A Detailed Guide to Selecting Wax Gourd Seeds and Raising Seedlings
Wax gourd is a vegetable grown by many people. As the weather warms up, a new year of farming activities will begin. If you want to grow wax gourd, the first step is to buy seeds. So how do you select wax gourd seeds when buying them? What seedling-raising methods are there? Let's find out below.
How do you select wax gourd seeds?
1. Check the packaging
Mainly check the production date, anti-counterfeiting mark, quarantine number, place of origin, variety name, etc. Choose wax gourd seeds as close to the factory date as possible. In addition, you can also check the seller's business license, quality certificate, business permit, etc.
2. Check the appearance
Plump individual seeds, uniform in size (the higher the uniformity, the better the quality), and free of impurities. Generally, seeds of the long green-skinned type are smooth and have no edge line. Those of the flat, short pink-skinned type are slightly wider and have an edge line. High-quality seeds also have a light melon fragrance and no off odor.
What seedling-raising methods are there for wax gourd?
1. Seed selection
Put the seeds into 50°C hot water and stir continuously. When the water temperature drops to about 28°C, take them out and soak them in a 0.3% potassium permanganate solution for 20 minutes. After taking them out, rinse with clean water, then soak them in clean water at 25-30°C for 5 hours, and finally rinse several more times with clean water to wash away the mucus and dirt on the seed surface. Dry the seeds in the sun, then wrap them in clean wet gauze or a wet towel and keep them at 25-30°C to promote germination. Turn the seeds once or twice a day to ensure the temperature inside and outside the seeds is even.
2. Planting
Choose new land that has not been used to grow cucurbit crops, or land that has been used for 3-5 years, and apply enough base fertilizer, 2000-3000 kg of organic fertilizer per acre and 50 kg of superphosphate. The land surface is 110-120 cm, the ditch width is 50 cm, and there is a ring ditch around the field so that the drainage ditch and the furrow can be conveniently connected for irrigation. When the temperature stabilizes above 15°C, transplanting can be carried out on sunny days, planting each row at intervals of 60-70 cm, with 450 to 550 plants per acre. After sowing, protect the seedlings to prevent bacterial infection and improve their ability to resist natural disasters.
3. Water and fertilizer
After the seedlings grow new leaves, that is, when they have 5 true leaves, spray each plant once or twice with 0.5%-0.3% balanced ternary fertilizer, about 0.5 kg per plant. At the vine-running stage, spray about 15 kg of balanced ternary fertilizer per 667 sq m. After the fruit is set, fertilization is usually carried out 3 times in a row. First, use sprinkler irrigation to apply 20 kg of ternary fertilizer per 667 sq m. The second and third times, spray once every 7-10 days, 20 kg of high-potassium ternary compound fertilizer each time, and apply fertilizer by sprinkler irrigation. After the fruit expansion stage, keep the soil moist, and stop irrigation 7 days before harvest.
4. Pest and disease control
Pests and diseases include charcoal rot, viral disease, aphids, etc. For phytophthora blight, spray 30% DT 500-fold solution or 10% polyoxin 100 g; for charcoal rot, use 1000-fold kasugamycin solution or copper-ammonium mixture 400-600-fold for control; for viral disease, use 20% virus A 500-600-fold solution or virus 600-fold solution + potassium permanganate 1200-fold to irrigate the virus roots, 250-500 mL per plant; for aphids, you can use 10% abamectin or 3000-fold urea-detergent mixture (1 part urea, 4 parts detergent, 400 parts water), spraying 30-40 kg per 667 sq m, for better control effect.
As a common vegetable, wax gourd has a large annual demand and yield. If growers want to improve their planting efficiency, then mastering seed selection and seedling-raising techniques is of great help to the yield and quality of wax gourd later, so they must pay attention to it.
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