When is the best time to apply boron fertilizer to watermelons?

Watermelon is one of the representatives of summer fruits, with sweet and refreshing flesh that can cool you down and relieve the summer heat. There are many gardening enthusiasts growing watermelons at present, so when should boron fertilizer be applied to watermelons?

1. When to apply boron fertilizer to watermelons?

1. Base fertilizer: generally applied before planting, worked into the soil during land preparation, using 0.5-1 kg of borax per mu, or 3.5-7 kg of boron-magnesium fertilizer, or 15-20 kg of boron mud, mixed evenly with an appropriate amount of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers and broadcast.

2. Foliar topdressing: applied respectively before flowering and 10 days after flowering, using a 0.1%-0.2% borax solution sprayed on the leaves.

2. Cultivation techniques for watermelon

1. Site selection and land preparation

The soil of a watermelon planting site is generally on the looser side, and the water source near the planting site should be relatively abundant to make irrigation convenient. Next, plots with relatively sufficient soil fertility and good permeability and drainage are all quite suitable for growing watermelons. Also, land where melon and fruit crops have been grown in the past three to five years cannot be used for growing watermelons. Land preparation is generally done well before winter sets in, then when spring comes, sufficient organic fertilizer, cake fertilizer and an appropriate amount of chemical fertilizer are spread and the land is turned over once more, and finally trenches are opened and beds are made, with the bed width generally around two meters to five meters.

2. Sowing and raising seedlings

The temperature for seed germination is around twenty-eight to three degrees, and the temperature suitable for watermelon growth is between eighteen and thirty degrees. Watermelons are generally sown around March and April each year, but sowing at this time requires pre-germinating the seeds, and after sowing the ground needs to be covered with plastic film for insulation. Seed treatment generally uses warm water soaking, or soaking with carbendazim. After the seeds grow a sprout point, evenly scatter them on the seedbed, and after doing a good job of insulation, wait for the seedlings to emerge.

3. Transplanting and planting out

Generally, once the watermelon seedlings have grown three or four true leaves, they can be transplanted and planted out. When planting, if it is a four-meter-wide bed, then one bed can be planted with two rows of watermelon seedlings, while a bed only two meters wide can only be planted with one row. With trellis-style planting, on average one mu can plant about one thousand five hundred to one thousand eight hundred watermelons, while with creeping growth, on average one mu can only plant about six hundred to seven hundred and fifty, and this also needs to be decided according to the fertility of the soil.

4. Field management

In addition to the usual water and fertilizer management and hoeing and weeding, the watermelon field also requires management such as training the vines, removing leaves, pinching off the growing tips and shading. During the entire growth process of watermelons, topdressing is generally needed three to four times. The first topdressing is mainly about a week after planting out, mainly to promote the growth of the vines. The second is when the vines have grown to about eighty centimeters to one meter, and this time not only topdressing is needed but also reasonable pinching off of growing tips to promote the growth of side branches. The third is at flowering time, and here what to note is that after the watermelon sets fruit, some of the surrounding branches, leaves and flower buds should be removed to avoid fruit drop and dead fruit, and at the same time foliar fertilizer needs to be sprayed. The last is when the watermelon is fattening up, mainly to promote the growth of the watermelon.

5. Pest and disease control

The most common diseases of watermelon are anthracnose, fusarium wilt, viral disease and powdery mildew, etc. These diseases are all fungal diseases, so the control methods are actually much the same, and generally carbendazim or Bordeaux mixture as well as chlorothalonil can be used for treatment. The main pests of watermelon are cutworms, aphids, melon maggots, etc. After sowing we can use targeted agents to soak the seeds to improve the resistance of the watermelon, and next we can use trichlorfon for control. The last thing to note is the appearance of split fruit, which is mainly about strengthening the management of water and light.

When boron fertilizer is used as a base fertilizer for growing watermelons, trench application or hole application is generally not used, so as to avoid the local soil boron concentration being too high and producing a toxic effect on the watermelon.