Many people consider watermelon their favorite berry. However, they can be enjoyed only once a year. But how to grow a watermelon at home? This question interests beginner gardeners. After all, you will not surprise anyone by growing greens, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, garden strawberries on the windowsill.
Grade selection
Watermelon is an annual plant that requires a lot of light and heat. So how to grow a watermelon at home from a stone? To grow a berry on a balcony or a loggia, it is necessary 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 the lighting will obviously be lacking in the autumn-winter period, the gardener will have to artificially re-illuminate.
Another important point is the maturity date. So for those who want to grow this culture on the windowsill, experts recommend growing only early varieties. After 3 months, they will be able to give the first fruits.
On the windowsill are best grown:
- Gift to the sun.
- Siberian.
- Twinkle.
- Stokes.
- Volgar
It is worth noting that the watermelon feels great over a heating battery, especially in winter, as high temperature and low humidity are great for this crop.
Seed selection and preparation
Large seeds are used for planting without visible damage. Small and underdeveloped bones are better not to plant. To identify empty seeds, they should be placed in a 5% solution of sodium chloride. After a good planting material has been prepared, it is worth considering how to grow a watermelon at home on the windowsill.
Some tips for processing and disinfecting seeds:
- For disinfection, a solution of potassium permanganate is used. To do this, healthy seeds are placed in the container and poured with a pink liquid. In this solution, planting material should be at least 15-25 minutes.
- Heat treatment involves holding the seeds for some time in hot water (the temperature should 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 only needed for gardeners who have purchased seeds on the market without factory packaging. If planting material was purchased in specialized stores, then additional processing is not necessary.
Preparation of premises and containers for growing
If the beginning gardener is still worried about the question of whether it is possible to grow a watermelon at home, then the answer of the experts is unequivocal, of course, it is possible. And the first thing to prepare is a container for growing. 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 is to remember that if the container with transparent walls, then they must be wrapped with a dense dark cloth. This is done so that the roots do not turn green.
The room should not have drafts and cold air flows. Since this significantly slows the fruit setting and ripening. For growing watermelon, it is preferable to use the loggia facing the south side of the house. For the ripening of especially large fruits, it is necessary to provide a 12-hour light day.
Since during the winter period there will be not enough light, so the room must be equipped with additional lamps with fluorescent lamps.
Create Trellis
After you have chosen a room, capacity and seeds, you need to decide how to grow a watermelon at home. So that the fruits do not hang down and can ripen normally, trellises are used. They are made of wood, plastic, metal. Most often, they stand alone to provide uniform lighting.
Experts recommend knocking down trellis from wood. A few recommendations on how to do this:
- First, the frame is knocked down with nails or self-tapping screws. If you want, you can do creativity and give the design a triangular, trapezoidal shape. Provide a place for legs on the lower edge of the product.
- To the sides of the frame, longitudinally-transverse beams are filled. 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 structure is varnished or painted.
For too heavy a fetus, special nets are used.
Soil preparation
How to grow a watermelon in a house. conditions? Properly selected soil is the key to a good harvest. Since the homeland 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 provide oxygen access to the roots. Before planting seeds, 15 g of potassium sulfate, superphosphate, azofoski per 1 cubic meter are added to the soil. m. The acidity of the soil should not be less than 6-6.5 pH.
Soil can be purchased in specialized stores.
Planting seeds
Is it possible to grow a watermelon in a pot at home? Of course, you can, for this 3-4 seeds are sown in the selected container. Planting is done to a depth of 3 cm. Seedlings are then evaluated and one of the healthiest and strongest is selected from these 3-4 sprouts.
Watermelon is a photophilous plant, so it is very important to provide a 12-hour light day. A great place to hatch sprouts will be the windowsill. However, a large container is very difficult to place on it. Therefore, for starters, seeds can be planted in small cups or pots, and then planted in large containers.
Care during the growing season
Watermelon at home can be grown if the correct temperature conditions are observed. So the ideal temperature for crop growth is considered 25 degrees during the day, at night - 18 degrees. After the emergence of the sprouts, 2 reflective screens are installed (with an area of at 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 tissue. 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 inflorescences will grow. Fertilization is carried out artificially using a soft brush or a flower in a flower. Female inflorescences can be treated with the stimulator "Bud". At the base of female flowers there are small fruits. If fertilization is successful, then they will begin to grow rapidly.
Ripening period
How to grow a watermelon at home? It should be remembered that 1-2 fetuses 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, after placing boards under them. To ripen one fruit, 11 leaves must be left on the whip, everything else can be removed.
After setting the fruit, feeding is best stopped. Only watering should be left once a week. Under one ovary of watermelon, pour 1.5 liters of water. Most of all, this culture loves continuous cultivation. Therefore, at least once a week, the soil must be pushed.
The fetus matures 30 days after fertilization. To determine its ripeness, it is necessary to inspect the leg (it should dry). Also, a fully ripened 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 a watermelon on a windowsill is real. Many argue that the main thing is to choose the right variety and prepare the soil mixture.
Despite the large number of questions on how to grow a watermelon at home, this venture will give amazing results. Of course, you must follow all the recommendations, and then after 90 days the gardener will be able to enjoy a fresh, home-grown watermelon at home.