How to get your melons to bear fruit faster ?

[JohnAlexGardeners]

Melons (Cucumis melo), or more specifically muskmelons, are part of the Cucurbitaceae family with watermelons, cantaloupes, and timun suri. Just like other plants in the family, muskmelons vine but do not ‘climb up’. Unsupported, muskmelons would just vine all over the soil surface.



The ideal place to farm muskmelons is at 250-700 m above sea level. At 250 meter, muskmelons tend to produce small fruits while in really highland with less than 18 degree celcius temperature, they are hard to grow. Muskmelons demand air humidity level at 50-70% in 25-30 degree celcius temperature with 1500-2500 mm per year precipitation. The quality of your muskmelon fruits will be better if there’s a significant difference of temperature during the day and night.

Types

Muskmelons vary a lot, however there are three popular cultivars to farm:

Reticalatus. This muskmelon is the most popular cultivar. It’s shaped like a ball with green colored skin and net-like skin texture.

This cultivar has smooth skin with the color ranges from yellow to greenish pale yellow. The meat is aroma-less and can be green, orange, or even white.

This one has wavy skin like pumpkins. The meat is very aromatic and yellow or orange in color. An example of this cultivar would be cantaloupe.

Seeding

Farming muskmelons usually start with generatively reproduced seeds, so they’re actual muskmelon seeds. For one hectare, you can plant about 16,000-20,000 muskmelon plants so you need about 500-700 grams of seeds.

Before you plant them, you have to let your seeds germinate first. Soak them in warm water for 6-8 hours. You can add fungicides into the water.

After soaking is done, let them dry over wet piece of fabric and let them be for 1-2 days until they have germinated. Keep the fabric wet enough during those two days.

Prepare small polybags or sowing trays. Fill them with planting medium which is a mix of soil and compost or manure fertilizer with 2 to 1 ratio. Bury the melon seeds in it, about 1-2 cm deep.

Protect your sowing place with transparent plastic roof or something like it. This is needed to protect your seeds from overexposure of the sun and direct rainfall. Keep the humidity stable; water them when needed, but not too much.

Seed sowing usually happens for 10-14 days and it’s usually finished when marked with the growth of 2-3 leaves. Your seedlings are now ready.

Land preparation and planting

Land for muskmelon farming should be plowed first to smooth out the big chunks. Then, make seedbeds with 100-120 cm width, 30-50 cm height, and 10-15 m length and 50-60 cm distance between seedbeds.

If your soil’s pH is less than 5, add in 2 tons of dolomite or agricultural chalk per hectare. Mix it with the seedbed soil at least 2-3 days before basic fertilization.

Add 15-20 tons per hectare basic fertilizer like compost or manure fertilizer. Also add 375 kg of ZA, 375 kg of KCl, and 250 kg of SP-36 per hectare. Mix them all up together on the seedbeds with the seedbed soil. Let everything be for 2-4 days.... readmore >> How to Get Your Melons to Bear Fruit Faster | Hallo Garden

[JohnAlexGardeners]

thanks admin..

[tommyteo]

thanks

[magentaflame]

They look like cantelopes to me.

[LarsMac]

magentaflame;1509430 wrote: They look like cantelopes to me.


I agree. Looking on Wikipedia, the images of muskmelons and Cantaloupes seem very similar, but the Muskmelons I have seen looked very different.

[DanGarden]

I'm pretty sure the melons shown in the picture above are Muskmelons. My friend's grown them for many years and told me that they are sold in the United States as Cantaloupe, but it's not their proper name.

[LarsMac]

DanGarden;1510660 wrote: I'm pretty sure the melons shown in the picture above are Muskmelons. My friend's grown them for many years and told me that they are sold in the United States as Cantaloupe, but it's not their proper name.


A number of varieties of muskmelon are available. Cantaloupe is one of them, and is my all time favorite.



Those in the picture are Cantaloupe.

[magentaflame]

JohnAlexGardeners;1509307 wrote: Melons (Cucumis melo), or more specifically muskmelons, are part of the Cucurbitaceae family with watermelons, cantaloupes, and timun suri. Just like other plants in the family, muskmelons vine but do not ‘climb up’. Unsupported, muskmelons would just vine all over the soil surface.


I allow mine to Vine all over the surface of the soil. They entangle themselves amongst the watermelon and honey drew melons. It's very pretty ground cover.

I get the seeds straight from the melon, wash em' a bit and roll them in toilet paper put them on a window sill in the sun then straight into the shed....that's it. In spring the toilet paper is rolled out into the soil and voila!!!! This year I'm throwing them into a big compost heap with the pumpkins.

I was just shown yesterday the strawberry plants a friend of mine produced just by throwing moldy strawberries into a pot to fertilize another plant. He's going to be knee deep in strawberries this year .