How to grow Hami melon seeds? A guide to variety recommendations and prices

Hami melon is a variant of melon, also known as snow melon and tribute melon. It is a class of excellent melon varieties, produced in Xinjiang, and most widely grown in Hami. So how do you grow its seeds? Which variety is good? How much does a jin cost to buy? According to Ms. Xu from a seed wholesale company in Shuyang County, Suqian, Jiangsu, Hami melon seeds now cost about 60 yuan/jin. Hami melons are about five yuan per jin, but the price varies due to factors such as the marketing season, the sales region and the place of origin. Hami melons sold in season are obviously cheaper than those sold out of season. Hami melons generally start to come on the market in early May and continue until October.

Which Hami melon seed variety is good?

There are more than 180 varieties of Hami melon, with shapes including oval, ovate, club-shaped and long rod-shaped; sizes vary, with small ones at 1 kg and large ones at 15-20 kg; the rind may be netted or smooth; colors include green, yellow and white, and the flesh may be white, green or orange-red, with textures ranging from crisp to flaky to soft, and flavors including mellow, delicate and fruity. There are more than fifty relatively rare and valuable varieties.

1. Xizhou Mi: light mottled green with green stripes, fine and dense netting covering the whole fruit, orange-red flesh, fine and crisp texture, good flavor, sugar content 20%, best when produced in eastern Xinjiang.

2. Donghu melon: attractive netting, tastes like fragrant pear, fresh, sweet, crisp and tender, giving off an enticing milky, fruity and wine aroma;

3. Black Eyebrow: oval in shape, with more than a dozen dark green longitudinal stripes on the rind, like a beauty's delicate eyebrows; the flesh is emerald green, fine-textured and juicy, with high sugar content, sticky to the mouth and hands; eaten after the onset of winter, it is even more fragrant and sweet and refreshing;

4. Red Heart Crisp: orange-red in color, crisp, flaky and juicy, with a creamy taste, rich aroma overflowing, leaving a lingering fragrance in the mouth after eating;

5. Yellow Egg: golden yellow in color, round and small in shape, flesh like mutton fat, soft and sweet; placing one melon indoors fills the whole room with fragrance;

6. Xuelihong: a thick-skinned melon bred by the Xinjiang Hami Melon Research Center, an early-to-mid maturing variety, with a fruit development period of about 40 days; the fruit is oval, the rind white, occasionally with sparse 7. netting; when ripe it is white with a hint of red, the flesh is light red, fine and tender, crisp and refreshing, melting in the mouth, with a taste like fragrant pear, central refractive sugar content above 15%, and a single melon weighing about 2.5 kg.

8. Jiashi melon: Jiashi melon is named after its place of origin, Jiashi County, and has a cultivation history of more than 1,500 years. It has many varieties, divided into early, middle and late types, with more than thirty kinds available in all four seasons. Jiashi melon has a long cultivation history; its form is well-proportioned and plump, and it is characterized by thick flesh and fine texture, sweet fragrance and crispness, rich juice, thin skin and high sugar content, ranking first among all melons in Xinjiang and standing out among all kinds of melons and fruits in China.

How do you grow Hami melon seeds?

Hami melon has more than 180 varieties and types, and is also divided into early-maturing summer melons and late-maturing winter melons. Winter melons are storage-resistant and can be kept until the following spring, still tasting fresh.

1. Site selection and land preparation

Fallow land or abandoned land is best for the melon field. Land that has grown melons should have a rotation period of more than five years. The preceding crop should preferably be a grain crop. Planting Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae or Solanaceae crops around the melon field is strictly prohibited.

For the melon field, choose soil with medium or higher fertility; loam or sandy loam is best; soil organic matter content above 1.0%, available phosphorus content 10 ppm, available potassium content 150 ppm, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen 50 ppm, total salt content around 0.5%, and soil pH between 7-8.

It is best to carry out summer plowing and autumn plowing of the melon field before the end of the year, with a plowing depth of more than 25 cm, and to carry out winter irrigation to help suppress alkali and mature the soil, and to eliminate weeds and overwintering pests.

2. Apply base fertilizer and open the melon trenches

After the beginning of spring, draw the trench lines along the contour lines of the melon field, with a trench spacing of 4-4.5 m and a trench length of no more than 30 m; open fertilizer trenches 60 cm on both sides of the center line of the melon trench, with a trench depth of more than 25 cm; apply 2,000 kg of high-quality decomposed organic fertilizer per mu, plus an appropriate amount of chemical fertilizer mixed evenly. Chemical fertilizer rates: ammonium nitrate 20 kg, triple superphosphate 25 kg, or diammonium phosphate 20 kg, ammonium nitrate 15 kg, humic acid compound fertilizer 50 kg, or humic acid compound fertilizer 100 kg. After the fertilizer is applied into the trench, mix it evenly with soil.

Open the trench along the center line of the melon trench, with a depth of 0.5-0.6 m, a top width of 0.9-1 m, and a bottom width of about 30 cm. The melon trench is required to be level, straight, with a consistent water line, and free of large clods and plant roots and stems.

3. Pre-sowing irrigation

Irrigate 5-7 days before sowing. Good pre-sowing irrigation is the key to ensuring uniform and complete seedlings; be sure to water enough and thoroughly; generally 80 cubic m/mu or more.

4. Covering with plastic film

Choose transparent film or silver-gray film 70-90 cm wide to cover both sides of the melon trench, laying it upward along the trench wall at 10 cm from the trench bottom. The plastic film is required to fit closely to the ground and the trench wall, and to be pressed flat, tight and firm. Generally, the film is laid first and then sowing is done. To avoid the harm of late frost, you can dig holes and sow and then cover with film, but you must break the film in time to release the melon seedlings. Otherwise, it is likely to cause seedling scorching and missing plants.

5. Select good varieties

You should choose the currently approved new varieties Xinmiza No. 7 (8601), Xinmi No. 11 (86-1), Xinmi No. 13 (New Queen), Xinmi No. 15 (Xiangfei Mi), and Xinmi No. 23 (Jinmi Bao).

6. Sowing. Sow at the right time. Generally, sowing can be done after the late frost has passed and when the soil temperature at 10 cm below the surface is stable at about 14 degrees C. The sowing method can be hole sowing by punching holes along the water mark line of the melon trench, with manual digging of holes; the hole spacing depends on the maturity of the variety.

7. Building the shed

For cultivating Hami melon in protected small arched sheds, before covering the shed you need to prepare the land early, open trenches, apply base fertilizer, irrigate and lay film.

8. Field management

(1) Checking seedlings and replanting. Generally, seedlings emerge 5-7 days after sowing. Within 3 days of emergence, check the seedlings and replant immediately. The replanting seeds should be disinfected, then soaked to promote germination, and can be replanted once the seeds show white.

(2) Thinning and final singling of seedlings

Begin thinning when there are 1-2 true leaves, leaving 2 plants per hole; when thinning, be careful to remove weak seedlings and diseased seedlings. When there are 4-5 true leaves, do final singling, leaving 1 healthy seedling per hole. If precision sowing is used, thinning and final singling can be completed in one step at 4 true leaves.

(3) Intertillage and weeding

Intertillage and loosening the soil can both raise soil temperature and conserve moisture and eliminate weeds.

(4) Vine training and fruit setting

The vine training and fruit setting of Hami melon depend on the variety. For early-to-mid maturing varieties, such as Hongmi Bao, Hongtaihou, Xinmi No. 15 (Xiangfei Mi), and Xinmi No. 13 (New Queen), the single-vine pruning method can be used; for mid-to-late maturing varieties, such as Xinmiza No. 7 (8601), Xinmi No. 11 (86-1), and Xinmi No. 23 (Jinmi Bao), the double-vine pruning method is used. The specific pruning method can be determined according to local melon-growing habits.

9. Topdressing

In melon fields cultivated with plastic film mulching, organic fertilizer is generally not applied as topdressing. If the base fertilizer is insufficient, part of the cake fertilizer or chemical fertilizer can be applied as topdressing.

10. Irrigation

The number of irrigations and the amount of irrigation water vary with soil texture, melon trench size and groundwater level.

11. Pest and disease control

Carry out the policy of "prevention first, integrated control". On the basis of mastering the existing patterns of pest and disease occurrence, understand and master the interrelationships among pests and diseases, crops and environmental conditions. By changing ecological conditions and adopting integrated control measures, achieve the goal of suppressing the occurrence of pests and diseases and reducing or controlling harm. On the basis of earnestly implementing the above measures, control must also be carried out in conjunction with chemical control standards.

11. Harvesting

Timely harvesting is the key link in ensuring the quality of commercial melons. At harvest, the central sugar content of commercial melons must reach 13% or more. When harvesting, handle them gently and place them down gently to minimize mechanical damage. At harvest, leave a fruit stalk 1.5-2 cm long. The melon piles should be shaded to avoid exposure to the sun and reduce losses. It is strictly prohibited to put unripe melons and rotten melons on the market.