Many people consider watermelon their favorite berry. However, they can only be eaten once a year. But how to grow watermelon at home? This question is of interest to beginner gardeners. After all, you will not surprise anyone by growing greens, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, garden strawberries on the windowsill.
Choice variety
Watermelon is an annual plant that requires a lot of light and heat. So how to grow a watermelon at home from the seed? To grow a berry on a balcony or loggia, you need to choose the right planting material. First of all, the gardener should pay attention to varieties and hybrids that are resistant to short daylight hours. Since there will be clearly not enough lighting in the autumn-winter period, the gardener will have to artificially illuminate.
Another important point is the ripening time. So for those who wish to grow this crop on the windowsill, experts recommend growing only early varieties. In 3 months they will be able to give the first fruits.
On the windowsill is bestgrowing up:
- A gift to the sun.
- Siberian.
- Spark.
- Stokes.
- Volgar.
It's worth noting that watermelon thrives over a radiator, especially in winter, as high temperatures and low humidity are great for this crop.
Selection and preparation of seeds
For planting, large seeds are used without visible damage. It is better not to plant small and underdeveloped bones. To identify empty seeds, they should be placed in a 5% sodium chloride solution. After a good planting material has been prepared, it is worth thinking about how to grow a watermelon at home on a windowsill.
Some tips for seed treatment and disinfection:
- For disinfection use a solution of potassium permanganate. To do this, he althy seeds are placed in a container and poured with a pink liquid. Planting material should be in this solution for at least 15-25 minutes.
- Heat treatment involves keeping the seeds for some time in hot water (the temperature must be above 90 degrees). However, it is worth remembering that prolonged exposure to high temperatures can lead to the death of planting material.
- After washing, the seeds are placed in a warm place for 6-7 hours. They must first be wrapped in moistened material.
- To accelerate germination, you can use biostimulants ("Humate", "Zircon").
These recommendations are essentialonly to those gardeners who purchased seeds on the market without factory packaging. If the planting material was purchased in specialized stores, then it does not need to be further processed.
Preparation of the room and containers for growing
If a novice gardener is still worried about the question of whether it is possible to grow watermelon at home, then the answer of specialists is unambiguous, of course, it is possible. And the first thing to prepare is a growing container. It can be a wooden box (at least 50 cm long and wide, and 30 cm high) or a large basin, bucket. The main thing to remember is that if the container has transparent walls, then they must be wrapped with a dense dark cloth. This is to prevent the roots from turning green.
The room should be free of drafts and cold air currents. Since this significantly slows down the setting and ripening of fruits. For growing watermelon, it is preferable to use loggias facing the south side of the house. To ripen especially large fruits, it is necessary to provide 12-hour daylight hours.
Since there will not be enough light in winter, therefore, the room must be equipped with additional lamps with fluorescent lamps.
Creating tapestries
After the room, container and seeds have been chosen, it is necessary to decide how to grow watermelon at home. To prevent the fruits from hanging down and to be able to ripen normally, trellises are used. They are made from wood, plastic, metal. Most often, they stand alone to provide uniform lighting.
Experts recommend knocking down wood trellises. A few tips on how to do this:
- First knock down the frame with nails or self-tapping screws. If you wish, you can get creative and give the design a triangular, trapezoidal shape. Provide space for legs on the bottom edge of the product.
- Longitudinal-transverse beams are stuffed to the sides of the frame. They serve for structural rigidity. The beams are placed perpendicularly or at a certain angle.
- Support legs are attached to the bottom of the frame (to prevent contact of the frame with the surface of wet soil). Usually metal corners are used as legs.
- The design is varnished or covered with paint.
Special nets are used for too heavy fruit.
Soil preparation
How to grow a watermelon in the house. conditions? Properly selected soil is the key to a good harvest. Since the birthplace of this berry is a desert area, black soil is not needed for its cultivation. It is enough to use sandy soil. Wood ash and humus are added to it in equal proportions. The resulting soil should be light. This will ensure oxygen access to the roots. Before planting seeds, 15 g of potassium sulfate, superphosphate, azofoska per 1 cu. m. The acidity of the soil should not be less than 6-6.5 pH.
The soil can be purchased from specialized stores.
Planting seeds
Can I grow watermelon in a pot at home? Of course, you can, for this, 3-4 seeds are sown in the selected container. Planting is done at a depth of 3 cm. Then the seedlings are evaluated and from these 3-4 sprouts one of the he althiest and strongest ones is selected.
Watermelon is a photophilous plant, so it is very important to ensure a 12-hour daylight hours. A window sill will be a great place to peck sprouts. However, it is very difficult to place a large container on it. Therefore, for starters, the seeds can be planted in small cups or pots, and then planted in a large container.
Care during the growing season
Watermelon at home can be grown if the right temperature is observed. So the ideal temperature for crop growth is considered to be 25 degrees during the day, at night - 18 degrees. After the appearance of sprouts, 2 reflective screens are installed (with an area of \u200b\u200bat least 1 sq. M). They will provide constant illumination of the plant, depending on the location of the sun in the sky.
As the lashes grow, they are tied to the trellis with pieces of soft fabric. As the watermelon grows, the peripheral lashes are removed.
During the period of active growth, it is necessary to spray the watermelon once every 14 days with a special solution of mineral fertilizers (for example, Uniflor-micro).
Flowering begins 60 days after planting. First, male inflorescences appear, and after 10 days female ones will grow. Fertilization is carried out artificially using a soft brush or flower to flower. Female inflorescences can be treated with the Bud stimulant. The base of the female flowers has small fruits. If the fertilization was successful, then they will begin to grow actively.
Ripening period
How to grow watermelon at home? It should be remembered that 1-2 fruits ripen on one lash. They are placed in a basket and tied to a trellis. If watermelons ripen on the lower lashes, then they can be left on the floor, having previously placed boards under them. To ripen one fruit, 11 leaves must be left on the whip, everything else can be removed.
After fruit set, it is better to stop feeding. Leave only watering once a week. Under one ovary of watermelon, it is necessary to pour 1.5 liters of water. Most of all, this culture loves constant loosening. Therefore, at least once a week, the soil must be pushed.
The fruit ripens 30 days after fertilization. To determine its ripeness, it is necessary to examine the leg (it must dry out). Also, a fully ripe watermelon makes a characteristic sonorous sound.
Watermelons grown in this way are not stored for a long time. Therefore, they must be consumed within 2 months.
According to gardeners, growing watermelon on the windowsill is real. Many argue that the key is to choose the right variety and prepare the potting mix.
Despite a lot of questions about how to grow a watermelon at home, this idea will give amazing results. Of course, you need to follow all the recommendations, and then after 90 days the gardener will be able to enjoy fresh, self-grown at homewatermelon.
