How to Select Muskmelon Seeds? A Detailed Guide to Seedling Raising Methods
Muskmelon has an innate fragrance that makes it full of mystery, and the muskmelon's distinctive yellow stripes give it good ornamental value as well, while it can also be eaten as a fruit. As an imported variety, muskmelon is currently mainly cultivated and distributed in China's Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, and its cultivation technique is relatively simple. So how do you select muskmelon seeds? What seedling raising methods are there? Let's find out together.
How to select muskmelon seeds?
Before seedling raising, the first thing is to select good seeds. It is recommended to choose seed varieties suitable for local cultivation. Besides the variety, choosing high-quality seeds gives a high germination rate, uniform emergence, sturdy sprouts, and makes it easy to achieve high and stable yields. Generally, when growers purchase seeds, they can use methods such as looking, squeezing, and biting to judge the quality of the seeds.
What seedling raising methods are there?
1. Nutrient soil preparation
The nutrient soil should be fertile and loose. Generally, it can be prepared from field soil, paddy field soil, river bend soil, and fully decomposed livestock and poultry manure, etc. The ratio is generally soil: farmyard manure = 6:4 or 7:3. When preparing, break up and sieve the soil clods, and add 500g urea, 1000g superphosphate, and 1000g potassium sulfate per m3 of soil, mixing evenly.
2. Sowing time
After selecting the seeds and preparing the seedling soil, it is time to prepare for sowing. The seeds must undergo grain selection, sunning, disinfection, soaking, and germination treatment. Before sowing, first water the nutrient pots thoroughly with bottom water, sow 1-2 seeds per nutrient pot, and place the seeds flat in the pot. The sowing time can generally be chosen in late February to early March.
3. Temperature and humidity management
From sowing to emergence, a relatively high bed temperature is required, generally around 30°C, to promote sprouting and emergence. After emergence, lower the temperature to control excessive growth, preferably 22-25°C during the day and 18-20°C at night; after true leaves appear, raise it slightly to promote seedling growth, 26-28°C during the day and 20-22°C at night. In addition, for nutrient pot seedling raising, after watering thoroughly with bottom water at sowing, generally no watering is done until emergence. During the cotyledon flattening stage, control the ground to be dry and wet alternately, mainly preserving moisture, and keep the relative air humidity at around 80%.
4. Light management
Use new film as much as possible, and keep the film clean to increase light transmittance. On cloudy days, the curtain should also be removed so that the seedlings can receive as much scattered light as possible, and open gaps to release moisture. Once the weather clears, avoid immediately removing and opening everything wide; there should be an adaptation stage.
5. Timely planting
Start hardening the seedlings 5-7 days before planting, stop spraying water and fertilizing, increase ventilation, and gradually let the melon seedlings adapt to the open-field environment to improve the survival rate. The best time for transplanting and planting is generally when 2-3 true leaves have unfolded.
Overall, muskmelon highlights greater value than ordinary melon, but the overall cultivation and seedling raising techniques are largely the same, relatively simple and not complicated. As a veritable world's number one wonder-fragrance melon fruit, muskmelon is now increasingly welcomed by the market, and is a high-grade fruit used for room decoration and also edible.
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