What to Do About Herbicide Damage in Watermelons? Detailed Remedial Treatment Methods

When planting watermelons, because many growers apply pesticides blindly and watermelons are sensitive to many pesticides, herbicide damage easily occurs. After herbicide damage occurs, some remedial measures should be taken promptly, as this can reduce the harm watermelons suffer from the chemicals.

1. Rinse with clean water

Most chemical pesticides are not resistant to washing with water. If herbicide damage is caused by too high a spraying concentration, you can immediately (preferably within 6 hours after application) fill a sprayer with clean water and repeatedly spray and wash the stems and leaves to wash away the pesticide remaining on the plant surface and reduce the damage; when rinsing, the sprayer pressure should be sufficient and the amount of water sprayed should be large.

2. Suspend pesticide use

Before the herbicide damage is completely resolved, minimize the use of chemical pesticides, especially pesticides of the same type, and stop using them to avoid worsening the damage.

3. Detoxify with gibberellin plus white sugar

For crops that have already suffered herbicide damage and show symptoms such as yellow leaves and wilting, we farmers should promptly detoxify the affected crops. For example, if corn and peanuts are over-inhibited and their growth stagnates due to spraying too high a concentration of paclobutrazol for growth control, we can promptly spray a gibberellin plus white sugar solution, which can quickly restore normal crop growth. For herbicide damage to grapes and apples caused by copper formulations and Bordeaux mixture, we can spray 0.5% lime water to alleviate it, so as to reduce the harm the damage does to the crops.