How to grow Hami melon at home, a step-by-step guide
Everyone is curious, and Little Farmer Dad is an uncle full of "curiosity." Of course, not all curiosity is good. When curiosity pushed me to try growing Hami melons myself, it was doomed to be a case of "curiosity killed the melon." The first thing when growing Hami melons is, of course, starting the seedlings...
Alright, I admit it, I got greedy. I used every bottle, jar, and pot I could get my hands on, all just to taste a Hami melon I grew myself...
The Hami melon seedlings finally sprouted, and I was overjoyed. I started planning which of my best friends I would give my homegrown Hami melon to for a taste... wahahaha
Dividing the plants, this is very important. Choose healthy, strong plants to lay a solid foundation for what comes next. Zhu Mimi said in Flirting Scholar: "Heaven, please grant me a strong man!" Little Farmer Dad can only say, Heaven, please grant me a strong Hami melon seedling!
After dividing the plants, four remain. Don't they all look very strong? Wahaha... Don't ask me what the clothes hangers are for...
Alright, time to move them to the balcony to grow! Fine, I'll still tell you what the clothes hangers are for. They are for securing the plants so the Hami melons don't run wild everywhere, and to let the vines grow upward.
The strong Hami melon seedlings have reached flowering time. Looking at this little flower, my Hami melon is already half a success, and I'm ready to invite friends over...
In just a few days, so many flowers bloomed. What to do? What to do? What to do? I'm so happy... hahaha
Don't worry, when they bloom, you have to pollinate them, otherwise what the heck are you going to eat? Heaven bestowed strong Hami melon seedlings on you, so you have to know how to make them XXOO, otherwise... what's the point? Before that, you have to be able to tell the "male" from the "female."
Seriously speaking, for pollinating Hami melon flowers, this time I didn't use a brush, because I felt that wasn't satisfying enough. I decided to peel open the male flower's petals, then use the male flower's center to directly brush the female flower's center. It looks more satisfying this way, hahaha
Hard work pays off. After the XXOO, the female flower bore fruit... Nature is truly amazing! Looking at this little Hami melon, I was very worried it was malnourished, so I decided to feed it some fertilizer, and accidentally, I fed it a bit too much...
The legendary "fertilizer burn," whether it really was or not, I believe it was. So, I warn all you food-loving friends, hold back, because it's easy to get "fertilizer burn"!! How to solve it? Water more. Remember, when watering, let the water drain away, it must not collect at the bottom of the flowerpot, otherwise... By the way, drinking more water doesn't help people lose weight.
Every few days I measured the size of the Hami melons, hoping they would grow strong...
Cracks started appearing at the bottom of the Hami melons. I felt over the moon. So growing Hami melons was this easy, hahaha... Wait, this melon shape seems a bit off...
Cracking in progress, still not right
So many cracks... more and more not right, but I couldn't be bothered with all that anymore, anyway the melons had grown, hahaha. Then came the climax: I was going away for a few days, and at the critical moment, I told my younger brother to help me water them. My brother happily agreed, and I happily went out...
When I came back a few days later, my heart shattered into a million pieces. The Hami melon seedlings had almost wilted, and the Hami melons had grown deformed. When I asked, I found out that my good brother had watered them directly with a hose, hoseful after hoseful every day, afraid they would die of thirst. Now great, they died of drowning...
I still held on to a sliver of hope. After all, Heaven had bestowed these Hami melon seedlings on me, I had to save them. After saving them for a few days, there was still no turning back, so I could only send them off to the afterlife...
In the end, the Hami melons were picked, and they had grown into this shape. Can you call this a Hami melon? You could call it a "gourd Hami melon," sigh!
Cut them open and invite friends over to eat, one small piece each. Anyway, they are still laughing at me to this day! From then on, I quit the Hami melon growing circle, and Little Farmer Dad was never seen in the Hami melon world again!