How to Grow Winter Melon? A Detailed Guide to Winter Melon Cultivation Techniques

Winter melon is a nutritious vegetable that can beautify the skin and help with weight loss, with a refreshing and tender taste, and the winter melon is quite large in size and stores for a relatively long time, making it one of the vegetables everyone loves to eat. So do you know how winter melon is grown? Let's find out below about the cultivation techniques for winter melon!

How to Grow Winter Melon

1. Sow the winter melon seeds in a pot with fertile soil. Wait for them to sprout and grow into seedlings. When the winter melon seedlings grow to the height of a finger, pull out the seedlings, loosen the soil in the field, and dig the planting holes.

2. Keep the rows neat. Place the winter melon seedlings into the holes, cover the roots of the seedlings with soil, water them, and apply fertilizer. When the seedlings grow tendrils, set up a trellis beside each seedling so that the seedlings grow upward along the trellis. When the seedlings grow tall, take care to remove weeds and water and fertilize appropriately.

3. After flowering, winter melons will grow after some time. Once ripe, they can be harvested.

Winter Melon Cultivation Techniques

1. Cultivation season: Winter melon likes high temperatures and has strong heat resistance. Within the suitable temperature range, the higher the temperature, the faster the growth and development. Therefore, its peak growth period must be arranged in the high-temperature season. In production, the planting period is generally scheduled after cucumbers.

2. Sowing time: Winter melon is generally grown from seedlings, with a seedling age of 40-50 days. The suitable sowing time can be determined according to local climate conditions, cultivation purpose, and variety type. Small winter melons can be sown in early February, and large late-maturing winter melons can be sown in mid-to-late February.

3. Seed soaking and sprouting: Winter melon seeds sprout slowly and have relatively low germination vigor. Before sprouting, measures such as hot-water seed treatment should be used so that the seeds absorb water normally. Seeds sprout best at 25-30°C, and germination can occur after about 4-5 days.

4. Seedling stage management: Winter melon seedlings grow slowly and require high temperatures during the seedling stage. To increase the bed temperature, the seedbed should be prepared in advance, and the soil should be turned and sun-dried. To meet their nutrient requirements, the bed soil should be mixed in advance and blended with more decomposed organic fertilizer to make it loose and fertile.

5. Timely planting: Winter melon has a well-developed root system. Before planting, the soil should be deeply plowed and leveled and finely raked to prevent water accumulation that can cause Fusarium wilt and root rot. When planting, decomposed organic fertilizer should also be applied locally at 3000-5000 jin per mu. The density varies depending on the cultivation method, climate conditions, and variety.

Growth Habits of Winter Melon

1. Temperature: The suitable temperature for the growth and development of winter melon is 25-30°C, the suitable temperature for seed germination is 28-30°C, the minimum temperature for root growth is 12-16°C, the suitable air temperature for pollination and fruit set is around 25°C, and temperatures below 20°C are not conducive to fruit development.

2. Sunlight: Winter melon is a short-day crop. Short-day conditions and low temperatures are beneficial to flower bud differentiation, but the entire growth period also requires long-day conditions and sufficient light. If the fruiting period encounters long periods of cloudy, rainy, and low-temperature weather, flower drop, fruit abortion, and fruit rot will occur.

3. Water: Winter melon has a large leaf area and strong transpiration, so it needs more water, but air humidity that is too high or too low is not conducive to pollination, fruit set, and fruit development.

4. Nutrition: Winter melon has a long growth period. The vegetative growth of the plant and the growth and development of the fruit require sufficient soil nutrients. Fertilization should mainly be nitrogen fertilizer, appropriately combined with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, to enhance the plant's stress resistance and increase the seed production per fruit.

5. Soil: Winter melon is not strict about soil requirements. It can be cultivated in sandy loam or clay loam, but continuous cropping should be avoided.

Introduction to Winter Melon

Winter melon is an annual herbaceous plant with tendrils on the stem, capable of climbing vines, with large leaves and yellow flowers. The fruit is spherical or elongated cylindrical, with a dark green skin covered with hairs and a layer of white powdery substance. The flesh of winter melon is white, thick and fleshy, with golden-yellow pulp wrapped in the center of the flesh. Both the skin and seeds of winter melon can be used as medicine. The fruit is shaped like a pillow, so it is also called pillow melon, and it is produced in summer. Because when the winter melon ripens, a layer of white powdery substance appears on the skin, like the white frost formed in winter, winter melon is also called white melon.

Winter melon contains relatively high amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and small amounts of minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron, as well as various vitamins and other nutrients. Winter melon is the only melon vegetable that contains no fat, and it is rich in propanedioic acid, which can inhibit the conversion of carbohydrates into fat. Because it also has a strong diuretic effect, it can increase weight-loss effects, so winter melon is also known as the “weight-loss melon.”

Before eating winter melon, it should first be peeled, seeded, and rinsed clean. The flesh of winter melon can be used in soups, stir-fries, or candied with sugar to make preserved fruit, and the seeds can also be eaten after processing. Fresh winter melon flesh is full of water and has a refreshing taste.

The above is the winter melon cultivation technique summarized for everyone by the editor. I hope it can help everyone. Although winter melon is delicious and nutritious, winter melon is cold in nature. Friends with a cold-type constitution should best eat less of it. Winter melon is also not suitable to be eaten too much; eating too much can instead cause many uncomfortable symptoms, so everyone should eat it in moderation!