What are the key points to note when transplanting watermelons? Key points explained clearly in one article
Watermelon is surely a fruit everyone is very familiar with. With the development of agriculture in our country today, watermelons can be planted almost anytime and anywhere. However, growing watermelons is not that simple. Each growth stage of the watermelon has different management methods. In particular, there are some points to note when transplanting that everyone needs to pay attention to. Below, the editor brings you the points to note when transplanting watermelons. Let's take a look!
1. Before transplanting
Before transplanting watermelons, you must select a good plot and then do the soil preparation work well. When preparing the soil, plow deep and cultivate, combining this with the base fertilizer. For the base fertilizer, you can use decomposed farmyard manure or poultry droppings, but no matter which fertilizer is used, it must be fully decomposed before application. This is because undecomposed fertilizer generates a great deal of heat, and excessively high temperatures can easily burn the seedlings and affect growth. In addition, potassium sulfate, urea and various trace elements should be appropriately added to the fertilizer. Around Qingming Festival, make the field beds on sunny days to facilitate later management and harvesting. One week before transplanting, cover the plastic mulch well and close the greenhouse well to raise the surface temperature and promote seed germination.
2. At transplanting
First, we must select seeds that are disease-free and pest-free, full and plump, and high-yielding, and then do the seed treatment well. After selecting the seeds, put them under the sun to dry. This not only disinfects and sterilizes them but also increases the germination rate of the seeds. Dry them for about 3 hours a day for 3 consecutive days. Then soak the sun-dried seeds in warm water at about 50 degrees for 5-7 hours, stirring constantly, to remove the mucus on the seed surface and increase the germination rate. After soaking the seeds, soak them in trisodium phosphate for half an hour to enhance the disease resistance of the seed plants. Then wrap them in a wet cloth and place them at a temperature of about 30 degrees to promote germination. Pay attention to the temperature; it must not fluctuate up and down. When the seeds show white and sprouts appear, transplant them on a sunny day around Qingming Festival when the surface temperature is about 15 degrees.
3. After transplanting
Rosette stage
After transplanting, when the seedlings grow to about 5 leaves and begin to grow creeping, this is the watermelon's rosette stage. The watermelon rosette stage lasts about half a month. For 2-3 days after transplanting, ventilation must not be carried out, to promote the seedlings' recovery. After successful recovery, ventilate appropriately, control the greenhouse temperature and humidity well, improve air permeability and enhance light. Appropriately inhibit the growth of the watermelon, improve the watermelon's stress resistance, ensure robust growth, and achieve the goal of high yield and high quality.
Fruit-setting stage
Under normal management, after going through the watermelon rosette stage, by the end of April it will gradually enter the watermelon's fruit-setting stage. By the fruit-setting stage, the surrounding temperature has gradually risen, so frost damage prevention work can be stopped. During the fruit-setting stage, the root and stem-leaf growth capacity of the watermelon plant is very strong, and with slightly poor management it is very prone to excessive vegetative growth. If not handled in time, this will seriously hinder flowering and fruiting and lead to a decline in the fruit-setting rate. Therefore, during the fruit-setting stage, ventilation management should be strengthened, the film should be loosely covered at night, and the proportion of nutrients should be increased to promote nutrient absorption by the watermelon plant and increase the fruit-setting rate.
The above is a brief introduction to the points to note before and after transplanting watermelons. Watermelon cultivation has a very specific process, and each process requires everyone to manage it well. Management at transplanting is very important, because whether the management is good or bad at this time directly determines the growth and yield of the watermelon plant, so everyone must pay a lot of attention. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only. Thank you for your reading and support.