Melon - growing outdoors

Honey taste of juicy melon melting in the mouth can not be replaced by any other fruit. Unfortunately, today it is very difficult to buy a good melon. The list of people who have paid for their similar gastronomic weakness is constantly replenished. To enjoy your favorite fruit and not become a hostage of diarrhea (sorry for the details), we suggest you learn how to grow melons in the open field and grow your clean, healthy fruits.

Cooking place

Melon likes heat, and also dry and hot air. Of course, not all regions can offer such conditions to it, so often gardeners grow it in greenhouses , but you know, this is no reason to deny yourself the pleasure. The main thing is to do it right.

Let's start with the soil. On the sheltered from the wind in the autumn we make a garden.

1. The soil must be well drained; if you know that your site does not have this property, then use river sand: about 0.5 buckets per 1 m ² .
2. We dig the earth in depth into a standard bayonet shovel.
3. We introduce humus with the calculation for 1 m ² 3-4 kg and leave everything to spring.

When the earth warms up in the spring, it will again be necessary to dig up the bed and add a fertilizer containing potassium and phosphate. And before the melon itself is planted in the open ground, we enrich the land with repaired manure, or fertilizer with a rich content of nitrogen.

Something about seeds

As it is already accepted, seeds can be either bought in the store, or used their own. If you prefer the second option, then consider one slightly strange rule: last year's seeds are men, they will not give fruit, and seeds that are about 3-4 years old are women, such seeds make a very good harvest.

Before embarking on a landing, we will process the seeds to disinfect them and help with growth. To do this, make a solution of boric acid and zinc sulphate and drop the largest selected seeds into it for 12 hours. If you do not want to mix the fluids yourself, you can buy a similar finished product in a specialized store.

And immediately a secret from professionals. If the soil is poor, then in the last week before planting, carry out the following manipulations with the seeds:

• dip the seeds for a couple of seconds into water 32-35 ° C;
• Hold for 1 day at a temperature of 18-20 ° C in the air;
• gently reduce the temperature to 0 ° C and let the seeds lie down for 18-20 hours;
• again gradually raise the temperature to 20 ° C and for about a day let the seeds warm up;
• repeat this course 3 times.

Growing sprouts

To grow a good and strong seedling, follow the instructions below:

1. In late April, soak the seeds in the water for a few hours and remove all the floated - they are empty.
2. In peat tablets with a diameter of up to 10 cm, lower 2-3 seeds per depth no more than 5 cm, the optimal variant is 2-4 cm.
3. Until the first sprouts appear, store the tablets in a room with a temperature of 18-20 ° C.
4. When the first shoots appear, remove the excess, leaving only one sprout.
5. After the appearance of 3-4 leaves, prickle the young melon.
6. To care for seedlings it is necessary by the principle: do not pour water, and also do not soak the plant.
7. In about 25 days, it will be possible to plant melon seedlings in the open ground.

Transplanting

When all night frosts pass, in the prepared beds, at a distance of 70 cm from each other we make holes. Pour water and a little fertilize with humus. Without damaging the root, we plant seedlings in the ground so that the stalk does not go deeper. You can not remove the sprouts from the pills and put them directly in them, in such a case, try to make the ground from the pillow a little towering above the ground beds. After planting again a little water the ground around and sprinkle dry earth.

To adapt quickly, the first 2 days provide the melon with a shadow. If there are strong temperature changes, then at night you can additionally cover the planted shoots with film. Also need to use the film and in the rain - melon does not like it.

To form a melon in the open ground, we again resort to the pinching procedure. It is carried out after the melon has settled in its new place. To do this, the main stem, as well as all the side whips, is plucked over the seventh sheet. We get rid of unnecessary flowers, leaving three fastened fruit, located at a distance from each other. Also remove all those shoots, which are not observed fruits.

That's all the basic rules, adhering to which, I hope you will grow a good, and most importantly, your own home melon harvest.