High-yield planting techniques of towel gourd

Towel gourd is called watermelon or victorious gourd in Cantonese. Pearl River Delta towel gourd refers to star anise gourd, which is a kind of cucurbitaceae plant native to India, also known as vegetable gourd, which is widely cultivated in East Asia. For Cucurbitaceae climbing herbs, towel gourd has strong roots. Stem trailing, five-sided, green, main and lateral vines are luxuriant, stem nodes with branched tendrils, easy to grow adventitious roots, are distributed and cultivated at home and abroad.

Planting environment requirements

Towel gourd has strong adaptability to climate and soil and does not need strict selection, but it grows strongly and rapidly under high temperature, with large stems and leaves and fast fruit growth. If the temperature is below 150C, the growth is slow, and when the temperature is below 100C, the growth is inhibited.

The moisture tolerance of towel gourd is the strongest among melons, especially the common towel gourd is stronger than angular towel gourd, but the dry tolerance is not strong. The occurrence and number of male and female flowers of towel gourd sooner or later. It varies significantly according to the variety. generally speaking, towel gourd is a short-day vegetable. Female flowers occur earlier in short-day period and less in long-day period, but there are great differences in sensitivity to sunshine length among varieties.

Towel gourd likes sufficient sunshine, in case of continuous overcast and rain, it not only affects the formation of female flowers, but also causes buds and flowers, and young fruits are also easy to wilt. Towel gourd is not harsh for soil selection conditions, but fertile, containing more organic matter, well-drained loam, clayey loam and sandy loam with good water retention are the most ideal. The pH of soil is suitable between PH6.0-6.5.

Towel gourd root is resistant to vine cutting disease, and resistant to nodule nematodes, even if continuous planting, no matter the previous planting, but it is better to be rotated with rice, because it can not only reduce the damage of melon flies, aphids, red spiders, thrips, but also less weeds.

Cultivation and management techniques

(1) sowing period: towel gourd can be sowed and cultivated every year, but it is most suitable to sow from December to August. When sowing later after September, although female flowers occur earlier and more, the later stage of growth gradually enters the period of low temperature, and the weaker the growth, the more serious the exposure fungus disease is, and it is easy to senescence.

(2) sowing seedlings: the shell of towel gourd seeds is hard, so it is appropriate to accelerate bud sowing, that is, the seeds are soaked for 2 hours, then the navel mound of the seeds are rolled open and placed in the darkness of 25Muth300C to promote germination. When the young buds come out of the seed shell, sow to the hole plate containing the medium, the seeds are laid flat, and the bud tip is down as the principle, the sowing depth is about 1.5 cm, and when the leaves are unfolded, they are planted in the field. During the seedling breeding period, the high temperature period was about 11 Mel for 14 days, and the low temperature period was about 15 Mel for 18 days. When the short-day varieties are raised during the long sunshine period, it is best to shade the cotyledons for short days to promote the occurrence of female flowers.

(3) cultivation methods: there are usually three economic cultivation methods for towel gourd:

1. Horizontal scaffolding cultivation: the shed surface is about 1.5 meters away from the surface, and the border width is 5 meters. It is used as a high border, one border is planted in two rows, and the towel gourd is planted on the second side of the furrow, with a distance of 0.4 meters and 0.5 meters. This method can also be cultivated on grape trellis. When towel gourd is first planted, other short-term crops can also be intercropped on the border. In case of hurricane, horizontal scaffolding cultivation is easy to be blown down by the wind because of the large wind surface, so it is based on the principle of autumn and winter, such as spring and summer planting, should be slightly sparse, and appropriately remove some stems and leaves, in order to reduce wind resistance.

2. Tunnel semicircular scaffolding cultivation: the border degree is 4Mel 5 meters, and the border goes north and south as the principle. Each border sets up a semicircular scaffolding on the border surface, the highest point of the scaffolding is about 1.8 meters from the ground, towel gourd can grow in three dimensions, and the area of the inner shed per unit area is larger than that of the horizontal shed, which is good for the development of towel gourd. Planting 2 rows in a row, planted on both sides of the furrow, the distance between the plants is 0.4 Mil 0.5 m. The semicircular scaffolding is more wind-resistant and is suitable for planting in spring and summer as well as in autumn and winter.

3. Creeping cultivation: the width of the border is 5 meters and 6 meters, and two rows are planted on each side of the furrow. The distance between the plants is 0.4 meters and 0.5 meters. This method is suitable for the cultivation of short fruit varieties of common towel gourd. And the fruit should be in the dry season, such as in the rainy season, the fruit is easy to rot when in contact with the ground, it is appropriate to use melon cushion fruit. If long-shaped varieties and angular towel gourd are cultivated on the ground, the fruit is easy to bend and lacks commercial value. When cultivated on the creeping ground, the fruit is easy to be covered by leaves, so it is more troublesome to harvest.

(4) Fertilizer and fertilization: in principle, the type and amount of fertilizer and fertilization methods of towel gourd can refer to balsam pear or flat cattail, that is, towel gourd has strong fertilizer absorption, long fruiting period, simultaneous growth and fruiting, and strong fruiting ability. therefore, it is advisable to continue fertilization after fruiting in order to maintain the continuous growth of stems and leaves, so that the yield can continue to bear fruit, especially after continuous rainfall. Some nutrients in the soil have been lost with Rain Water, so it is appropriate to apply topdressing after rain.

The base fertilizer is applied in the base fertilizer ditch, first heap stable manure, then mix the chemical fertilizer on the manure, then make a small bed, and cover it with silver black plastic sheeting. Topdressing should be applied every 3 weeks as a principle. Before topdressing, irrigation should be carried out in the furrow first, and then topdressing should be applied on both sides of the furrow and at the bottom of the border after the water seeps into the border.

During the growth period, magnesium deficiency occurs (angular towel gourd is more prone to magnesium deficiency). Magnesium sulfate can be added to pesticides for foliar spraying, once a week, 3 times in a row, with a concentration of 0.4% (250 times of water). When the growth of towel gourd plants become weak and stagnant in the middle and later stages of fruiting, urea is sprayed on the leaves at a temperature of 0.4%. It can also be sprayed with pesticides, once a week.

(5) Land preparation, border preparation and planting: to make a high border, plough the open and shallow base fertilizer ditch on the planting line according to the row spacing when the soil is semi-dry and wet, and then make a small border after applying the base fertilizer, and then cover the border surface with silver black plastic sheet. if operated by machine, the small border and plastic sheet can be completed at one time, so that both sides of the plastic sheet can be buried into the two sides of the small border, so as not to be blown away by the wind. After that, with the growth of towel gourd, the soil was cultivated again to make a large border, and the wide and high border was completed.

Before cultivation, the towel gourd was planted with one plant in each hole, and then irrigated with water after planting. It should be sparsely planted in high temperature period and denser in low temperature period.

(6) Irrigation and drainage: towel gourd has large stems and leaves and large water evaporation, so it is appropriate to pay attention to irrigation, often keep moist, irrigation with border ditch irrigation. Pay attention to drainage when rainfall, do not make the root immersed in water, especially angular towel gourd is less durable wet, root immersed in water is easy to rot.

(7) pruning: towel gourd is highly branched, for example, when the stems and leaves are too luxuriant, it is not only easy to grow and not easy to bear fruit, but also when scaffolding is cultivated in hurricane season, scaffolding is more likely to be blown down by the wind, so it is appropriate to thinning vines moderately and pruning single vines. All side vines should be cut off as soon as possible.

When growing on the ground, make the main vine grow at right angles to the furrow. And when the scaffolding is cultivated, if the stem hangs under the shed, it should be led to the scaffolding so that the vines are evenly distributed on the scaffolding.

(8) Border cover: towel gourd likes high temperature, long growth period and wide row spacing, so it is quite economical and effective to cover silver black plastic sheet on the planting line (small planting border). If covered with straw, the effect is not as good as silver black plastic sheeting. When short fruit varieties are cultivated on the ground, the whole border should be covered with grass to prevent the fruit from coming into contact with the ground and rot.

(9) fruit bagging and fruit picking: in order to prevent melon flies from spawning, towel gourd is usually bagged and bagged at the young fruit stage after flowering. Bagging has the effect of preventing leaves from scratching and blackening the pericarp, turning the pericarp pale, and preventing pesticide pollution. Towel gourd can be bagged with old newspaper bags or thicker paper.

After the female flower wilts to the fruit development, all abnormal fruits, dehiscent fruits, diseases and insect pests should be removed as soon as possible, so as not to waste nutrients and reduce the power of plant growth.

(10) Diseases and insect pests and their prevention and control methods: please refer to the method of prevention and control of major diseases and insect pests of melons compiled by our company, but towel gourd should be more sensitive to melons and easy to cause drug damage, so it is advisable to pay attention to the concentration of medicine, and it is safer to use it at low concentration. and it is advisable to avoid spraying in the hot sun.

Dew fungus disease: mostly from the base of the old leaves, the beginning is not obvious light yellow spots, in short, the leaf veins as the boundary shows polygonal yellowish brown obvious disease spots, disease spots dry and easy to break; leaf back disease spots have gray-black disease, leaves die early.

Harvesting and packing

It is better to eat towel gourd with tender and delicate flesh, so it is appropriate to harvest the fruit not enough, the peel has not hardened, the fiber is not developed, the pulp is not thick and old, and it is more suitable to harvest according to the suitable harvest size of its variety, which should not be harvested too late. However, if it is harvested too early, not only the output will be reduced, but also it is easy to be weak and not resistant to storage and transportation after harvest.

General towel gourd flowering in low temperature period, about 10 days after flowering is the suitable harvest time, high temperature period flowering, 8 Mel 9 days after flowering can be harvested. The angular towel gourd is easy to age after flowering, and the harvest time is about 1 min 2 days earlier than that of the common towel gourd.

The fruit growth of towel gourd at night is about twice as much as that in daytime, so the harvest time is in principle before the fruit temperature rises in the morning. With knife and scissors for harvesting, the fruit stalk should be about 2 cm long, the cut should be flat, and the bag should be harvested together, put into the carrying box basket and transported to the packing place for packing. Remove the bag first, and then wrap each fruit in wrapping paper to avoid scratches and reduce moisture evaporation, and then transport it to the market in bamboo baskets or bamboo baskets. Try to keep the fruit powder in the process of harvest and packaging to show freshness.

For those who harvest loofah tendons, only ordinary towel gourd is available, and angular towel gourd is not suitable for loofah tendons. 60 days after flowering, the pericarp turns brown, the fruit becomes lighter, the seeds become black, and the whole fruit is fully mature or even dried. If harvested too early, the fiber is weak and not good. After the old ripe fruit is harvested, if a small amount is to be fully dried, peel off the skin, knock out the seeds, soak it in bleach for 2 hours, and then wash it thoroughly with water to dry. Excellent loofah tendons have the characteristics of correct, white, compact, meticulous, tough, elastic and so on.