A detailed guide to moonflower planting methods, easy enough for beginners to get started

  1. Field selection and land preparation

  Choose flat plains and low-lying land with good drainage and fertile soil, as well as hilly land with irrigation conditions. Avoid repeated or successive cropping with watermelon and other cucurbits. Land preparation: Form ridges at the right moisture level and press promptly to preserve soil moisture. The transplanting ridges are long-opening ridges. The ridge width is 9~13cm, and the 7~8 empty ridges in the middle should also be ridged to help suppress weeds;

  2. Seed soaking and germination

  Use the Japanese green-skinned gourd variety. Soak the seeds in 40°C warm water for 12~24 hours, remove them, wrap them in gauze, spin dry, and crack open the soaked sweet gourd seeds. Use a wooden trough or an ordinary basin, line it with a layer of sterilized sawdust or sand, then add a layer of gauze, place the soaked seeds evenly on the gauze, cover with a wrung-out new towel, cover with a lid, and cover with a cotton quilt to germinate. Sprinkle water twice a day with a new brush broom. The germination temperature is generally 25~28°C. Remove sprouted seeds every day, place them in another basin, and keep them in a cool indoor place to control sprout growth;

  3. Sowing in the seedbed

  ① Seedbed preparation

  Place 8~10cm of horse manure or chopped straw at the bottom of the seedbed, cover with a layer of soil, and tread it level. At the same time, disinfect with 70% Dexon wettable powder at 0.3~0.6g/㎡, and put up the shed. After sowing, put up a small shed over the seedbed as well.

  ② Nutrient soil preparation

  Choose soil that has not used herbicides such as Pursuit or chlorimuron-ethyl, sieve it well, and mix it with sieved decomposed farmyard manure at a ratio of 7:2.

  ③ Bagging and sowing

  Put the nutrient soil into 10cm×15cm plastic bags, and place 20~30 granules of diammonium phosphate as base fertilizer at the bottom 1/3 of each plastic bag. Fill them full and firm them, and cut open the bottom corners of the nutrient bags or punch 2~4 holes with a diameter of 8~10mm at the bottom for water permeability. The sowing time depends on the local season. Use a wooden stick to make a 3~4cm deep hole in the middle of the nutrient bag, place the germinated seed with the sprout eye facing down, cover with soil, and water once;

  4. Care and management

  Moonflower prefers a slightly moist but somewhat dry soil environment. The high-temperature summer period is its vigorous growth stage, and at this time water supply should be ensured. It has a relatively high demand for fertilizer. In addition to applying base fertilizer at planting, during the vigorous growth stage a dilute liquid fertilizer can be applied every 2~3 weeks.

  Moonflower prefers an environment with sufficient sunlight, and daily sunlight exposure should not be less than 4 hours. It likes warmth and is not cold-tolerant, growing better within a temperature range of 18~28°C. Supports should be set up in time to ensure that the seedlings have something to cling to after growing larger and can climb smoothly onto the trellis. In actual cultivation, moonflower may be harmed by powdery mildew and attacked by pests such as aphids. If these occur, measures should be taken promptly to deal with them.