Cultivation and Management of Direct Seeding of Snake Melon

Snake melon annual climbing vines; stems slender, much branched, longitudinally angled and grooved, pubescent and sparsely villous hirsute. Snake melon has well-developed roots, many lateral roots, adventitious roots, slender stems up to 5-8 meters long, five-angled and green stems, strong branching ability, green leaves, palmately parted leaves, round cracks, fine tomentose leaves, white Corolla, unisexual flowers, both male and female flowers, mostly racemes of male flowers, turquoise buds, light yellowish green when they bloom, and the occurrence of male flowers is earlier than that of female flowers. In general, female flowers begin to grow at 20-25 nodes of the main vine, and then both the main vine and lateral vines can produce female flowers continuously. Tender melon slender, cylindrical or curved, melon apex and base gradually thin, shaped like a snake, melon skin gray-white, with several green stripes, flesh white, soft, ripe melon light reddish brown, fleshy flesh. The seed is nearly rectangular, with two parallel grooves on it, the surface is rough and light brown, and the weight of a thousand seeds is 200 to 250 grams.

The Environmental requirements of Snake Gourd

1. The optimum temperature for seed germination was about 30 ℃, and the optimum temperature for plant growth was 20-35 ℃. It could blossom and bear fruit normally when it was higher than 35 ℃, but grew slowly below 20 ℃ and stopped growing at 15 ℃. Warm and heat-resistant, not cold-resistant.

two。 Water snake melon likes a humid environment, but it is also more resistant to drought because of its well-developed roots. There are many melons in the environment with sufficient water supply and high air humidity, and the fruit develops well.

3. Light snake melon likes light, melon fruiting period requires strong light, florescence, such as rainy days, low temperature will cause falling flowers and melons. 

4. The soil is more tolerant to fertilizer and barren, and has a wide adaptability to soil, which can be cultivated in all kinds of soil, but the melon is small and the yield is low in barren land and pot cultivation. In order to obtain high quality and high yield, it is necessary to plant in fertile areas or apply more base fertilizer.

Cultivation and Management of Open-ground Direct seeding of Snake melon

In the north, snake melon can be interplanted with tomatoes and lettuce in spring greenhouse, or sporadically planted in front and back of the house. Because the snake melon grows and harvests for a long time, it only grows once a year. In the north of the Yangtze River basin, seedlings are usually sown in March-April, and the growing period can be extended to October-November. In North China, more seedlings were raised in the sunny bed from March to April, planted from late April to May, and harvested from June to October.

Sowing snake melon is a temperature-loving crop with strong heat tolerance but poor cold tolerance. To the north of the Yangtze River, seedlings are usually sown from March to April, and the growing period can be extended to October to November. It can be cultivated in the off-season in autumn. If sowing and raising seedlings ahead of time, heat preservation facilities should be added to prevent cold and protect seedlings. Most of them are cultivated in scaffolding. Flat shed cultivation is common in the form of scaffolding. The whole vine fertilization of snake melon is more tolerant to barren ground, the result is less and the yield is low. Therefore, in the process of cultivation, it is necessary to properly apply some organic fertilizer or human feces and urine as topdressing to promote plant growth, vigorous stem vines, more lateral vines sprouting, increased results and high yield. Snake melon likes to be moist, but it is also resistant to drought. in general, when planting, if the groundwater level is not too low and the soil has a certain amount of moisture, there is no need to irrigate. However, in order to achieve high yield, it is still necessary to irrigate once or twice under high temperature and drought to keep the soil moist and air humidity, so as to ensure more fruit and full fruit. Snake melon stem vine growth is exuberant, the need to build a timely introduction of vines, in order to expand the root system. After the introduction of vines on the shelf, before putting on the shelf, it is necessary to trim the vines, remove the lateral vines, or leave 1 or 2 strong lateral vines at the base. When introducing the vine on the shelf, the vine should be evenly distributed so that each vine tip can see light and be exposed to dew.

Sowing and raising seedlings of snake melon can be direct seeded in the open field, but in order to harvest early, it is appropriate to adopt the method of raising seedlings and transplanting. 1) seed treatment. For the thick seed coat of snake melon, dry the seeds for 1-2 days before sowing, then blanch the seeds with 55 ℃ hot water for 3 minutes, stir constantly when blanching the seeds, and soak the seeds in clean water for 2-3 days after the water temperature drops, during which you should wipe off the slime on the seed coat, change the water and soak the seeds again, wrap them with gauze when the seeds are slightly soft, put them in a 30 ℃ incubator or warm the edge of the Kang to accelerate germination, or mix the seeds with wet sand according to the 1:1 battle. Pile it together in the nursery box and cover it with a wet towel or wet gauze to moisturize. Put a 25-watt ordinary incandescent bulb under the lid of the nursery box to warm up, adjust the temperature to 28-30 ℃, and sow 80% of the seeds after about 4-5 days. 2) raise seedlings in seedbed or nutritious soil bowl. Nutritious soil can be mixed with 5 parts of garden soil, 2 parts of peat and 3 parts of mature organic fertilizer. If there is no peat, waste mushroom material or fertile garden soil can also be used. After loading the bowl, pour thoroughly with water, place 1 germinated seed flat in each bowl, and cover the fine soil 1 cm thick. The seedling bed is covered with plastic film to keep warm and humid, and the temperature should be kept at 25-30 ℃ before emergence. After emergence, the film should be removed according to the temperature. The temperature is 25-30 ℃ during the day and 16-18 ℃ at night. If the temperature is still low after emergence, a new film with good light transmittance should be changed. when the temperature reaches the requirement during the day, remove the film to see the light, or open both ends for ventilation, and cover it when the temperature is low at night. The mulch can be removed after growing two true leaves. The seedlings were planted in 3 leaves at the same time. Direct seeding in the open field can accelerate germination and sow seeds in the last ten days of April or early May.

3) before planting, apply sufficient base fertilizer, base fertilizer ditch application, every 667m2 can use mature livestock manure 3000 kg, add calcium superphosphate 75 kg, potassium sulfate 20 kg. For sporadic planting, large planting holes should be dug and planted after applying base fertilizer. the planting density is 80-200cm between rows and 50-80cm between plants, with 600-1000 seedlings per 667m2. There are many kinds of thin land and few kinds of fertile land. Pour enough water to fix the root after planting.

4) the harvest can be put on the market from May to June, and the tender fruit can be supplied to the market, and it can be harvested about 10 days after flowering. Old ripe melons take more than 30 days, and the seeds can be harvested at this time. Old ripe melon with light reddish brown and loose flesh that is inedible. Seeds suboblong, with two parallel grooves, light brown, containing 10-50 seeds per fruit.