subject: How To Plant Watermelons [print this page] Growing watermelons Growing watermelons
Watermelon! A fruit that adds delight to your food during the hot summer season. They are famous for their thirst quenching ability to their high water content. A sweet taste adds to their appeal during the hot sunny days of summer. Their immense size and quantity adds to everyone's delight as they can enjoy it and keep asking for more. It is a basic tropical fruit which will give a treat to anybody in a hot humid day.
Watermelon can however also be grown elsewhere and so the people of the west do not have to worry and follow some few simple steps to grow this amazing fruit.
Selection of the variety
Watermelons are available in a variety of sizes. The larger the size, more the space that will be required for growing the watermelon. Usually if the space in gardens is limited, the bush variety is preferred which requires only about 1/3 of the space a full-sized watermelon would need.
Selection of space
Also along with the selection of the variety, the space for a watermelon should be decided upon. Being a tropical plant watermelon needs a lot of sunlight. It should be grown in a place where lots of sunlight is available and no winds and cold weather occur affecting the growth of the fruit. Therefore, the fruit should be aptly grown at the time of the year when the frost is over.
Preparation and placement
No specific soil is required except that it should be fertile. The ground should be dug up and make sure that it is light, moist and fertile. The soil should be well drained and adequate quantity of manures and fertilizers should be added to the soil to increase the yield. Mounds should be prepared keeping them 3 feet apart. Poke 3-4 holes in the small hills of soil and plant the seeds in each of them followed by flattening the holes and the mound.
Care and maintenance
The soil should be kept moist regularly by watering the seeds. The sprouts will start appearing within 10 days if properly cared and maintained. Protective coverings should be placed on the sprouts to keep the moisture confined, prevent the erosion add to the enrichment of the soil. When the flowers appear, the coverings must be removed to allow insects like bees etc to pollinate them and this is the time when fertilizers should be added from here onwards for every 3 weeks.
Harvest
There is no exact time or specification for harvesting the melons and the time varies with the different varieties. Few signs indicating the adequate growth of the watermelons are yellowish coloring of the underside and drying if the fruits base. Watermelons will stop growing and when tapped, will give a dull thumping sound which indicates that they are ready for picking.
