Detailed Explanation of High-Yield Cultivation Techniques for Winter Melon with Double Film Mulching
Winter melon (scientific name: Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn.) is an annual herbaceous plant with tendrils on the stem, capable of climbing and vining, large leaves, and yellow flowers. The fruit is spherical or elongated cylindrical, with hairs and a white powdery coating on the surface, and the skin is dark green or light green. It is a relatively common vegetable. The skin and seeds can be used as medicine. The melon is shaped like a pillow, hence it is also called pillow melon, and it is produced in summer. It prefers warm temperatures and tolerates heat, has high yield, and stores and transports well. It appears more frequently in winter and autumn seasons and is classified among vegetable varieties. When young, the melon is green and hairy; when mature, it turns bluish, with a hard, thick skin covered in powder, and the flesh is thick and white. The pulp is called gualian, and the seeds in the pulp are called guaxi, arranged in rows. Winter melon is native to southern China and India, and is now widely cultivated in East Asia and South Asia. It can be used to make soup and can also be stir-fried. It also has weight-loss and lung-moistening effects and can relieve body edema. Winter melon is divided into two types: those with prickles on the skin surface and those without prickles.
Functions of Winter Melon
The fruit of winter melon can be as small as only a few kilograms, while large ones can reach more than 100 kilograms. It has high yield and stores and transports well. The texture of winter melon is also cool and tasty, with high water content and a mild flavor. In medicine, it has the effects of relieving summer heat, clearing heat, promoting urination, and reducing swelling. It can also be made into dried winter melon, dehydrated winter melon, and sugar-preserved products, and its seeds and peel are also very good traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Fresh winter melon fruit and its processed products are traditional export commodities.
Winter melon is mainly produced in summer. It is named winter melon because when the melon ripens, there is a white powdery substance on the surface, just like the white frost formed in winter. For this reason, winter melon is also called white melon.
Winter melon belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and is an annual herb. It is native to southern China and India, and is cultivated throughout northern and southern China, with the main supply season being summer and autumn.
Winter melon contains sugars, protein, various vitamins, and minerals, and is nutritious. It can be used to make soup, prepare winter melon cups, or be pickled into sugar melon winter, and it can also be used as medicine to treat illness. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that winter melon is sweet in flavor, slightly cold in nature, and non-toxic, with effects such as promoting urination and reducing swelling, clearing heat, quenching thirst, detoxifying, and aiding weight loss.
How can early maturity and high yield be achieved in winter melon cultivation with double film mulching?
In recent years, the application of simple plastic arched sheds with bamboo and wood structures plus plastic film mulching and other protective facilities in suburban areas has advanced the market period of winter melon by more than 30 days compared with conventional cultivation, with a general yield of 4000-5000 kg per mu and significant economic and social benefits. The supporting cultivation techniques are as follows.
1. Select good varieties and cultivate strong seedlings
Choose green-skinned winter melon varieties that are high-yielding, high-quality, disease-resistant, relatively early-maturing (the first female flower is borne at the 9th-13th node), store and transport well, have flesh 4-5 cm thick, and are marketable. In early to mid-February, use protective facilities such as large sheds with small sheds inside plus electric heating wires for nutrient pot seedling raising. Winter melon seed coats are thick and not easy to germinate, so seeds need to be soaked and sprouted before sowing. Before soaking, sun the seeds for 1-2 days, then place them in warm water at 52 degrees C for 30 minutes, then soak them in cool water for 24 hours. After washing, wrap them in wet cloth and place them at 25-30 degrees C for sprouting. After the seeds germinate, sow on a sunny day at the tail end of a cold spell and the beginning of a warm one. Make pots 5-7 days before sowing with nutrient soil (prepared with 7 parts vegetable garden soil plus 3 parts ash and miscellaneous fertilizer), water the seedbed thoroughly, and sow 1-2 seeds per pot. After sowing, cover with sifted nutrient soil 1.5-2.0 cm thick, then cover with plastic film and close the shed to increase temperature and retain moisture. Before emergence, maintain a daytime temperature of 25-30 degrees C and a nighttime temperature of 15-18 degrees C. Emergence occurs after about 7 days. After emergence, remove the plastic film in time and scatter some dry fine soil to favor seedling growth. After full emergence, ventilate appropriately at noon on sunny days to lower the temperature, water as little as possible during the seedling stage, and spray 0.1%-0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution 2-3 times to promote seedling growth. During continuous rain, snow, and low-light weather, use incandescent lamps for supplemental lighting, and pay attention to spraying carbendazim, thiophanate-methyl, chlorothalonil, copper-ammonia mixture, and other agents, or scatter medicated soil, to prevent damping-off. Harden the seedlings appropriately 5-7 days before transplanting. Spray the entire seedbed once with 50% carbendazim 800-fold solution plus 75% chlorothalonil 800-fold solution 1-2 days before transplanting, and apply 5% diluted manure water, so as to transplant with medicine and fertilizer. The seedling age is 40-45 days, and each seedling has 4-5 true leaves, tender green leaf color, and no pests or diseases.
2. Reasonable close planting and double film mulching
For early spring winter melon, choose sandy loam or clay loam that is sheltered from wind and sunny, has smooth drainage and irrigation, is fertile and deep, and has strong water- and fertilizer-retention capacity. Apply sufficient base fertilizer 7-10 days before transplanting, turn the soil 20-30 cm deep, break up clods, and make beds of different widths according to plastic film specifications; use 100-125 ml of 48% trifluralin per mu, mix with 40 kg of water, spray evenly on the bed surface, and immediately mix into the soil 1-3 cm deep to control grass weeds; then lay ultra-thin plastic film in the middle of the bed, set up the shed frame, and cover the shed to increase temperature and retain moisture. From late March to April, transplant on sunny days, with 600 planting holes per mu. After transplanting, immediately apply thin manure water, cover the plastic film around the transplanting holes tightly with fine soil (to avoid heat accumulation inside the film injuring the seedlings), and close the shed for 7 days to increase temperature and retain moisture, keeping the shed temperature at 25-30 degrees C during the day and not lower than 15 degrees C at night. After the seedlings recover, when the shed temperature is above 25 degrees C on sunny days, ventilate appropriately; when the outside temperature is stable above 15 degrees C at night, ventilate day and night. Remove the shed film in mid-May, but the plastic film should remain in place until the end.
3. Skillful management of fertilizer and water
For winter melon under double film cultivation, apply sufficient base fertilizer at one time, that is, in combination with land preparation, apply 3000-5000 kg of high-quality farmyard manure, 100 kg of cake fertilizer, and 40-50 kg of ternary compound fertilizer per mu, preferably by furrow or hole application. From seedling recovery to fruit set, topdress fertilizer and water 1-2 times according to seedling condition, applying 1000-1500 kg of thin manure water per mu each time to promote growth. Around the full blooming of female flowers, avoid excessive fertilizer and water that may cause flower drop and fruit abortion. When a single fruit weighs 1.0-1.5 kg, according to growth vigor, topdress 1500 kg of decomposed human and livestock manure plus 10 kg of urea per mu. After each batch of winter melon is harvested, in combination with watering, apply 15-20 kg of urea per mu in holes. After fruit set, if high temperature and drought occur, choose morning and evening to water for drought resistance; if there is continuous rain, promptly clear ditches and manage soil moisture, drain waterlogging, and reduce waterlogging damage.
4. Pruning side vines, pressing vines, and artificial pollination
In double film cultivation of winter melon, before fruit set, remove all side vines or retain 1-2 strong side vines, using the main vine and part of the side vines to bear fruit. When the main vine grows to 65-70 cm, cut through the plastic film and press the vine with soil at 2-3 leaf nodes, burying to a depth of 5-7 cm to promote adventitious roots and enhance the ability to absorb fertilizer and water. Winter melon is a cross-pollinated crop. During the opening of the first female flower, because air movement in the shed is low and there are few insects, pollination is likely to be poor, causing fruit abortion, so artificial pollination should be done in time to increase the early fruit-setting rate. The method is to take collected male flowers and gently wipe them on the stigma, or directly cover the female flower with the male flower.
5. Disease and pest control
The main diseases harming winter melon are phytophthora blight, anthracnose, and sunscald. In control strategy, in addition to agricultural control measures such as crop rotation, hot water seed soaking and disinfection, reasonable fertilization and watering (not partial application of quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer, not large-water flood irrigation), timely drainage to reduce waterlogging, and timely covering the melon with straw or melon leaves (to prevent strong direct sunlight from causing sunscald), pesticides should also be sprayed in time to control the spread of disease. When sporadic disease occurs in the field, use 60% baijuntong 500-fold solution, 58% jiajialing manganese zinc 500-fold solution, and 77% keshadan 500-fold solution alternately to control phytophthora blight; use 50% carbendazim (or 70% thiophanate-methyl) 800-fold solution plus 75% chlorothalonil 800-fold solution mixed and sprayed to control anthracnose. The main pests are aphids and melon webworm. In the early stage, use 40% dimethoate to control aphids; in the middle and late stages, use 80% dichlorvos 1500-fold solution plus 20% fenvalerate 3000-fold solution to control melon webworm.
6 Harvest at the proper time
For winter melon under double film cultivation, harvest begins from late May to early-to-mid June, and vines are pulled in mid-to-late August. Usually the first batch of winter melon can be harvested and marketed about 25 days after the female flower opens, when a single fruit weighs 3.5-4.0 kg. This helps produce more fruit and larger fruit later.