How to Grow Bitter Melon Out of Season? The Latest Cultivation Techniques and Methods Tutorial
Bitter melon is a vegetable deeply loved by consumers. Its market season is summer, and as market demand continues to expand, out-of-season cultivation has become the choice of farmer friends in order to meet consumer demand for it in different seasons. So how should bitter melon be grown out of season? Let's take a look together below.
1. Select good varieties
Bitter melon itself comes to market in summer, so it has strong heat tolerance but weak cold resistance. Therefore, for out-of-season cultivation, the first priority is to choose varieties that are cold-resistant, have a low fruit-setting node, and mainly bear fruit on the main vine. For example, Hanzhong Long White, Zhongdu No. 4, Yunnan Large White Bitter Melon, and others. The fruit strips of these varieties are straight and long, and their disease resistance and stress resistance are relatively strong, making them suitable for out-of-season cultivation.
2. Cultivate strong seedlings
For out-of-season cultivation, winter and spring can be chosen, and temperatures in these two seasons are generally low, so heated greenhouse seedbeds are needed for raising seedlings. Because bitter melon seeds have a thick, hard shell and germinate extremely slowly at low temperatures, before sowing you can scald the seeds with 50-60 degree warm water while stirring continuously until the water temperature drops to 30 degrees, then continue soaking overnight, then place them under 30-35 degree conditions to promote germination, washing once a day with warm water, draining, and continuing germination promotion. Generally, sprouts appear in about three days. Because
the seed coat is thick and germination is uneven, the seeds that sprout first should be picked out in batches, wrapped in a wet towel, and placed in a low-temperature place to hold the sprouts until most of the seeds have sprouted, then sow.
3. Deeply plow the soil
Bitter melon has a well-developed root system, and the main root can reach 3 m deep, so when preparing the land, the soil should be deeply plowed more than 40 cm. Combined with base fertilizer, apply 5000 kg of fully decomposed barnyard manure, 50 kg of potassium sulfate compound fertilizer, and 150-200 kg of soybean cake per mu to meet the nutrient needs of bitter melon throughout the entire growth period. After deep plowing and land preparation, irrigate, close the greenhouse half a month before planting, cover the ground with old plastic film, and seal the greenhouse at high temperature for ten days to half a month to kill most of the diseases and pests in the soil, so as to prevent the occurrence of some diseases and pests during the growing period.
4. Management after planting
After planting, first control temperature and adjust humidity. During the seedling recovery period, raise the greenhouse temperature to promote seedling recovery. In addition to heat preservation and freeze prevention, proper ventilation is also needed during the day. As temperatures rise, do a good job of ventilation and dehumidification. When the daily average temperature stabilizes at 25 degrees, remove the lower skirt film around the greenhouse and keep the roof film to protect against rain. Bitter melon likes fertilizer and moisture, so under sufficient fertilizer and water it grows well, with high yield and good quality. Therefore, on the basis of applying enough base fertilizer, fertilizer and water management still need to be strengthened during the growing period. However, fertilization should be light first and heavy later to prevent burning the seedlings. During seedling recovery, apply dilute manure water. During the vigorous growth period and the flowering and fruiting period, apply heavily. After each harvest, spray foliar fertilizer with urea and potassium dihydrogen phosphate. In addition, because bitter melon has strong branching ability and greenhouse cultivation density is high, it is very easy to cause luxuriant branches and leaves, resulting in poor ventilation and light penetration and high nutrient consumption, while bearing few fruits. Therefore, pruning should be strengthened, and trellises should be set up to guide the vines.
The above is an introduction to out-of-season cultivation techniques for bitter melon. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.