How to grow a watermelon at home from a stone: step by step instructions

Most people love watermelons, but not everyone has an area to plant this crop. However, for true lovers of fresh and fragrant fruits, this will not be an obstacle - after all, you can cultivate watermelons at home.

From this article, you will learn how to grow a watermelon at home and how to care for it to get a harvest.

Is it possible to grow watermelons at home from a seed

More and more garden and field crops take root on the windowsills of apartments. Usually peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are planted in pots, and such an exotic fruit as watermelon is chosen only by the most daring growers. But caring for this berry is not as difficult as it seems, and in terms of taste, the homemade fruit is not inferior to melons.

What varieties are suitable for this

Watermelon is a heat and light sensitive culture. It is easy to maintain a high temperature in a heated apartment, but it is problematic to provide the plant with enough light in autumn and winter. Therefore, give preference varieties, which bear fruit in conditions of short daylight hours. The timing of ripening is also important. It is better to plant early varieties at home, in this case, the harvest will be able to be harvested in three months.

On a windowsill or a covered loggia, the following varieties of watermelons are grown:

• A gift to the sun;
• Volgar;
• Rose of the South-East;
• Twinkle;
• Stokes;
• Siberian.

Necessary conditions for growing watermelon at home

If you do not provide the melons and gourds with a comfortable climate and care, you can not expect fruits. Growing watermelons in a room has its own characteristics that are important to consider.

A place

The watermelon will feel best on the southern windows, and the north side is not suitable for it at all. In rooms facing east or west, it will also be possible to grow this exotic culture.

Watermelon does not like cold and drafts. It can be placed on a windowsill, under which there is a central heating battery.

Attention! If planned plant culture on the balcony, it is important to create additional heating.

Container

Watermelon seedlings are grown in plastic cups, small pots or special cassettes. A stronger sprout will need a more spacious container. A bucket, basin or other container with a volume of at least 10 liters will do. You can independently put together a box of 50 * 50 * 30 cm from wooden boards.

Plant seed immediately in large containers is undesirable, because water often stagnates in a large clod of earth, and plants may die. If you don't want to mess around with seedling cassettes, watering will have to be carefully controlled.

The soil

Loose, nutritious soil is prepared in advance. It is made from equal parts of humus, turf and sand, a little ash is added. Before planting, the soil is disinfected by scalding it with boiled water.

Light and temperature

The plant needs 12-hour daylight hours, so in a cloudy period, additional lighting sources will be required: LED, fluorescent or phytolamps.

Important! During the formation of ovaries, the plant should not be hypothermic. The optimum temperature regime, which must be monitored regularly, is + 25… + 30 ° C during the day and + 18 ° C at night.

Preparatory stage

First of all, the planting material is sorted. Small and damaged seeds are thrown away, large ones are poured with salt water prepared at the rate of 5 g of table salt per 100 g of liquid. Seeds that have sunk to the bottom are considered suitable for planting. They are taken out, washed with clean water and dried.

After that, the gauze is moistened with a solution prepared from 0.5 g of humate and 1 liter of water, the seeds are wrapped in it and kept there until germination.

Landing

Seeds with sprouted sprouts are planted in plastic cups filled with lightly rammed earth - 4-5 pcs. into everyone. Make sure that the soil always remains moist and the air temperature is around + 25 ° C. If these conditions are met, seedlings will appear in 7 days.

After 2-3 weeks, when the seedlings grow a little, it is necessary to pull out part of the shoots, leaving one of the strongest seedlings in each container. After a month, the plants are moved to a permanent place along with a lump of earth.

Growing in a pot and care

After transplanting a crop into spacious pots, its root system begins to develop rapidly. Pinch over the third or fourth leaf, giving the side branches a vertical or horizontal direction. You can also leave just one whip. In this case, the harvest can be obtained faster.

When the flowers bloom, do artificial pollination. Without this procedure, there will be no fruit. Using a soft brush, transfer pollen from a male flower with a thin peduncle and stamens to a female flower with a thick peduncle and pistil. An increase in the size of the female stalk signals the beginning of berry growth. If the whip with the stitch is in an upright position, it must be secured to avoid breaking.

Attention! Do not leave more than two fruits on one bush, otherwise they will not have enough nutrition.

Watering

Water abundantly, but rarely (once a week), so that the soil does not turn sour. With waterlogging of the soil, the taste of the fruit will deteriorate. Experts recommend limiting the water supply after the berries begin to ripen. It is believed that a slight moisture deficiency makes watermelons sweeter.

Top dressing

The plant begins to feed after the formation of three large leaf plates. First, the watermelon is watered with water, and then with a solution of complex fertilizer. At this stage, preparations with an equal content of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus or with a slight predominance of nitrogen are suitable.

The second feeding with potash and phosphorus fertilizers is carried out during the formation of the ovaries. After 2-3 weeks, the procedure is repeated a third time.

Diseases and pests

Watermelons are susceptible to a number of diseases, which are especially common with inaccuracies in care. When growing a culture at home, the following pathologies are not uncommon:

1. Fusarium wilting - a fungal disease leading to intoxication and death of the plant. For the purpose of prevention, the soil is disinfected and dried lashes are removed in time.
2. Anthracnose - occurs when the air humidity is high. The peel of the watermelon is covered with yellow spots, which eventually merge with each other. Keep your inventory clean, disinfect the soil, and treat the planting material with Fundazol.
3. Root rot - occurs with excessive watering. The disease destroys the root system and appears as black-brown spots on the lower part of the stem. For treatment at the initial stages, copper sulfate and wood ash are used. In advanced cases, the diseased plant is destroyed.
4. Powdery mildew - develops when the soil is infected with a fungus. The leaf plates are covered with white spots, the berries are deformed and become tasteless. Powdery mildew is fought with a 25% caratan solution.
5. Bacterial spot - First, spots appear on the leaves, and then on the peel of the fruit. There is still no effective drug against this disease, so the affected parts of the culture are cut off.

Pests enter the pot from the street or from untreated soil. Watermelon is damaged by such insects:

• melon aphid;
• sprout fly larvae;
• spider mite;
• wireworm;
• thrips;
• rootworm nematode;
• scoop butterflies;
• locusts.

To get rid of pests, plants are sprayed with chemicals (BI-58, Fitoverm, etc.). From folk remedies, an infusion of wormwood, a solution of wood ash and laundry soap, as well as chamomile broth are effective.

Harvesting

When the fruit is ripe, the stem dries up and the rind becomes glossy and smooth. Check the ripeness of the watermelonby lightly clicking it with your fingers. If it is ripe, the sound will be dull, deep.

The weight of home-grown berries usually does not exceed 600-800 g. If the plant has enough light, the watermelons will be as sweet and tasty as the fruits brought from the south.

Conclusion

Everyone can grow a watermelon at home from seeds. For this, the plant is provided with a comfortable temperature, the right amount of light and competent care.

Subject to these conditions, sugar watermelons will ripen on your windowsill, in no way inferior to the southern ones.