Growing Black Beauty watermelons isn't hard - mastering the key points is what matters

Black Beauty watermelon is one of the commonly cultivated watermelon varieties. Its fruit is mostly oval, with dark green rind and indistinct stripes, red flesh, a crisp and sweet taste, and thin skin that stores and ships relatively well, so it has always been quite popular on the market. It has strong adaptability, but to grow good-quality melons you still need to put effort into site selection, seedling raising and field management.

For growing Black Beauty watermelon, choose a plot with deep soil, good drainage and ample sunlight, preferably sandy loam, and try to avoid continuous cropping, so that soil-borne diseases such as Fusarium wilt do not worsen. Before sowing, you can soak the seeds first to speed up germination; after emergence, focus on raising strong seedlings, and once the seedlings have grown two or three true leaves they can be transplanted. Before transplanting, apply enough base fertilizer made up mainly of organic fertilizer to lay a good foundation for later growth.

During the vine-running stage, do proper pruning and vine pressing; in production, two-vine or three-vine pruning is often used so that nutrients are supplied in a concentrated way. For fruit setting, mostly choose the second or third female flower on the main vine, and during fruit set you can supplement with hand pollination to raise the fruit-setting rate. During the fruit-swelling stage, ensure sufficient water and fertilizer, but control the amount of nitrogen fertilizer to prevent excessive vine growth; as maturity approaches, moderate water control helps sugar accumulate and makes the melon sweeter.

During the growing period, problems such as Fusarium wilt, anthracnose and aphids are common. Usually pay attention to field ventilation and clean up the field promptly, and deal with diseased plants as early as possible. At harvest, judge ripeness comprehensively by the rind's luster, the state of the tendrils and the fruit's development; harvest promptly once ripe, which both ensures eating quality and makes later storage and transport easier.