Not all can grow gourds, namely melons, directly in the open ground. After all, they ripen long enough - from 60 to 180 days, and the temperature regime does not always allow ripening vegetables. In order to deceive nature, use the planting of melons for seedlings. This method is quite simple and labor-intensive.
How to plant a melon on seedlings?
To begin with, it is necessary to select the seed material correctly - that is, the seeds. Last year is not worth taking, since they will only have male flowers and do not see the crop. It is best if the seeds are 2-3 years old. The variety should be chosen according to the climatic belt - southern regions will be suitable for the late ones, and for the northern regions it is better to take early ripening.
Seeds must first be soaked in a weak saline solution and those that float to the surface can be safely thrown out. After that, for 20 minutes the seeds fall into a light pink solution of manganese for disinfection.
To germinate the seeds of melons on seedlings, they are wrapped in two layers of moist gauze and after 2-3 days small sprouts appear. Now the seeds are ready for planting. In the middle lane, sowing should be carried out in early May, in order to transplant seedlings into the soil in a month.
Before planting melons on seedlings, you should prepare the soil in advance. It should be loose and nutritious. Perfect mixture of humus and turf. As a fertilizer, you can add a little wood ash .
Each seed is lowered into the ground with a growth up to a depth of one and a half centimeters and is topped with earth, followed by a gentle watering. Growing melon seedlings will be successful in the case when the air humidity does not exceed 70%, and the light day (with the possible lamping) will be 12 hours.
Transplanting to the open ground is done very carefully, because the root system of the melon is very tender and any damage can lead to the death of the plant. It is advisable not to disturb the earth clod during the transplant, and therefore it will be more practical to plant seeds not in boxes, but in single containers, for example, plastic cups.