How to grow gourds

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Melons are called annual plants belonging to the gourd family. Their distinctive feature is long stems with antennae. In the event that supports are placed next to these crops, the whips will begin to “climb” along them. In order to correctly apply the cultivation technology, which will be described below in the article, you need to know exactly which crops are gourds.

This is a melon, pumpkin, watermelon, squash, zucchini and some others.

Two-year-old seeds are considered the most suitable for sowing in gourds. If there is no opportunity to obtain such planting material, you can use annual ones. However, in this case, they need to be heated to 60 degrees for 2 hours. In order for the seedlings to be more friendly, the seeds of gourds are also germinated. To do this, they are wrapped in gauze and dipped in warm water for four hours. Then placed in a damp burlap and kept for a day or two.

Melons and gourds mostly prefer sunny places, warm weather and are resistant to longlack of moisture. The thing is that the homeland of all these cultures are the hot regions of the planet. Watermelons, for example, grow wild in South Africa, while melons and pumpkins grow in Asia.

Gourds not only tolerate dry air well, but also produce tastier and sweeter fruits under such conditions.

Plant seeds in the ground only when the summer weather becomes stable, that is, in early June. In order to get a harvest a little earlier, gourds can be grown in seedlings. For this, peat cups are used, because these plants do not tolerate transplantation well. Melons are planted in the ground either in a nested way or in rows. Each such plant requires a lot of space. Firstly, they have long lashes that need space to develop, and secondly, large fruits, because of which they require a huge amount of nutrients.

Melons and gourds are planted in 2-3 pieces. Melons and watermelons - to a depth of 4 cm, pumpkins - 6 cm. In warm weather, seedlings appear on the tenth day of sowing, and the first true leaf - a week later. Depending on the variety, the main shoot may begin to form in 15-40 days.

Then shoots of the second order, the third, etc. branch off from it. The flowers of these plants are of different sexes - both female and male specimens bloom on the same plant.

As for top dressing, during the season, gourds in the early stages of development can be fertilized with mullein infusion. autumn,having harvested, potash and phosphorus fertilizers are applied for digging, and nitrogen fertilizers are applied in the spring when preparing the beds. Although the plants of this family are drought-resistant, they still give a higher yield when watered. During the season, the soil under them is well moistened 9-12 times. However, during the ripening of the fruits, watering the plants should be as rare as possible. Otherwise, the fruits will grow watery and not too sweet.

Cultivation of melons and gourds is quite a difficult task, because the climate in Russia is not very suitable for them. Often, even with proper care, the gardener does not receive a crop. The result after all in many respects depends on weather conditions. If you still want to grow watermelons or melons on your site, then you should try to do it. With luck, you can diversify your diet with delicious and unusually he althy fruits.