Growing Melon Outdoors

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Melon is a guest from sultry latitudes. She makes special demands on warmth and light, but she will also thank you for such conditions with tasty healthy fruits. Melon not only has a sophisticated taste and aroma, but also has many other valuable qualities. Among its advantages are the medicinal properties of the fetus. In particular, it is used as a healing agent for diseases of the liver and other organs of the digestive system. Melon retains many useful properties in processed form. Ripe melons can be dried, dried, and unripe melons can be used for pickles. What are the requirements for growing conditions is this melon culture?

Heat and light are the key to a rich harvest of melons and gourds

First of all, the melon needs warmth. The seeds will not germinate until the temperature overcomes a mark higher than + 12 ° C. However, the optimal conditions will be +20.. + 25 ° С. But do not assume that the hotter it is outside the window, the sooner and better the sowing result will be. At + 40 ° C, the seeds also do not want to germinate.

As for the growth and development of melons, the optimal conditions will be temperature fluctuations within the range of +30.. + 40 ° С. Compared to watermelon, melon is more thermophilic. It is dangerous when a cold snap suddenly sets in to + 15 ° C and below. When such a nuisance occurs during the flowering period, the melon can shed its buds. If fruits are formed during this period, they stop growing. Like a watermelon, when the temperature drops below 0C, the plant dies.

Melon is very fond of the sun. She does not tolerate the lack of sunlight, and development in cloudy weather can also become a problem. This should be taken into account both for those gardeners who arrange melons in the open air, and for those summer residents who intend to grow melons in greenhouse conditions.

Most of all, the melon needs light at the initial stage of growth. Another crucial moment is the flowering period. At the same time, melons have such a feature: when the daylight hours during the emergence of seedlings are shorter than 11-10 hours, they bloom a week earlier than those crops that developed with full daylight hours.

Melon requirements for soil type and soil moisture

Melon is demanding on humidity. She does not tolerate stagnant water in the ground. And therefore, the optimal soils for it are fertile, but light types, well air and water permeable. These include sandy loam, light loam.

Nevertheless, the plant needs to replenish the moisture reserves. Nature took care of this, providing this southern settler with a powerful root system. Due to the peculiarities of its structure, the melon is able to rationally use the minimum reserves of soil moisture. This is a very valuable quality, because unlike the watermelon, which has a lace carved foliage, the melon leaf plate has a large area and more evaporation occurs from it. This feature is dictated by the need to protect the plant from overheating in extreme heat.

Melon does not tolerate both excess moisture in the soil and high air humidity. But there are exceptions to this rule. Squat moisture is important at the time of flowering for pollination.

Melon is harmful as excessive dryness of the air at the moments of pollination, and long periods of rain. Due to such vagaries of the weather, the ovaries fall off or are poorly formed. The plant can be helped by artificial pollination. It will also be a great success to enlist the support of bees. For such additional pollination, it is recommended to take out hives to the site.

For the melon to be juicy and tasty, it is very important that it is surrounded by dry and warm air during the ripening period. The same applies to the beds on which the melons lie. Planks are even placed under them to protect them from damp earth.