Is there anyone who doesn’t like juicy, sweet melon? We are all waiting for the season when we can buy this magnificent southern fruit. Is it possible to grow melon in open ground in our not-so-warm latitudes?

Today we will talk about how to provide yourself with melons yourself.

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 the area is dominated by clay soil, 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 fertilizers or rotted 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 you can buy in a 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. Drop them in warm water(up to 35 degrees), remove, and keep for 24 hours at a temperature of 18-20 degrees. 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 pots are perfect for growing seedlings. peat tablets with a diameter of up to 10 cm. 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 vegetable crops. You can prepare this 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 temperature regime: during the day 18-20 degrees, at night - not 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. Variety Kolkhoznitsa, bred by Biryuchekutskaya experimental station, is most suitable for 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. Golden, a variety bred by the Krasnodar Research Institute, belongs to 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, 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. Fruit small 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. 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. 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 choice early ripening varieties melons 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 receive good harvest melons

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, advise more suitable varieties. Good luck and have a warm summer!

How to grow large and sweet melons in a polycarbonate greenhouse in the Moscow region? Growing melon seedlings without the hassle. Planting, care, formation of melon in a greenhouse. Rationing of melon fruits.

I grow melons in a greenhouse, producing very sweet fruits weighing between two and four kilograms. In 2016, I harvested 31 kg of fruit from four plants, despite the rainy summer.

I tried to grow ungrafted melons under covering material. They grow small (up to 1 kg) and do not always have time to ripen in the garden. They then ripen, of course, indoors.

You can grow grafted melons; you can read about this in the article “Melon grafting. Melons in cold climates. Personal experience" - . Grafting melon onto lagenaria does not give results; melon also has poor compatibility with pumpkin and zucchini. You need a special rootstock, but we don’t sell seeds of such rootstocks; you need to order them in China on the Taobao website. In addition, varieties often come from China, especially if ordered in small quantities, and rootstocks with different leaves grow from one package of seeds. A large volume is expensive, and there may still be mis-grading, there is no certainty about the result, this is an order at your own peril and risk, you can spend money, time, effort, but still not get results. For me, growing melons in a greenhouse is the easiest thing; the climate of the Moscow region allows it, and there are no difficulties with such cultivation.

Initially, I tried to plant melon seedlings in March, but despite the lighting and the large volume of the pot (1 liter), the melons grew frail with small leaves, then there was a long process of acclimatization in the greenhouse, and with a long delay the melons began to grow. I quickly realized that there was no point in early boarding There are simply no melons for seedlings.

Now I plant melon seedlings at the very end of April. If the spring is warm, then I plant it in a plastic box (they sell fruit in these boxes), and put this box in a greenhouse, under arches with covering material. I water it every day. Melons sprout as quickly as cucumbers. If the spring is cold, then I plant them in cassettes, and they stand in the house; as soon as they sprout, I immediately take them out to the greenhouse.

I plant melons in the greenhouse, on permanent place approximately May 10-15, by which time the melons have 1-2 true leaves.

If it’s cold, I cover it with spunbond at night. In sunny weather I remove the spunbond.

Two crops in one bed. Combined plantings.

I plant melons in a narrow bed near the wall of the greenhouse at a distance of 1 meter, or better yet 1.5 meters from each other. On a medium, wide (meter) bed at a distance of 1 meter. The vines take up a lot of space, even though I grow melons vertically. Melons do not have “antennae” like cucumbers, so at the first stage I direct the lashes to the net, which is attached above the plants.

In the greenhouse, on narrow side beds, my first crops are lettuce and spinach. How to grow lettuce, spinach and radishes by May 1 -

Lettuce and spinach. Beginning of May.

Planting melon as a second crop. I plant it between lettuce and spinach.

I plant 2 melons right between the lettuce and spinach.
June 1st. Melons and lettuce in one bed. At the time of the photo, the spinach had already been harvested.

Caring for melons in a greenhouse.

When the lettuce outgrows, I cut it off and mulch the bed with it, mulch the lettuce with grass, but unfortunately, due to the fact that the lettuce grows, there is a delay in mulching, and the melons are significantly stunted in growth compared to their neighbors. This can be clearly seen in the video at the end of the article. The fruits on these melons are not very large, 1.5 -2.5 kg each, it would seem, what difference does it make, because after harvesting the lettuce I also mulch the melons, you’ll think that 3 weeks later! But there is a difference... This year, only one fruit on these melons weighed 3.5 kg.

In a good way - lettuce should be removed as soon as possible to mow, and we can start mulching. There is a video at the end of the article; as you watch, pay attention to the growth of the plants in early summer and the size of the fruit before harvest.

And in the spring I have seedlings in the middle bed, so I don’t plant the first crop there. I plant 2 melons and mulch the bed as soon as the grass appears. Here the melons feel much better. And they produce fruits from 3 to 4 kg.

June 1st. The melons in this bed were mulched as soon as the grass grew and it was possible to mow. The minimum fruit weight in this bed is 3 kg, the maximum is 3.8 kg.

Like everything else, I grow melons using active mulch, what is this you can read -. I lay the grass in a thick layer 4-5 times a season, grass should not touch plant stems, therefore, each plant is wearing a trimmed plastic bottle. The bottles are not very visible in the photo, but I showed them in the video. If you have such bottles, you can spread the grass in a very thick layer without worrying that somewhere the grass will slide onto the plant.

This is what the greenhouse looks like in May. Net for vertical growing of melon.

I water the melons once a week, and a lot. , but not at the root and, of course, not in the bottle , but I very well spread mulch over the entire area of ​​the beds.

How to form a melon in a greenhouse?

A lot of people write that you need to pinch melons. I don't pinch anything, they grow as they want, I just direct the lashes upward. Melon also has fruits I don't standardize, if a melon cannot feed the fruit, then it discards it itself. If the fruits are low, then I put boards or boxes under them when the fruit becomes the size of an apple. Remember: the more tops a melon has, the more fruits, and they are larger.

Photo: melons in a greenhouse. Beginning of August.

Melon fruits should not lie on the ground.

If the fruits hang high, then I tie them up as shown in the photo below.

Melon fruit garter.

When the melons become “netted”, I reduce watering, the melons should gain sugar. When watering, I only moisten the mulch over the entire area of ​​the bed, because the processes occurring at the border of mulch and soil should not stop. By the end of August, the melons ripen; you must not miss the moment of collection, the melons can crack, and they will immediately be colonized by ants. Melons can be harvested when they have not yet completely yellowed. Unlike watermelon, picked melons ripen. That's all there is to it, you can enjoy juicy and very sweet fruits from your garden.

Moscow region melons.

This is not the largest melon this year, 2016 in the Moscow region was rainy, and there was almost no summer, it was hot for only 2 weeks, the roof of the greenhouse saved the melons from the rain. The grass grew very well this year, I don’t remember a year like this, there was enough grass for ALMOST everything. Why am I highlighting this? You just can’t have too much grass!

From two melon plants that were planted in a salad and mulched with grass, only after the overripe lettuce was chopped and mulched with it, 11.2 kg of fruit was obtained. From two melon plants, which were mulched with a thick layer of grass as soon as it (the grass) appeared, 19.7 kg of fruit were obtained.

Melon is a favorite delicacy of both children and adults. It has been grown in Russia for a long time. And although the climate here is unsuitable for this southern plant, spoiled by warmth and sun, people have learned to grow it, which has surprised foreign travelers a lot. The popularity of this royal fruit has not diminished even today, and cultivation technology has been enriched with new agricultural techniques. In this article we will talk about such an important agricultural technique as pinching, without which it would be impossible to obtain large and sweet melons in conditions of lack of heat and light.

Peculiarities

The essence of this technique is to remove the growth points of young shoots by pinching or pruning. This allows you to remove non-fruit-bearing stems, as well as leave such a number of fruit-bearing stems on the plant that there will be enough environmental resources to form high-quality fruits. Ultimately, when pinching, melons ripen earlier, which is also very important for cool climates. And besides, they grow larger.

Pinching is conveniently done with tools adapted for this purpose: with forceps or small scissors, which are used to bite off the stem with the growing point. However, even now they still practice simply pinching the growth point with their fingers.

Of course, pinching with your fingers is not entirely hygienic and causes more injury to the plant. But for removing large shoots, garden shears are quite suitable.

Features of melon pinching are defined as biological features its development and methods of cultivation. In a melon, the main stem is formed first, and then, in time, the lash of the first, second and third stages of formation. The main stem usually does not bear fruit because the primordia of female flowers do not develop on it or the flowers themselves will be sterile.

Fertile female flowers located mainly on shoots of the first and second stages of formation. Shoots of the first term form female flowers in the axils of the fourth and fifth leaves, and of the second term - in the axils of the first leaf. So pinching the growth point of the central stem initiates the growth of secondary stems from the axillary growth points, which will subsequently produce ovaries and then fruits.

Topping

The first pinching is carried out already at initial stages plant development - at the age of four to five leaves. In this case, the main stem develops from the axil of the upper leaf, and from the axil lower leaves side stems. When pinching for the first time, only the growth point of the central stem is removed. The features of subsequent pinchings are determined by how the cultivation will be carried out.

Scheme of vertical growing of melon in a greenhouse

This method involves tying the stems to a trellis. To install it, you first need to stretch a wire frame in the greenhouse at a height of about two meters and tie a twine to it, and three to four days after planting the seedlings, tie the plant with the lower end of the twine and let the shoot grow upward along the twine.

The advantage of vertical placement of shoots is improved illumination of the leaves - with this method of cultivation it triples. In addition, the air and moisture conditions of plants are significantly improved.

In the future, depending on the prevailing conditions, cultivation can be carried out in one or two stems. When growing in one stem, at the first pinching, only one stem is left, which is secured to the frame rope. The second pinching is carried out when it grows to the upper end of the twine. Barren secondary shoots are cut off, and the remaining fruitful stems are pinched over the second to fourth leaves.

When cultivating two stems, at the first pinching, only the 2 most developed secondary stems are left, the rest are removed. Each of them is secured to trellis strings so that the entire structure takes on a V-shape. The entire harvest will be on these stems. As a rule, no more than two melons are left on each stem; more than that simply will not ripen.

Since melon is dioecious and monoecious, for its pollination it is necessary to transfer pollen from the stamens of male flowers to the stigma of the queen of female flowers. In nature, melon pollen is carried mostly by bees. Of course, there are no insects in the enclosed space of the greenhouse. And then, even with the correct formation of the bush and, as a consequence, an abundance of flowers, due to the lack of pollinators, you may not get fruits. However, this will no longer be an error in the formation of plant lashes, but a lack of pollination.

Therefore, artificial pollination is carried out in small home greenhouses, and hives with bees are placed in large industrial greenhouses.

The technique of artificial pollination is simple. The flowers of both sexes are clearly distinguishable. The female flower has a clearly visible distinctive feature at the base - a developed receptacle. The male flower has only a pedicel. The male flowers bloom first. First, using a cotton wool wound on a match or a squirrel brush, you need to collect pollen from the anthers of male flowers, and then touch the queen of the female flower.

Or you can pollinate directly with a male flower. To do this, you first need to pick the petals from the flower, and then touch the female flower with the stamens. One male flower enough to fertilize three to four female flowers. If fertilization is successful, after two days you can observe the increase and development of the ovary.

It is important that the fruits, when they reach the size of a tennis ball, should be suspended from ropes in a mesh bag. Untied melons may break off the stem under their own weight.

Horizontal cultivation of melon in open ground

With this method of cultivation, the melon stems are freely located on the ground. For ease of tillage, growing stems must be removed from row spacing. Horizontal cultivation is unacceptable in a greenhouse, as it reduces the illumination of plants, and high humidity provokes their morbidity.

When pinching after seedlings, out of three stems, only the two most developed ones are left. They are pinched after 4–6 leaves have grown.

During the formation of the ovaries, a third pinching is performed, which involves performing the following procedures:

• removal of undeveloped sterile stems;
• pinching the stem with ovaries above the third or fourth leaf;
• powdering the tweezers with a dry mixture of lime, coal and sulfur.

Specifics of pinching melon of different varieties

Melon varieties vary greatly in length growing season, which determines varietal characteristics tweezers. Since development early ripening varieties occurs more intensively, and they ripen earlier, then they require less vital resources, mainly heat, than late-ripening varieties. Accordingly, pinching of late-ripening varieties is carried out more harshly - so as to leave less fruit on the plant.

This technique shortens their maturation time and also reduces the need for environmental resources.

Based on this, for early varieties, the procedure for plant formation involves only pinching the central stem and controlling the amount of ovary during the growing season. Mid- and late-ripening varieties require two pinchings. The first is carried out, as usual, at the seedling stage, pinching the central shoot above 4–5 true leaves. The second is carried out in the 7 leaf phase. In this case, the stem is pinched after the 7th leaf and only 3 ovaries are retained on the shoot.

It is important to remember that control over the growth of lashes and ovaries should be carried out until the fruits ripen- in fact, until the formation of young stems, flowers and fruit formation occurs. It is necessary to constantly remove newly formed stems, flowers and ovaries. This will allow the plant to effectively use nutrients to form your planned harvest. 3–4 fruits on each shoot are considered optimal.

And yet we must remember that the homeland of melon is Central Asia, where the warm and sometimes hot climate ideally matches its biological requirements. But in central Russia it is necessary to create artificial conditions for it - for example, cultivation in greenhouses, the use of special agrotechnical techniques (tweezing, discussed here), and also breeding varieties that are less demanding on the climate.

The climate of central Russia requires only early varieties. Only by cultivating these varieties can you count on success. What matters here is not only the total length of the growing season, but also the duration of the period from fruit set to maturity. A correctly selected variety will meet all the gardener’s hopes: there will be a good harvest, large and tasty fruits. Of course, I would like the melon to be the same in all respects as in Samarkand. For the middle zone, breeders have offered an impressive selection of early, medium-sized, but tasty varieties and hybrids.

Here is a partial list of them:

• "Collective farmer";
• "Blondie";
• "Dessert";
• "Cinderella";
• "Iroquois";
• "Krinichanka";
• "Lemon";
• "Ozhen";
• "Fairy tale";
• "Siberian skorospelka";
• "Tobolinka";
• "Kharkovskaya".

Gardener mistakes

Although the tweezing procedure is quite simple, nevertheless inexperienced gardeners sometimes make annoying mistakes that ruin all their efforts.

1. Often, beginners mistakenly pincer a melon, like a watermelon, leaving the main stem and removing all the side shoots. This error is caused by the visual similarity between the two crops and the assumption that plant formation is uniform, which is not true. Melon and watermelon are various types and have different developmental biology. As a result, they have completely opposite types of fruit formation. Watermelon sets fruit only on the main stem, while melon sets fruit on the first and second shoots. So the gardener, having removed all the side shoots of the melon, will be left without a harvest. This difference needs to be remembered.
2. The mistake is also made by those gardeners who pinch only the side shoots, leaving the main stem untouched. And in this case, you cannot count on a good and high-quality harvest. With this pinching, nutrients do not enter the side stems, where fruits are formed, but go towards the growth of the main stem. In this case, the fruits are small and tasteless.
3. It is a mistake to plant seedlings too close to each other. In this case, the plants will suffer from lack of light and diseases will appear. It is not possible to eliminate this deficiency by pinching.

In conclusion, we once again emphasize the importance of pinching for obtaining a melon harvest. High Quality with insufficient heat and light. Try to apply this agricultural technique creatively, taking into account all factors: the method of growing melon, variety and weather in a particular year, and then the melons will delight you.

Tips for growing melon seedlings are in the next video.

Forming vines of melons and melons is a complex craft at the intersection of art and science. How long should the whip be? How much fruit should I leave? After which leaf should you pinch? How to form? Sometimes it’s scary to even approach this activity; you give up: grow as you grow. It is not right. The size and quality of the fruit depends on how the lash is formed. Based on the experience of FORUMHOUSE users, we will look at the formation of pumpkin, watermelon and melon.

How to shape a pumpkin?

The first thing you need to know about shaping a pumpkin is that you shouldn’t rush into it. Even if you have “a bud on each lash,” the time has not come to pinch. A pumpkin is formed only when both the main stem and side shoots are decorated with ovaries the size of a tennis ball.

You can plant a pumpkin in one stem, or in three. After each last fruit, there should be four or five leaves on the stem. When forming into one stem, two or three fruits are left on it, and the side shoots are pinched into one or two leaves. When forming a plant into three stems, the main and lateral, two ovaries are left on the central one, and one on the lateral ones (or one fruit on each shoot). Typically, gardeners use all approaches and, through trial and error, choose the method that they will practice in the future.

Tatuniki User FORUMHOUSE

I form a pumpkin, leaving two or three fruits on the main stem and one on the side.

In general, it is an unpretentious culture. It was always planted in the far corners of vegetable gardens or potato fields and was not pampered with watering or fertilizing. And the lashes stretched uncontrollably, as and where they wanted. But usually the pumpkin forms too many ovaries, more than it can ripen. Therefore, if you do not control the process, it will shed some of the ovaries itself.

You can leave more fruits, up to seven per shoot. But it should be remembered that the whip is formed to produce large fruits and accelerate their ripening. Therefore, five to seven fruits on a pumpkin shoot will always be smaller than three, and they will ripen later.

The amount of sun also affects the speed of ripening. Pumpkin, as one of the most light- and heat-loving crops, planted in full sun. And therefore the weather also affects the formation of the whip. If the summer is bad and the fruits set later than usual, the pumpkin is formed, leaving fewer fruits so that they have time to ripen. But basically, of course, the number of fruits per plant depends on your needs and goals.

Fech Evgeniy User FORUMHOUSE

If imprisoned large-fruited variety and you need a large, exhibition fruit, then you need to leave one fruit and pinch it. If you plant a portion variety with medium-sized fruits, then you don’t have to pinch anything at all!

A FORUMHOUSE participant conducted an interesting experience in growing pumpkins Maria1. She grew a pumpkin on a compost heap and pointed the whip at the fence. At first, the increased decorativeness of the fence, entwined with large leaves and yellow gramophone flowers, was simply pleasant. Then, when the little pumpkins appeared, Maria put mesh bags on them, the kind they sell vegetables in in supermarkets, and hung them on a hook on the fence. Supported by the bag, the pumpkin ripened without coming off.

Maria1 User FORUMHOUSE

We grew three pumpkins weighing from seven to twelve kilograms. We liked this method. After all, it doesn’t take up any space, a green fence with flowers and a pumpkin.

How to shape melons

Female flowers and, therefore, shoots on melons are formed only on third-order vines. This means that you need to pinch the main stem in time, otherwise you may not get female flowers at all.

Vodopad User FORUMHOUSE

Many users of our portal form melons, following to the letter the recommendations of a reputable agronomist Nikolai Ivanovich Kurdyumov: as soon as the melon has its fifth leaf, it is pinched just above the third leaf. Soon three side shoots will appear, the bottom one is removed, the remaining two are pinched over the fourth or fifth leaf. Third-order shoots will appear on these lashes. In total, five or six such shoots are left on one plant, on which ovaries the size of a walnut appear. One ovary is left per lash. After two to three weeks, the top of the fruit vines is torn off or cut off, all branches are pinched above the third or fourth leaf and the flowers are picked off.

GARRY81 User FORUMHOUSE

For example, this is how I form mine.

Immediately after planting in the ground, the melon is pinched above the fourth or even third leaf. Thus, the first-order shoot does not grow, and from the second-order shoots the most vigorous and promising ones are chosen, and the rest are plucked out. The shoots are tied with a rope that comes from the trellis frame (at a height of 1.5-2 meters) and as they grow they are twisted around it. The point is that when grown on a trellis, the pumpkin receives more sun than when grown on a spread, and there are more shoots with ovaries on them. Melons are formed on shoots of the third order, and as soon as the ovary grows to size walnut, they are pinched.

Sukharik User FORUMHOUSE

If the side shoots are not pinched above the ovary, the plants may shed female flowers, so the side shoots are pinched to one leaf (short pinching) or two or three leaves are left above the ovary (long pinching).

Just in case, melons are hung on a trellis in a net.

A serious danger to melon is the lack of pollination. Bees are unreliable companions and may not come. It would be a pity if a strong, beautifully flowering bush does not produce a single fruit. We've covered it in detail, so read our recommendations just in case.

How to shape a watermelon

Unlike melon and pumpkin, it is formed in a fundamentally different way.

Yulek34 User FORUMHOUSE

The watermelon is not pinched. He has a different formation.

Melon cannot be called an overly capricious crop - it is drought-resistant, thanks to its powerful, deep root system, develops quickly and bears fruit generously. The main thing is to follow the “secret” technique and pinch the melons in a timely manner. Without it mandatory stage the harvest will be much poorer. So how to pinch a melon to get a rich harvest? More on this below.

Pinching the main growth point is necessary to accelerate the formation of lateral lashes from the axillary depressions under each leaf, on which, in fact, the ovaries will form. Moreover, nutrients from the root system are not distributed along the long shoots of the plant, but go directly to the fruits. As a result, melons ripen about 1 week earlier, becoming sweeter and larger. If the plant is not pinched, it may not produce ovaries at all, since there will be no side shoots on it.

Pinching seedlings

The first pinching of the melon should be done when the plants are in the seedling stage - at the stage of two pairs of true leaves. As a result, the main shoot grows from the axil of the top leaf, and side shoots will form from the axils of those located below. The further pinching scheme will directly depend on how you plan to organize the cultivation - vertical or horizontal.

Pinching when growing vertically

This method is usually used for growing melons in a greenhouse. Its essence lies in the fact that the lashes of the plant must be tied to the trellises, not giving them the opportunity to weave freely along the ground. Here they practice the formation of a crop in one stem, without lateral shoots. The plant needs to be pinched again when the main stem reaches a length of about 2 m. At this time, the side stems are pinched approximately above the 4th leaf, focusing on the number and location of the ovaries. Those lashes on which there are no ovaries need to be cut off.

Pinching when growing horizontally

Melons are usually grown horizontally in open ground. In this case, you need to leave only the two strongest shoots out of the three formed after the first pinching. Next time, the remaining lashes are shortened as soon as 5-6 leaves appear on them. And one more time, tweezing is carried out at the stage of formation of the ovaries: it is necessary to remove the weak stepsons and those on which the ovary has not appeared, treat the cut sites with crushed charcoal.

Pinching different varieties

The answer to the question of how to properly pinch melons depends on the ripening period of your variety. Thus, early ripening varieties only need to form the main stem and control the number of ovaries. But stopping at late-ripening variety, you will have to shape the plant more intensively, leaving fewer ovaries on the vines, thereby accelerating the ripening period and the quality of the fruit.

Further care

The number of ovaries and the correct formation of the lashes should be monitored until the fruits are fully ripened: in order for the melons to grow large, it is necessary to constantly remove the emerging ovaries and new shoots. Remember: the fewer melons you leave on each shoot, the more chances they have to grow large and have high taste.

A feature of growing melons vertically is the need to tie the fruits, placing them in loose nets, since as they increase in size, untied melons can break off the stems under their own weight. We must not forget about pollination: melons in the greenhouse are protected from insects, so the gardener himself will have to “work as a bee”.

When using the horizontal growing method, it is very important to correctly guide the canes, not allowing them to occupy the row spaces, and also not to allow the beds to thicken, otherwise the reason for the lack of fruit will not be improper melon planting, but a lack of light and excess moisture.

If you decide to graft a melon onto a pumpkin, this does not mean that you do not need to pincer the plant: all stages of forming a bush are carried out in the same order as in the case of a regular melon.

We hope we have covered in detail the topic of how to properly pick your melons to enjoy delicious fruits could have been done as soon as possible. Having tried to grow this crop once, you will become attached to it with all your heart, and you will no longer be able to imagine summer season without these fragrant melons.

Video "Formation of a Melon"

From this video you will learn how to properly shape a melon.