do this, in mid-March or late April, we sow seedlings with a sowing depth of about 1.5 cm. I use soil purchased at a specialized store.

If you make the mixture yourself, then it should consist of turf soil, peat, humus, mixed with mineral fertilizer and wood ash. Take peat and turf soil equal proportions, humus - part more.

It is better to plant immediately in separate containers, the diameter of which is at least 10 cm. My seedlings were about 40 days old at the time of planting; the isolation of the cups helps not to injure the plant during planting.

Melon seedlings love sunlight, while growing on the windowsill, and the temperature is 20-25 ºС. At night the temperature in the room can reach 18-20 º C. If it is raining and cloudy outside, you need to lower the temperature in the seedling room so that it does not stretch out, as in the photo below.

During the development of plants, it is necessary to provide fertilizing:

1. When the seedlings have their first true leaf, it is necessary to add mineral fertilizers (superphosphate, ammonium nitrate, potassium chloride according to the instructions on the package).

2. After 2 weeks after the first, a similar feeding is done.

From the second ten days of May, when the seedlings have reached the stage of 5-7 true leaves, it is time to plant them in the ground. Having moistened the seedlings well, carefully plant them in holes prepared in the soil. The distance between plants is about 55 cm.

Make sure that the root collar is not buried, otherwise there is a high risk of fungal diseases. For the same purpose, river sand should be sprinkled around the plant. While the sprouts are taking root, water the seedlings with warm water.

Care for melon plantings

The most familiar way for everyone to grow melons is with vines spread on the ground (in a spread). With this method to obtain best harvest Above the 4th leaf, a shoot is pinched, as a result of which 2 strong side shoots grow, which can subsequently be pinned to the ground and the shoots can also be pinched. The “pinching” method is good because the nutrients are not wasted on the green mass, but go into the fruit.

But we should not forget about the trellis method of growing melon, in which a frame about 2 m high is prepared in advance and already on the 4th day after planting the plant is tied with a rope, the upper end of which is fixed to the trellis. The plant will twist up the rope. With the trellis method, the growing point is also pinched. This happens immediately after planting in the ground above 3-4 leaves. After pinching, side shoots form from the axillary buds of the plant. Leave the 2 strongest ones, remove the rest. Tie both shoots in turn to the trellis. The advantages of this method are that the lashes are better illuminated and warmed up, which has a qualitative effect on the harvest.

When the seedlings are tied up, they need regular watering, which should be stopped when the fruits appear so that they can pick up sugar. When watering, it is worth considering that if there is excess moisture, the melon roots can rot.

Don’t also forget about fertilizing: after planting, when side shoots begin to form, and also before the buds appear, it is worth feeding the melon with liquid organic and mineral fertilizers, alternating them with each other... Be careful with nitrogen fertilizers, their excess leads to an increase in the growing season and a delay fruiting.

Melon varieties

When starting to grow melon, you should remember that this is a heat-loving plant, the optimal temperature for the ovary starts at 25 º C, and for fruit ripening - from 30 º S. Therefore, I recommend choosing a variety based on the characteristics of the region where you plan to grow melon. Varieties are divided according to the growing season into early, middle and late. For central Russia with an unpredictable summer, of course, it is better to take early-ripening varieties, in which case there is a chance that they will ripen and produce a harvest.

Altai melon

It will take 60-80 days for this variety to fully ripen. The fruits are oval, yellow in color, with thin aromatic skin and juicy fleshy pulp. The fruit weight can reach 600-1200 g. The variety is well transported. The length of the lashes is up to 2 m.

Melon Blondie

It will take 80-90 days from germination to full maturity. I planted “Blondie” once under film in a bed with manure. I really liked the unusual aromatic pulp. When this melon ripens, it gives off a sweet, strong smell that tells you it's time to remove it from the garden. At the same time, its color becomes a little beige. The variety is characterized by large, round, slightly flattened fruits and long vines. My fruits were small, weighing only about 400 g. In the original, during hot summers they can reach up to 700 g.

Melon Zimovka

This variety is a late variety. Most likely, it will be quite difficult to grow it in central Russia. More than 90 days will pass from germination to ripening. In the State Register, the variety is recommended for planting in the Lower Volga region. A strong climbing plant. The fruits are light yellow-green, without stripes, but with a large mesh on the skin. Juicy pulp of light green color. Not very crispy, but tender. The weight of the fruit can reach up to 2.5 kg. Well transported and stored.

Marina, Nekrasovskoe

I like melon - its aroma immediately improves my mood)) But I didn’t even think about growing it in our area - I thought that the plant was too heat-loving and capricious for the unpredictable summer of the Middle Zone. Vera, now I understand how mistaken I was and how much I lost by refusing the experiment! I'll fix it! :)) Thanks for the useful article!

Vera, Orel

Marina, thank you!!! To tell the truth, I am the most talkative gardener on the site. Sometimes it even surprises me how my plants survive.

Last year I decided to improve, they built a fully glazed greenhouse as an extension to the bathhouse, I thought, well, finally I’ll start operating in the greenhouse like a “crop-grabbing maniac,” but the winter brought so much snow that the roof collapsed, and the glass still doesn’t work. I can choose from there. Therefore, all my plants continue to survive in open ground conditions. If the heat-loving melon survives, then you will succeed!!! It’s true that you can’t do without seedlings.

Marina, Nekrasovskoe

Oh, Vera, I’ve been planning to build a greenhouse for many years now - and every time something is missing to fulfill this intention))) So, for me, too, everything that wants to grow grows in open ground :))

But summer is getting hotter and hotter every year, so I’m afraid that soon the question of a greenhouse may disappear by itself - as unnecessary. It was decided: by spring I will choose some early-ripening and not particularly demanding melon variety and will certainly try to grow it! And then I’ll write and tell you what came of it)))

Vera, Orel

It will be very interesting! From source to result!

Andrey, Russia

Vera and I’m like you!)))) I’m from the Black Sea coast, here melons grow only with watering, I won’t even try it at home...

OLGA, Kaluga

AND MY SEEDLINGS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED... WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Irina Belova, Kazan

carefully replant it into a deeper container, I tried it, if you don’t damage the root, everything will take root normally.

Salchak Iraida, Kyzyl

Hello, Vera! I’m pleased that in the reviews you can learn something useful for yourself, I live in Siberia and I want to try to plant melon and watermelon seedlings. Of course, at the beginning of April I sowed watermelon and melon in cups, they stretched out for me - I’m thinking of transplanting them into deeper dishes, but the question is whether there will be a harvest. I planted them three years ago - they turned out small, but ripe. Thank you for the advice. Iraida, Tuva.

Oksana, Russia

Thank you for the interesting article)) I live in the Southern Urals (Magnitogorsk), I am a gardener for the second year. I immediately planted seeds from a greenhouse (polycarbonate), variety Serezhkina Lyubov (SibSad). Available information on caring for melons; due to the heat of this summer, I have to water them almost 2 times a week (I look at the condition of the soil; if it’s wet, I don’t overwater).

As soon as I sowed. covered with a thin covering material (during cold nights in May and when it suddenly warmed up (so that the young leaves would not burn)). She left it to trail with the whips and did not tie it up. I used the same fertilizer as for cucumbers (health, it says for cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins).

Olga, Rybnitsa

if anyone needs Uzbek or Turkmen melon seeds - write [email protected]

I want to invite you to make an announcement in our new section I will give and exchange. You can read about how to correctly compose an ad and what must be included in it here

7dach.ru

Plant melon (lat. Cucumis melo)- melon crop, which belongs to the species of the genus Cucumber of the Cucurbitaceae family. Nowadays it is difficult to find wild melon, the cultivated forms of which were bred from Asian weed species. The first mention of this culture is found in the Bible: melon was grown back in Ancient Egypt. The melon fruit comes from Central and Asia Minor, its cultivation several centuries BC. e. began in Northern India and adjacent areas of Central Asia and Iran, after which the melon spread both to the west and to the east, all the way to China. In Europe, this melon crop appeared in the Middle Ages, and it was brought to the territory of present-day Russia, in the Lower Volga region, in the 15th-16th centuries.

Planting and caring for melons (in brief)

• Landing: sowing seeds for seedlings - in mid-April, planting seedlings in the ground - in early June.
• Lighting: bright sunlight.
• The soil: rich in organic matter, light, dry, neutral reaction, preferably after black steam. It can be grown on medium loamy soil. Heavy loams, sandy, acidic and wet soils are not suitable.
• Watering: regular, preferably drip, on average once a week, in the morning. With the appearance of fruits, watering is reduced until it stops completely.
• Feeding: 2 weeks after planting the seedlings, a solution of 20 g of ammonium nitrate in 10 liters of water is added to the soil at the rate of 2 liters per bush. The same fertilizing is applied during the formation of buds, and 2-3 weeks after this the soil is fertilized with a mineral complex.
• Pinching, gartering, pinching: as soon as the seedlings take root, pinch out the main stem, but this does not apply to hybrid melon varieties. There should be from 2 to 6 ovaries left on each bush, and when they increase to the size of a tennis ball, they are placed in a string bag and tied to a trellis.
• Reproduction: seed.
• Pests: melon aphids, wireworms, spider mites, cutworms and melon flies.
• Diseases: powdery mildew, downy mildew, fusarium wilt, anthracnose, root rot.

Read more about growing melons below.

Melon fruit - description

Melon berry is annual plant with a creeping stem 1.5 to 3 m long with large, entire, heart-shaped palmate-lobed leaves consisting of five lobes. Melon flowers are light yellow, unisexual. Each plant can produce from 2 to 8 fragrant fruits and berries. Green, light brown, yellow or white, often with green stripes, the melon berry can be cylindrical, flattened or round in shape. The flesh of the melon is white, greenish, orange or yellow. The growing season of the plant lasts from 2.5 months to six months.

Growing melon from seeds

Sowing melon seeds

In the middle zone, melon is grown in seedlings. Growing melon seedlings begins with preparing for sowing seeds three to four years old, because fresh seeds will grow into strong plants that will not bear fruit, since they will only bear male flowers that do not form ovaries. Large melon seeds are dipped for 20 minutes in a two percent solution of potassium permanganate (a level teaspoon of potassium permanganate is dissolved in one and a half glasses of water). You can also keep the seeds for 12 hours in a five percent solution of boric acid and zinc sulfate, then rinse and dry.

Some gardeners use a method of cold hardening seeds: first they are placed in a thermos with water at a temperature of thirty degrees for two hours, then, covered with damp gauze, they are kept for a day at a temperature of 15-20 ºC, after which they are moved for 18 hours to a refrigerator with a temperature of 0 to 2 ºC, and then again kept at a temperature of 15-20 ºC for six hours. The hardening procedure is carried out immediately before planting the seeds in the ground.

Melon seedlings are planted in mid-April. 2-3 seeds are planted in peat pots with a diameter of 10 cm to a depth of 1.5-2 cm. The soil mixture for growing melon seedlings should consist of nine parts of peat and one part of sand. 10 liters of soil mixture must be thoroughly mixed with a glass of wood ash.

Growing melon seedlings

How to grow melon seedlings? Until seedlings emerge, seed pots should be kept at a temperature of 20-25 ºC during the day, and the night temperature should not exceed 18 ºC. As soon as the shoots appear, and this will happen in about a week, the strongest sprout is left in the pot, and the rest are not pulled out, but cut off at surface level, so as not to injure the root system of the remaining seedling. After three pairs of true leaves appear on the seedlings, the seedlings are pinched, stimulating the development of side shoots.

They contain the emerging seedlings on the southern windowsill, but if you do not have this opportunity, you will have to organize daily artificial illumination of the seedlings with lamps daylight within 10-12 hours. Caring for melon seedlings consists of timely moistening the soil with warm water, and the first watering after sowing the seeds is carried out when the seedlings develop one true leaf, but it is very important that water does not get on the leaves and stems of the seedlings. If you are afraid that the seedlings may get blackleg, sprinkle the surface of the soil with dry sand.

During the period of growing melon seedlings, it is advisable to carry out two feedings with a solution of complex mineral fertilizers, and a week before transplanting the seedlings into the ground, hardening procedures begin: during the day the temperature is reduced to 15-17 ºC, and at night - to 12-15 ºC, gradually making it more and more long ventilation sessions.

Melon pick

Readers sometimes ask: “How to pick a melon”? Melons, like other pumpkins, do not pick, because their seedlings tolerate transplantation very poorly. That is why pumpkin seeds are sown in separate cups.

Planting melons in open ground

When to plant melon in the ground

When to plant melon seedlings in open ground? Melon is planted in the ground when the seedlings are 4-5 weeks old and the seedlings have developed 5-6 true leaves. However, you should not rush to plant seedlings; you must wait until the weather is warm. If, after planting the seedlings in the ground, frost occurs, you can cover the seedlings with film during this time.

For the heat-loving melon, choose a well-warmed, sunny area, protected from the cold wind, preferably on the south side. Melon grows best after black fallow and plants such as winter wheat, corn, barley, cucumbers, onions, garlic, legumes and cabbage, but melon cannot be grown in one place for two years in a row. Melon grows poorly after plants such as carrots and tomatoes. Good neighbors for melons are turnips, beans, basil, chard, radishes, sorrel, radishes and corn. Bad neighbors are potatoes and cucumbers.

Soil for melon

Melon loves neutral and light soils, but rich in organic matter. It is not bothered by dry and saline soils, but is acidic and wet soil disastrous for her. Light, medium-loamy soils are most suitable for melon, but it does not like sandy soils and heavy loams.

Before planting a melon in the ground, you need to prepare it: in the fall, before digging, add 4-5 kg ​​of humus or manure to the depth of a spade bayonet, and clay soil add another half a bucket of sand per m². In the spring, the area under the melon is harrowed and 15-25 g of potassium salt and 35-45 g of superphosphate per m² are added to the soil. Before planting, the area is dug up again, but with nitrogen fertilizers at the rate of 15-25 g per m².

How to plant melon in open ground

Before transferring the seedlings into holes located at a distance of 60 cm from each other, they are watered abundantly to make it easier to remove the seedling from the pot. The interval between the rows is about 70 cm. The seedlings are placed in the hole so that their root collar is above the surface level, otherwise there is a risk of it rotting or being affected by fungal diseases. With such a planting, the bush appears to be on a tubercle. In order to protect the melon from fungal diseases, after planting the bed is sprinkled with river sand. Seedlings are protected from the sun with wet paper, which is removed after two days.

Growing melon in a greenhouse

In greenhouses, melon so that it occupies less space, grown on trellises. Planting melons in a greenhouse is carried out in holes 70x50 cm at a distance of 20 cm between specimens at the same time as in open ground. Grow and harden seedlings as already described. Peppers and tomatoes can be grown at the same time as melons, but cucumbers and zucchini cannot. best neighbors in a greenhouse for this crop. Before planting the seedlings, add 1.5 kg of humus or compost into each hole, sprinkling it on top with a 3 cm thick layer of soil, then spill the hole with warm water and transfer the seedlings with a clod of earth into them so that they are 1.5 - 3 cm above the bed, otherwise the hypocotyledon may begin to rot. If frost occurs, the planting is protected with additional frames with film.

During the first week after planting the seedlings in the garden, if the temperature in the greenhouse rises above 30 ºC, ventilation is carried out. After a week or ten days, each melon is watered with two liters of warm water with nitrogen fertilizers dissolved in it (20 g of ammonium nitrate per 10 liters of water). The beds are moistened every week, but during the period of fruit ripening, the rate is adjusted downward until watering is completely stopped for 1-2 weeks, until the melons are finally ripe - this is done to make the fruits sweeter. Fertilizing melons with organic matter is carried out twice with an interval of 2-3 weeks, alternating fertilizing with herbal infusion and adding infusion of chicken manure, mullein or humus and adding a handful of wood ash to the holes.

A week after planting the seedlings in the greenhouse, the seedlings are pinched over 5-6 leaves and after the formation of side lashes with female flowers, the two strongest of them are tied to a trellis, and the rest are cut off. As the vines grow, wrap them around the twine on the trellis, since the melon vines will not climb up it on their own. If there are few pollinating insects in the greenhouse, you will have to help the melons to pollinate. To do this, you need to carefully transfer pollen with a brush from male flowers (these are those flowers that do not have ovaries) to the female pistil.

When the fruits appear, only 2-3 melons are left on each plant, and when they develop to the size of a tennis ball, each of them is placed in a net and hung on a horizontal trellis guide.

Sometimes plants can suffer from fungal diseases or harmful insects, for example, melon aphids, cutworms or spider mites. Insects can be controlled by treating plants with Iskra-bio or Fitoverm. What does a melon suffer from and how to treat a melon against diseases, if such a need arises, read in the appropriate section.

The melon is harvested when the fruits acquire the size and color characteristic of the variety, and cracks appear at the junction of the fruit and the vine.

Melon care

How to grow a melon

Growing melon in open ground involves watering, weeding, loosening, hilling, pinching and tying vines, as well as feeding the plants. It may be necessary to carry out artificial pollination, which is carried out in the same way as pollinating melons in a greenhouse. As soon as the melon seedlings take root and begin to grow, its main stem is pinched a second time.

This is done so that the plant does not waste energy on growing green mass, but spends it on the formation and growth of fruits. As a result, each melon should develop a main and two lateral shoots, the remaining shoots are removed.

This does not apply to hybrid varieties, on the main shoot of which there are female flowers, so they are not pinched, and the side shoots of hybrids, in order to avoid thickening of the planting, are pinched after 2-3 leaves. Otherwise, caring for hybrids is the same as for regular melon varieties.

When the ovaries appear, from two to six of them are left on each bush, no more, and when the fruits reach the size of a tennis ball, each of them is placed in a net and tied to a trellis, partially removing the load from the plant’s vines. From time to time, the growing fruits in the nets are turned over in order to achieve their uniform ripening. Place non-rotting material (foil, pieces of roofing felt) under the melons lying on the ground. If only one fruit grows on the bush, and the rest turn yellow and lag behind in development, then it’s time to apply fertilizer for the melon.

The row spacing in melon beds is loosened the first two times to a depth of 10-15 cm, subsequent loosening is carried out not so deeply - 8-10 cm, and the space around the seedlings requires even less deep and very careful loosening of the soil. When the side vines begin to develop, the melon is hilled up. Stop loosening the soil around the bushes when the foliage closes.

If you prefer to grow melons on a trellis, and it must be said that this method allows you to save a lot of space, install supports up to 2 m high in advance, since within a few days after planting the seedlings in the ground, the shoot needs to be tied with a rope, and its upper end secured to the trellis . Over time, the side shoots are also tied up.

Watering melon

Water the melon regularly - on average, once a week - with warm water (22-25 ºC), in the morning, not allowing drops to fall on the leaves, stems, buds, flowers and fruits. To avoid this, you can dig a furrow around the plants and pour water into it. But the best way to irrigate melons and melons is drip irrigation. Avoid over-wetting the soil, as this will cause the plant's roots to rot, so before watering the melon, make sure the top layer of soil on the melon is dry. When the fruits appear, watering is gradually reduced until it stops completely so that the melons gain more sugar.

Melon feeding

It is convenient to combine fertilizing with watering. How to fertilize melons in open ground? Two weeks after planting the seedlings in the ground, they can be fed with a solution of 20 g of ammonium nitrate in a bucket of water at the rate of 2 liters of solution per bush. When the process of bud formation begins, the melons are fed a second time with a solution of ammonium nitrate in the same proportion or with mullein (1:10). Then, after 2-3 weeks, a mixture of fertilizers is added to the soil in liquid form: 30 g of ammonium sulfate, 50 g of superphosphate and 20-25 g of potassium salt, dissolved in 10 liters of water.

Pests and diseases of melon

All varieties of melon for open ground, as well as melons grown under film coverings, in case of improper care or non-compliance with agricultural practices, can be infected with fungal, viral or bacterial diseases. Melons also suffer from some harmful insects. To prevent crop loss, you must be able to recognize in time a disease or pest that has encroached on your melon, and also know what drug and how to treat the melons in this case.

Powdery mildew- a fungal disease that causes whitish spots to appear on the stems and leaves of a plant, which over time cover the entire surface and become brown in color. Under this coating, the leaves become fragile, dry out and curl. The growth of shoots slows down, the fruits lag behind in development, lose quality and sugar content. If signs of the disease are detected, treat the melon beds with 80% sulfur powder at the rate of 4 g per 1 m². Several sessions can be held with an interval of 20 days, but the last of them is no later than 20 days before harvest.

Downy mildew, or downy mildew, characterized by the appearance of yellow-green spots on melon leaves, which quickly increase, covering the entire leaf blade. During periods of high humidity, a gray-violet coating with fungal spores forms on the underside of the leaves. As a preventive measure, before planting, keep melon seeds for two hours in a thermos with water at a temperature of 45 ºC, and then for 20 minutes in a one percent solution of potassium permanganate. If you detect symptoms of peronosporosis, treat the area with a solution of 1 g of urea in 1 liter of water, and if this measure does not help, you will have to spray the melons with a solution of Topaz or Oksikhom in accordance with the instructions.

Fusarium wilt Same fungal disease, the pathogens of which live in the soil, from where they fall on plant residues and melon seeds. Most often, mid-season and late varieties are affected by fusarium, which reduces the yield and quality of fruits. The disease manifests itself at the stage of development of 2-3 true leaves or during the ripening period of fruits. In diseased plants, the leaves lighten and become covered with gray spots, then the affected above-ground parts wither and the plant dies within 10 days. As a treatment, melon beds are treated during the budding period with a solution of potassium chloride, and as a preventive measure, a five-minute disinfection of seeds before sowing in a forty percent formaldehyde solution is used.

Anthracnose, or copperhead, manifests itself as rounded brown or pinkish spots on the leaves, increasing in size as the disease progresses. Holes form in the affected leaves, the leaves curl and the melon dries, the vines become thin and break, and the fruit becomes deformed and rots. Treatment for anthracnose is spraying plants three to four times with one percent Bordeaux mixture at intervals of 10 days or pollinating the area with sulfur powder.

Ascochytaosis, like the previously described diseases, it is excited by a fungus and is manifested by the appearance of brown areas on the stems of melon growing in a greenhouse, which gradually spread throughout the plant. A diseased melon dies from damage to the root part. If you detect symptoms of ascochyta blight, reduce watering and dust the affected areas of plants with a mixture of lime and ash or spray them with one percent Bordeaux mixture, and as a preventive measure, we recommend disinfecting the seeds with Immunocytophyte or Silk before sowing.

Root rot It affects weakened specimens, while in young plants the stems and roots first turn brown, then become thinner and, as a result, the plant withers. An adult melon turns yellow and also withers, while the lower part of the stems and roots become brown. A preventive measure in the fight against rot can be considered treating the seeds before planting for five minutes with a forty percent formaldehyde solution.

Viral diseases- cucumber mosaic virus, highly specialized virus and watermelon mosaic virus - are transmitted by aphids, so the carriers are destroyed first, and only then melon diseases are combated. However, if a plant is infected with one of the listed viruses, it is impossible to save it, because cures for these diseases have not yet been invented. You can only quickly remove the plant from the garden bed before the infection spreads to neighboring melons. Symptoms of these diseases: the appearance of areas with mosaic colors on the leaves, shortening of internodes, developmental delays, deformation of leaves, falling of the ovaries, and the appearance of specks on the fruits.

Among insects, melons have the following enemies: melon aphids, spider mites, wireworms and gnawing cutworms.

melon aphid accumulates on the underside of the leaves and feeds on their juice, causing the leaves to curl and dry, and the flowers fall off before they have time to open. In addition, aphids are carriers viral diseases, from which plants cannot be cured. To destroy aphids, spray the melons with a ten percent solution of Karbofos or a thirty percent solution of Actellik.

Spider mites also prefer to settle on the underside of the leaf blade. They, like aphids, feed on plant sap. Most often, mites infect melons growing in greenhouses, but they also harm melon plants. You can get rid of ticks by treating with Fitoverm, Bicol or Bitoxibacillin.

Wireworms– larvae of click beetles – gnaw the underground part of plants, which leads to the death of melons. You can prevent the proliferation of caterpillars by deep autumn digging of the site and observing crop rotation.

Gnawing cutworms They are not dangerous in themselves; damage to plants is caused by their caterpillars, gnawing on the melon stem, causing the plant to die. To get rid of cutworm caterpillars, the area is dug deeply after harvesting. In addition, crop rotation must be observed.

Melon processing

To achieve the desired effect in the treatment of fungal diseases, fungicides are used in a block of 2-4 applications, without using contact preparations in between. Do not alternate fungicides from different chemical groups, use the same fungicide or its analogue. The intervals between fungicide treatment sessions should not be more than 12 days. After the last treatment of plants with a systemic fungicide, the contact agent can be used no earlier than 8-10 days later.

It is advisable to use systemic fungicides to treat young, actively developing plants, and it is better to treat adult, aging plants with contact preparations.

Collection and storage of melon

Before you pick your melons, you need to be sure they are truly ripe. Pay attention to the color of the melon and the network of cracks on its surface. Ripe melons are easily separated from the vines, the mesh covers the peel all over the fruit, and the fruit turns yellow, but such melons will not be stored for long - at most two months.

A melon that is ripe enough to be stored has a medium mesh covering only half of the fruit. And those specimens in which the mesh covers the entire surface of the yellowed melon should be eaten immediately. In varieties that do not form a network on the peel, the only sign of ripening of the melon is its yellowing.

The degree of keeping quality of melons is determined according to the following scale:

• low – such melons are stored for less than two weeks;
• short-lived melons – shelf life from 15 to 30 days;
• medium-length melons are stored for one to two months;
• stored melons can be stored for up to 3 months;
• very shelf-stable - melons that can be stored for longer than 3 months.

Mid-season and late varieties of melon have the best keeping quality, which proper storage can last up to six months, while early, mid-early and some mid-season varieties are not stored for a long time, so it is advisable to eat them immediately.

Late-ripening melons, intended for long-term storage, are collected selectively in a state of technical ripeness, as the necessary signs appear on the fruits, without cutting, but tearing them off along with a stalk up to 3 cm long. This is done early in the morning, before the heat sets in, or in the evening, when the heat had already subsided. The picked melons are left for 3-4 days in the melon bed, carefully turning them over every 5-6 hours, after which they are placed in a dry, cool, but not cold, pre-disinfected storage.

Disinfection is carried out by spraying the room bleach. You can use smoke bombs to destroy viruses and pests. After treatment, the storage room should remain locked for several days, then it should be ventilated and the wooden structures of the room should be whitewashed with freshly slaked lime.

Place the melons for storage on racks, laying the fruits on shelves sprinkled with sawdust or chaff in one layer. Or you can store melons in a suspended state, immersing each fruit in a coarse mesh and hanging it on a rack with crossbars. The air humidity in the melon storage room should be approximately 80% and the temperature within 2-3 ºC.

The proximity to potatoes and apples has a detrimental effect on the melon: potatoes give the melon an unpleasant taste and begin to rot, and the ethylene released by the apples accelerates the process of ripening and over-ripening of the melon. Inspect stored fruit as often as possible and immediately remove any that show signs of spoilage.

Types and varieties of melon

Melon (Melo), separated into a separate genus, is represented by three dozen species, two of them wild. Some of the species are native to China and Africa, although most of grows in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran, and it was in these countries that the first cultivated varieties of melon appeared. The most aromatic and delicious melons are considered to be Central Asian. Among them, the most famous are:

• Zard- Chardzhou smooth, spindle-shaped melon with green skin, growing to enormous sizes - up to 25 kg and similar to a giant cucumber. In September it is hard and tasteless, but, having ripened in storage, in winter it becomes fragrant, tender and sweet. One of the most delicious varieties of this type is Gulyabi - these melons can be stored for six months;
• Khandalyak– early, small and tender melons with pear flavor;
• Ameri– Bukhara oval melons weighing 5-10 kg with crispy pulp exuding a vanilla aroma.

Asian Minor melons are also good, although they are inferior in taste to Central Asian ones. The most famous types:

• Cilician melon from Syria;
• Kassaba from Turkey, with virtually no aroma.

European varieties are derivatives of Central Asian melons adapted to cooler climates. An example of a European variety is the cantaloupe, a melon named after the papal estate of Cantalouppia. This is a segmented (ribbed) melon that does not have a special taste, but is capable of growing and bearing fruit even in England.

European varieties of melon are divided into early ripening varieties - very early varieties, ripening in 60-70 days, summer melons - larger, covered with a mesh along the skin, with sweet, tender and aromatic pulp, and wintering - medium-sized melons with a dark green or bronze, covered thick mesh skin with dense, crispy and sweet flesh. We offer you the best hybrids and varieties of melon for open ground, bred for cultivation in our climatic conditions:

• Blondie- a variety that ripens in 80-90 days, with bright orange, tender and aromatic pulp and thin, light, grayish-beige skin. The weight of slightly flattened, round segmented fruits containing carotene and a lot of sugar is up to 700 g;
• Wintering- a late variety that is difficult to grow in the middle zone, but in warmer areas, light yellow-green fruits without stripes ripen in 90 days, but with a coarse mesh on the peel with juicy, light green tender pulp. The weight of the fruit reaches 2.5 kg;
• Altai– the fruits of this variety have thin peel, oval shape, aromatic, tasty pulp and weigh no more than one and a half kilograms. The variety was developed in Siberia and is successfully grown here;
• Pineapple- one of the earliest varieties of oval shape with a golden skin covered with a mesh. The aromatic, sweet pulp is slightly pink shade. The weight of the fruit reaches 2 kg;
• Honey– this variety is grown in Mediterranean countries and Morocco. The fruits are smooth, elongated or round, green in color. The pulp is green, yellowish or yellow-red, sweet and aromatic, containing potassium, manganese and vitamin A;
• Galileo– a mid-early variety, bred specifically for cultivation in the south of Russia, with medium-sized fruits weighing up to 1 kg, the light brown peel of which is densely covered with a mesh, and the aromatic greenish pulp has a delicate taste;
• Charente- a variety of French selection with the smallest fruits in this varietal group, which are also considered the most aromatic and tasty. Melons of this variety are similar to cantaloupe. The fruits are round, slightly flattened, have smooth longitudinal grooves on the peel, the orange sweet pulp is very aromatic, in addition, low in calories and rich in vitamins;
• Augen– Israeli hybrid variety with slightly flattened elongated fruits of greenish, yellow or yellow-green color with longitudinal notches, spots and stripes. The pulp is green, aromatic and sweet;
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