How to pinch melons?

Melon - a favorite treat for both children and adults. In Russia, it has been grown for a long time.And although the climate here is not very suitable for this southern spoiled plant with heat and sun, people have learned to grow it, which has surprised foreign travelers a lot. The popularity of this royal fruit has not decreased even nowadays, and the growing technology has been enriched with new agrotechnical methods. In this article we will talk about such an important agricultural technique as pinning, without which it would be impossible to get large and sweet melons in conditions of lack of heat and light.

The essence of this technique is to remove the growth points of young shoots by pinching or trimming. This allows you to remove non-bearing stems, as well as leave a number of fruit-bearing stems on the plant, for which there will be enough environment resources to form high-quality fruits. Ultimately, during pinning, melons ripen earlier, which is also very important for a cool climate. And besides, they grow larger.

Pinching is convenient to do with the tools adapted for this: with forceps or small scissors, which bite off the stalk with a point of growth. However, they are still practicing just pinching the growth point with their fingers.

The characteristics of melon pinching are determined both by the biological features of its development and by the methods of cultivation. In the melon, the main stem is first formed, and then, in time, the first, second, and third terms of formation are whip. The main stem usually does not give fruit, because the rudiments of female flowers do not develop on it, or there will be sterile flowers themselves.

Fertile female flowers are located mainly on the shoots of the first and second periods of formation. The shoots of the first term form the flowers of the female sex in the axils of the fourth and fifth leaf, and the second term in the axils of the first leaf. So the pinching of the growth point of the central stem initiates the growth of the secondary stems from the axial growth points, which subsequently give the ovary, and then the fruit.

The first pinching is carried out already at the initial stages of plant development - at the age of four to five leaves. At the same time, the main stem develops from the upper leaf bosom, and lateral stems from the lower leaf sinuses. At the first pinching, only the growth point of the central stem is removed. The features of the subsequent pinings are determined by how the cultivation will be carried out.

This method involves tying the stems on the trellis. To install it, you first need to stretch a wire frame in a greenhouse at a height of about two meters and tie a string to it, and three or four days after planting, the lower end of the string is tied up with a plant and the shoots are allowed to grow upwards.

In the future, depending on the prevailing conditions, cultivation can be carried out in one or two stems. When grown in a single stalk, at the first pinching, only one stalk is left, which is fixed on the framework rope. The second pinching is carried out already when it grows to the upper end of the twine. Infertile secondary shoots are cut, and the remaining fruitful stems pinch over the second - fourth leaf.

When cultivated in two stems, at the first pinching from the secondary stems only 2 most developed ones are left, the rest are removed. Each of them is fixed on trellis twine in such a way that the whole structure acquires a V-shape. On these stems will be the entire crop.On each stalk, as a rule, no more than two melons are left; more of them simply will not ripen.

Since the melon is dioecious, monoecious, in order to pollinate it, it is necessary to transfer pollen from the stamens of the male flowers to the stigma of the female flowers. In nature, melon pollen is transferred mostly by bees. In the enclosed space of the greenhouse insects, of course, no. And then, even with the correct formation of the bush and, as a result, the abundance of flowers, due to the lack of pollinators, you can not get the fruit. However, this will no longer be an error in the formation of the plant lash, but the absence of pollination.

Technique of artificial pollination is simple. The flowers of both sexes are well distinguishable. A female flower has a well-marked distinctive feature at the base - a developed receptacle. Male flower has only a pedicel. The first bloom male flowers. First, with a cotton wool wound around a match or a squirrel brush, it is necessary to collect pollen from the anthers of male flowers, and then touch the womb of the female flower.

And you can pollinate directly male flower. To do this, you first need to pick petals from a flower, and then touch the female flower with stamens. One male flower is enough to fertilize three - four female flowers. With successful fertilization in two days, an increase and development of the ovary can be observed.

With this method of cultivation, the melon stalks freely settle on the ground. For ease of tillage, growing stems must be removed from the row spacing. Horizontal cultivation is unacceptable in the greenhouse, as it reduces the illumination of plants, and the increased humidity provokes their incidence.

When pinching after seedlings of the three stems leave only the two most developed. They pinch after the growth of 4 - 6 leaves.

During the formation of the ovaries, a third pinning is done, which involves the following procedures:

• removal of undeveloped barren stems;
• pinching the stem with the ovaries over the third - fourth leaf;
• pinching powder with a dry mixture of lime, coal and sulfur.

Melon varieties have large differences in the length of the growing season, which determines the varietal characteristics of pinching. Since the development of early ripening varieties is more intense, and they ripen earlier, then life resources, mainly heat, they require less than late ripening varieties. Accordingly, the nipping of late-ripening varieties is carried out more rigidly, so that less fruits are left on the plant.

On this basis, for early varieties, the plant formation procedure involves only pinching the central stem and controlling the amount of the ovary during the growing season. Middle and late ripening varieties require two pinings. The first one is carried out, as usual, at the seedling stage, by pinching the central shoot over 4-5 of this leaf. The second is carried out in phase 7 of the sheet. At the same time, the stem is clamped after 7 leaves and only 3 ovaries remain on the shoot.

It is important to remember that the control of the growth of lashes and ovaries should be carried out until the fruit ripens. - actually, as long as the formation of young stems, flowers and the formation of fruits. You must constantly remove the newly formed stems, flowers and ovaries. This will allow the plant to efficiently use the nutrients to form the crop you have planned. The best is 3 - 4 fruit on each shoot.

And yet it must be remembered that Central Asia is the birthplace of the melon, where the warm and sometimes hot climate perfectly matches its biological requirements. But in the middle zone of Russia, it is necessary to create artificial conditions for it - for example, cultivation in greenhouses, the use of special agrotechnical methods (considered here, pinching), and also to produce less demanding climates.

The climate of central Russia requires only early varieties for cultivation. Only by cultivating these varieties can one count on success. Here it matters not only the total length of the growing season, but also the length of the period from setting to maturity of the fetus. The correctly selected variety will meet all the hopes of the gardener: there will be a good harvest, large and tasty fruits. Of course, I would like the melon to be the same in all indicators as in Samarkand. For the middle band, breeders have proposed an impressive set of early, medium-sized, but tasty varieties and hybrids.

Here is a partial list:

• "Collective farmer";
• "Blondie";
• "Dessert";
• "Cinderella";
• "Iroquois";
• "Krinichanka";
• "Lemon";
• "Ozhen";
• "Fairy tale";
• "Siberian Fast";
• Tobolinka;
• "Kharkov".

Although the pinning procedure is quite simple, nonetheless inexperienced gardeners sometimes make annoying mistakes that negate all their efforts.

1. Often, beginners mistakenly spend the pinching of a melon, like a watermelon, leaving the main stem and removing all side shoots. This error is caused by the visual similarity between the two cultures and the assumption that the formation of plants is of the same type, which is not true. Melon and watermelon belong to different species and have a different developmental biology. As a result, they have a completely opposite type of fruit formation. Watermelon only sets fruit on the main stem, while melon on the sprouts of the first and second term. So the gardener, removing all the side shoots from the melon, will be left without a crop. This difference is necessary to remember.
2. A mistake is made by those gardeners who pinch only the side rods, leaving the main stem intact. And in this case it is not necessary to count on a good and high-quality crop. With such pinching, nutrients do not enter the lateral stems where fruits are formed, but go on growing the main stem. Fruits form small and tasteless.
3. It is mistakenly too close to plant seedlings for each other. In this case, the plants will suffer from a lack of light, diseases will appear. It is not possible to eliminate this disadvantage by pinching.

In conclusion, we emphasize once again the importance of pinning for obtaining high quality melon crops with insufficient heat and light. Try to apply this agricultural practice creatively, taking into account all the factors: the method of growing melons, varieties and weather in a particular year, and then the melons will delight you.

Tips for growing melon seedlings - in the next video.