How to achieve early maturity and high yield in wax gourd planting

White melon (white fuzzy vegetable). Botanical classification: Angiosperms, dicotyledonous plants, cucurbitales, cucurbitaceae, wax gourd Benincasa Savi annual herbs. Melon shape such as pillow, also known as pillow melon, produced in summer. Why is the melon produced in summer named wax gourd? This is because when the melon ripens, there is a layer of white powdery things on the surface, just like the hoarfrost formed in winter. This is also the reason why the wax gourd is also called white melon.

Plant form of wax gourd annual trailing or frame herb; stems yellow-brown hirsute and villous, grooved. Petiole stout, 5-20 cm long, yellow-brown hirsute and villous; leaf blade reniform suborbicular, 15-30 cm wide, 5-7-lobed or sometimes medium-lobed, lobes broadly triangular or ovate, apex acute, margin denticulate, base deeply cordate, curved open, subrounded, both 2.5-3.5 cm deep and wide, surface dark green, slightly rough, sparsely pilose, decrescent with age, becoming nearly glabrous; abaxial surface scabrous, gray-white, hirsute, veins slightly raised on abaxial surface of leaf, densely hairy. Tendrils 2-3-branched, hirsute and villous. Monoecious; flowers solitary.

Male pedicels 5-15 cm long, densely yellow-brown pubescent and villous, often with a bract at base of pedicel, bracts ovate or broadly oblong, 6-10 mm long, apex acute, pubescent; calyx tube broadly campanulate, 12-15 mm wide, densely setose villous, lobes lanceolate, 8-12 mm long, serrate, reflexed; Corolla yellow, radial, lobes broadly obovate, 3-6 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, sparsely pilose on both surfaces, apex obtuse, 5-veined; stamens 3, free, filaments 2-3 mm long, base inflated, hairy, anthers 5 mm long, 7-10 mm wide, anther 3-fold, female pedicel less than 5 cm long, densely yellow-brown hirsute and villous; ovary ovate or cylindric, densely yellow-brown hirsute, 2-4 cm long; Style 2-3 mm long, stigma 3, 12-15 mm long, 2-lobed. Fruit long terete or subglobose, large, hirsute and glaucous, 25-60 cm long, 10-25 cm in diam. Seeds ovate, white or yellowish, compressed, margined, 10-11 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, 2 mm thick.

How to realize early maturity and high yield of wax gourd planting?

variety selection

Select early maturity and high quality varieties of small green wax gourd. Generally in late January to February sowing, sowing with warm water soaking, adjust the seedling bed moisture. Sowing 100-150 grams per square meter, covering the ground with plastic film arch shed after sowing to facilitate heat preservation. Before emergence, the humidity in seedbed should be kept at 35℃ during the day and not lower than 15℃ at night. Cotyledons spread out to thin seedlings, due to wax gourd seed skin thick, emergence order is different, to a batch of thin seedlings, seedling spacing to 8 cm is appropriate. The bed soil temperature during seedling thinning should be kept at 25℃-30℃ during the day and no lower than 15℃ at night. When melon seedlings grow to 3 leaves and 1 heart stage, they are cut and stored, and the seedling distance is about 15 cm. The newly planted melon seedlings should be sealed and kept warm, and ventilation should be started after living trees, and the ventilation amount should be from small to large. After the melon seedlings grow normally in late March, the thin film is removed during the day to make the melon seedlings strong, and at the same time, the water management of the seedbed is done well, and the bed soil is dry and wet. Choose sunny noon watering, watering after proper ventilation, reduce air humidity. and pesticides such as dimethoate are used to control aphids and other pests.

Land selection and preparation

Choose a plot of land with high and cool terrain and good drainage. After the previous crop of melons is harvested, plowing and whitening in time, soil preparation for furrow. 3.7 meters wide furrow, combined with soil preparation mu with decomposed organic fertilizer 3000 kg and compound fertilizer 75 kg, strip applied to the planting of wax gourd side. The ridge surface is made into inclined ridge, the high side can be planted with wax gourd, and the low side can be planted with tomato, which can not only thicken the cultivation layer of wax gourd root, but also facilitate the growth of melon vine and fruit in the middle and late stages. Generally planted before and after Qingming, each plot planted 1 row, plant spacing 60 cm, about 500 plants per mu.

colonization management

Just planted wax gourd, mainly to heat preservation, such as cold weather, can build a small film arch closed for 7-8 days, promote early return to seedlings. Restore growth, gradually ventilate, first two ends, then the middle, gradually increase ventilation. As the temperature rises, melon seedlings grow up and can be removed from the arch shed. After planting melon seedlings, timely irrigation fixed root water. Before female flower appears, apply light dung water 1-2 times according to plant growth, so as to facilitate early development and stable growth. After the female flower, manure is applied around the root to promote vine growth and fruit setting. Later, according to the growth and fruiting situation, topdressing once every 7 days. Appropriate increase of topdressing amount and fertilizer concentration at harvest stage can make plants grow vigorously and not premature senescence. Irrigation ditch water in drought to meet the water needs of wax gourd. When vine begins to lie on the ground, cultivate soil to increase the energy absorption of roots. When the vine is 70-80 cm long, it starts to lead the vine to the trellis on a sunny day, and then it is often arranged to make the vine evenly distributed. Wax gourd is an insect-matched flower crop, which needs artificial pollination. When the dew is not dry in the morning of sunny day, the male flowers in full bloom are selected, and the stamens are gently pounced on the stigmas of the female flowers. One male flower can give 2-3 female flowers, which can obviously improve the early fruit setting rate. Poor plants and female flowers within 10 leaves are not pollinated, so as to avoid premature fruit setting and affect the development of trees.

pest control

Melon fields should be cleaned frequently to prevent ponding and reduce diseases. Charcoal rot, stem blight, blight, aphids, red spiders, etc. can be controlled by conventional chemicals. High temperature and strong light available grass or shade net cover wax gourd, avoid sunburn. Harvest the first melon in early June, and then harvest it in time according to market conditions. Avoid stepping on the vine when picking, so that the vine always keeps growing well and does not prematurely age.