A Detailed Guide to Hami Melon Planting Time and Pest and Disease Control Techniques

Hami melon is one of Xinjiang's signature fruits. Because the sunlight is especially abundant, the Hami melons it produces are thick-fleshed and sweet. It is now grown in many places, and there are also many varieties, so it is basically available all year round. So when is Hami melon generally planted? Pest and disease control techniques attached.

1. When is Hami melon generally planted?

Overall, to grow Hami melon well, it must be sown at the right time. Generally, sowing can be done after the late frost has passed, once the soil temperature 10 cm below the surface has stabilised at around 14°C. For melon fields using plastic film mulching, sowing can be done around 20 April; without plastic film mulching, the sowing period can be moved back appropriately; for winter melons intended for storage, the sowing period can be delayed to around 20 May.

2. Hami melon pest and disease control techniques

1. Hami melon Fusarium wilt

Damage symptoms: The typical symptom of this disease is wilting. It can occur throughout the entire growth period of Hami melon. When seedlings are affected, the cotyledons wilt or the whole plant withers, showing damping-off. When it occurs after flowering and fruiting, the leaves of affected plants gradually wilt, as if short of water, and this is more obvious at noon, while they can still recover in the morning and evening. After a few days, the leaves of the whole plant turn brown, wilt and droop, and can no longer recover; the leaves dry up and the whole plant dies. The affected roots rot brown and become slightly constricted, and the base of the stem splits lengthwise. An amber-coloured gelatinous substance sometimes oozes from the split. When the diseased stem is cut lengthwise, the vascular bundles can be seen to be yellowish-brown.

Control methods: Cultivation management: Focus mainly on strengthening cultivation management methods, with crop rotation and stubble changing.

First, adopt an integrated control method centred on selecting disease-resistant and disease-tolerant varieties and rational irrigation, supplemented by chemical control. Second, rotate crops and change stubble for 2 to 3 years; summer stubble fields are best. Third, control the amount of nitrogen fertiliser applied and increase the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilisers and trace elements.

Chemical control: If the disease occurs at the seedling stage, use chemical control. When sporadic diseased plants are found, drench the roots with 30% Yizhailing + Aiman (seaweed fertiliser), using 0.2 kg of solution per plant, and spray fulvic acid leaf fertiliser on the leaves; the effects are all fairly obvious.

Fruit blotch disease

2. Hami melon damage symptoms

The lesions on the leaves are round to polygonal. The edges initially appear V-shaped and water-soaked, then the middle becomes thin and the lesions dry up. White bacterial ooze exudes on the underside of the lesions, and after drying it forms a thin layer that is shiny. In severe cases, multiple lesions merge into large spots, the colour deepens, and they are mostly brown to dark brown. When the fruit is infected, water-soaked small spots first appear on the upward-facing epidermis of the fruit, gradually turning brown and slightly sunken, and later mostly cracking and brown. At the initial stage of the disease, it is confined only to the fruit skin. After entering the middle stage of the disease, the pathogen can spread into the flesh alone or together with saprophytic bacteria, causing the flesh to become water-soaked and rot.

Control methods: 1. Select disease-resistant varieties, such as the Xiyu series and Ganmibao, etc.

2. Select disease-free melons for seed saving, and disinfect the seeds. Use dry heat sterilisation at a constant 70°C for 72 hours, or soak the seeds in warm water at 50°C for 20 minutes, then remove, air-dry and germinate for sowing; Hami melon seeds can also be treated with 3% hydrochloric acid for 15 minutes, washed with water, then soaked for 8 hours in a 600-fold solution of 47% Chunwangtong wettable powder, rinsed clean and germinated for sowing.

3. Rotate for more than 2 years with non-cucurbit crops, and pay attention to removing diseased plant residues.

Chemical control: At the early stage of the disease, spray a 700-fold solution of 47% Chunwangtong (Jiaruinong) wettable powder, or an 800-fold solution of 77% Keshade wettable powder, a 600-fold solution of 78% mancozeb-zinc (Kebo) wettable powder, a 1500-fold solution of 10% oxadixyl (Shigao) water-dispersible granules, a 3000-fold solution of 72% agricultural streptomycin sulfate soluble powder, or a 1000-fold solution of 50% chlorobromoisocyanuric acid water-soluble powder.