How to grow a watermelon in your country house?

To grow watermelons, certain conditions are required, first of all, a warm or even hot climate. In this regard, it is generally accepted that they can grow only in places where natural conditions allow it - in hot countries or at least in the south of Russia. However, it is not!

Of course, the cultivation of melons and watermelons in the conditions of central Russia is a difficult matter, it is better to leave it for more suitable regions. But to get the harvest of the largest berry in the world in a greenhouse, barrel or on a balcony is quite possible in a dacha near Moscow, and in the Vitebsk region, and in Udmurtia, and even in Transbaikalia!

Training

To grow watermelons, three conditions are important.

1. High temperature: twenty-five to thirty degrees.
2. Good illumination, bright sun.
3. Low level of air humidity, no more than sixty-five percent.

All these conditions can be created in a greenhouse. It should be prepared in advance, back in the fall, so that in the spring there are no problems with this. Then it is necessary to fertilize the earth. Natural organic food such as manure, fallen leaves and grass cuttings are ideal for this purpose.

Cover the greenhouse with foil in the spring - in March-April. After that, cold-resistant crops are sown there, which ripen quickly. When they are removed, the place is ready for planting watermelons.

The place for the greenhouse must be chosen well-lit, best of all - on the south side of the site. It should not be in the shade of buildings or trees. The height of the greenhouse is at least two hundred centimeters. It is also worth noting that planting watermelons for the second year in a row in the same place is not a good idea.

Advice

It is permissible to plant watermelons not in a separate greenhouse, but together with any other crops - eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers.

Germination

Before planting watermelons in open ground in cold regions - in the middle lane, the seaside region, in the Far East - you can grow them at home in pots. This will increase the likelihood that the berries will develop properly in the future.

In a pot with a diameter of ten centimeters, you can germinate two watermelons. The temperature in the room where the seedlings are located must be maintained at twenty-five to twenty-seven degrees Celsius. At night, it is desirable to lower it to twenty degrees.

Seeds are planted in April. The pots are placed in a bright, sunny place - southern windowsills are best suited - at some distance from each other. Plant leaves should not be in contact. You can also keep seedlings on a glazed balcony, but in this case, you need to monitor the air temperature even more closely.

Seed germination time is about a week. In total, it is necessary to grow watermelons for thirty to thirty-five days. During this period, it is necessary to feed the seedlings twice with complex mineral fertilizers. Plants can be planted in the garden when three to five leaves are formed on them.

Landing

An important criterion for successful cultivation is the correct selection of the variety. Some of them will be discussed in more detail below. It is also worth mentioning here that Ogonyok and Sugar Baby are good options in the middle lane.

Planting seeds or seedlings directly into the greenhouse takes place at the end of May - June. It is during this period that the weather is warm enough to keep the temperature inside the greenhouse at the proper level.

Advice

If the cold came after planting, then the plants should be covered with plastic wrap.

The planting scheme assumes that one row of watermelons is placed in one greenhouse.The distance between plants is at least fifty centimeters. When removing the earthy clod from the pot, you need to be very careful not to damage the roots. It is a good idea not to bury the seedlings too deep in the soil.

When planting watermelons with seeds at once, it is worth repeating sowing a week after the first. They are sown simply on the surface of the soil, and then sprinkled with earth. After germination of seeds, it is necessary to thin them out so that the sprouts are at a distance of at least half a meter from each other.

Growing and care

In order for watermelons to grow successfully in the middle lane, it is necessary to strictly follow the technology below.

Agricultural technology of watermelons involves the following activities:

• watering;
• fertilizer;
• pruning;
• garter;
• pollination (if necessary).

In the first week after planting, plant care is not required. The only thing is that it is necessary to ventilate the greenhouse on warm days, when the temperature inside rises above thirty degrees. Further watering is carried out with warm water, and with it - fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizer. In this case, it is necessary to carefully monitor that water does not fall on the leaves.

At the same time, the plants must be tied up. It will be correct to do this using the same technology as for the cucumber garter. Lateral shoots without ovaries are removed, with ovaries - pinched. After two fruits the size of a chicken egg have formed on one plant, all other ovaries must be removed.

Watermelons once a week as the soil dries out. In addition to the first feeding, you need to carry out two more, already complex mineral fertilizer. The interval between them is about three weeks. If insects do not fly into the greenhouse, you will have to carry out pollination on your own: carefully transfer the pollen from the stamens of the male flower to the female one.

It is also important to properly harvest the fruit. There is no need to rush into this matter. Even very large watermelons may still be immature.

Three criteria can be used to determine when to harvest.

1. In a mature watermelon, the pattern on the peel appears more clearly, the colors become brighter.
2. The wax film becomes weaker or disappears altogether.
3. If you knock on the fruit, it will make a dull sound.

Barrel watermelon

In addition to the greenhouse cultivation of watermelons, it is worth mentioning another method suitable for the Far East and central Russia. This is barrel growing. Yes, yes, in the most ordinary two-hundred-liter metal barrel! Caring for watermelons planted in this way will be much easier than for greenhouse ones.

It usually accommodates one or two plants, depending on the variety. The container is placed next to fruit trees, but not in the shade. Weeds weeded out to the very top are laid in it. After they settle a little in the barrel, you can add humus and garden soil to them.

Then the seeds are sown. They must be planted carefully and slightly, in small depressions in the soil. The container is now covered with plastic wrap. When the watermelons grow up, you can remove it and thin out the shoots, leaving only one or two plants, between which there should be a decent distance.

Further care is carried out in the same way as in a greenhouse, with the exception of tying: when grown in a barrel, it is not required.

Watermelon on the balcony

Another interesting option is the cultivation of melons and gourds on a glazed balcony. When is it worth using this method? Well, for example, if you don't have a summer cottage, but you really want to grow a watermelon yourself.

Advice

You can plant plants immediately in large containers or boxes, or you can pre-grow in pots.

Caring for a watermelon on the balcony is practically no different from that described above. It will have to be watered, fed, cut and tied in the same way. And even more closely monitor the temperature. Additional heating may be required.And pollination will definitely have to be done artificially.

Varieties

When growing watermelons in the middle lane, the right choice of variety plays a huge role. There are quite a few of them, and a novice gardener may not immediately understand which one is better to stop at. The universal version will be "Ogonyok", "Sugar baby" or "Skorik". Let's consider them in more detail.

• "Ogonyok". This variety is notable, first of all, for the very small size of its fruits. They usually weigh no more than two kilograms, and when grown in a greenhouse, they grow to only one and a half. But they ripen very quickly, in seventy days. And one plant can give a pretty big harvest. "Ogonyok" has a solid dark green peel, without any patterns or stripes. The pulp is sweet and juicy, with a rather delicate taste. There are not very many seeds.
  "Ogonyok" is an unpretentious variety, slightly susceptible to diseases and pest attacks.
• "Skorik". The color of the fruits of this variety is dark green, with a brightly distinguished pattern in the form of broken dark lines. The berries are relatively small, weighing about three kilograms on average. The pulp is bright red. Ripening time is about three months.
• "Suga Baby". He is "Suga Baby", he is "Sugar baby". A very popular, and most importantly unpretentious, variety of watermelons. "Suga Baby" was bred in France, especially for growing in countries and regions with cold climates, in greenhouse conditions. Caring for him is quite simple, and the yield is high.

The fruits are small, round, weighing up to four and a half kilograms. "Sugar baby" has a very sweet, bright red pulp. And its ripening time is only seventy-five days.

It is easy to see what unites all these varieties. They have medium-sized fruits (especially "Ogonyok" distinguished itself here), they ripen quickly, are unpretentious - care for each of them is very simple. It is these varieties that you need to choose for growing in central Russia.

Output

Growing watermelons in the open field and in a greenhouse is quite possible even in cold climates. Of course, they need careful care here. However, there is nothing in it that the average gardener of central Russia would not encounter. Agricultural technology is exactly the same as when breeding, say, tomatoes or peppers.

An important point is the choice of the variety. It is worth taking one of those that ripen quickly, have small fruits, which are easy to care for in climatic conditions normal for watermelons. For example, "Ogonyok" or "Skorik".

In addition to the standard "greenhouse" method, you can also grow watermelons in a metal barrel or at home on a balcony.