GARDENING: Cooling off with watermelon

23 Aug, 2015 - 00:08 0 Views
GARDENING: Cooling off with watermelon Watermelons has various health benefits

The Sunday Mail

WATERMELON delight is a popular cocktail recipe, common in many countries where the summer heat prompts people to look for something to cool off with.
Watermelons has various health benefits

Watermelons has various health benefits

No fruit better cools than the water melon.

A fruit of the curcubitaceae family thought to have originated in Southern Africa. It is the same family as your cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes and gourds. Water melon as the name implies is mostly made up of water, up to ninety percent.

Water melons are a healthy summer snack and should be on our dessert plates often, mainly because they are high in vitamin A and C, which are essential for preventing cancers, high blood pressure and maintaining skin health, to mention a few benefits.

Being a tropical plant with its origins in Africa, water melon should not be a headache to grow in our gardens.

Common varieties are Charleston gray, Congo and Sugar baby, all best sown in-situ. Grow this crop from August to December.

Water melons will grow very well on well-drained sandy soils and yields will be poor on heavy clay.

The plant grows well in a low rainfall area with high temperatures especially the lowveld.

High humidity creates many problems for the plants causing leaf diseases, poor flowering and fruit rot.

Grow this tantalising fruit in a soil with a pH of 6-61/2, so that all the essential nutrients are available to avoid deficiencies, which may cause disorders such as blossom end rot, a calcium deficiency.

Once you have dug your soil and brought the soil to a fine texture you can sow your seed directly into the garden at a spacing of one metre in-row and two metres inter-row.

Sow seeds at a depth of about three to four centimeters with two seeds per station. It is also possible to raise your plants ex-situ then transplant them when at least two leaves have developed.

As always, a soil rich in organic matter will be able to produce a good crop mainly because of the improved soil structure, water holding capacity and the available nutrients.

Even when additional fertilisers are applied leaching is less likely to occur.

Water melon can be grown with little or no fertiliser after a previous heavy fertilised crop was grown.

However it is advisable to apply small amounts of fertiliser throughout the growing of the crop. Use a compound fertiliser high in phosphorus and potash for water melons, such as compound C.

You can also top-dress with a nitrogen fertiliser after flowering.

Watermelons are insect pollinated thus commercially you would need bee hives to help with this as flowers are viable for just a day. To produce large melons it is advisable to remain with three to four fruits per vine and this is best done when vines are dry to avoid disease transmission.

Your vines should be ready to harvest in three to four months or five to six weeks after pollination.

Maturity is not always easy to detect but the fruit skin can change from white to cream or the yellowing of the area where the fruit is in contact with the soil. Tapping of the fruit should produce a hollow sound.

Harvest melons by cutting and avoid bruising for prolonged storage.

And to make your own water melon delight, mix together three cups of water melon chunks, one teaspoon grated ginger and four tablespoons of sugar. Blend these till smooth. Chill in the fridge and enjoy with chunks of watermelon on top.

Cheers!

Andrew Mangwarara is a horticulturist and can be reached by email at [email protected]

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