Planting Cucumbers

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Planting Cucumbers

A member of the Cucumber family, nativeto tropical Africa, the watermelon needs a long,dry growing season.

Planting and Culture: Soil, for good wa-termelons, should be light, fertile, deep, and

well drained. A pH of 5.5 to 6.5 is preferred.Preparation of the soil should begin the fallbefore planting. At that time, turn undermanure to a depth of six to eight inches. Ifthere is a plentiful supply of manure on hand,dig in an inch layer of it all over the watermelonbed. If the supply is limited, a few forkfuls maybe dug into the hills, and left to decompose dur-ing the winter, so that the nutrients have timeto leach down into the soil to a depth where thevine's deepest roots will find them. A handfulof phosphate rock and one of greensand orgranite dust may be incorporated into the hillsat the same time. Lime should not be used un-less the pH is below 5.

In cool areas, or where the growing seasonis short, seed may be started indoors in peat orcompressed manure pots and moved to the gar-den when all danger of frost is past. A green-house or hotbed makes it possible to start theseed eight weeks before field-planting time. Ifthey must be started in the home, sow them justsix weeks before field planting. Otherwise theywill become leggy. Plant three or four seeds ineach pot and thin to one vine. Later, when set-ting out plants, place three pots in each hill.After the vines have made a foot or two ofgrowth, thin each hill to one or two vines.

If seeds are to be started directly in thegarden, space hills six to 12 feet apart, depend-ing upon the variety planted and the fertility ofthe soil. On rich soil with high summer temperatures, the plants will grow and fruit rapidly. In the South, practically all are started in the open. Seeds are planted tento 14 days before the last expected frost, sothat the seedlings will come up as soon as pos-sible after the frost. If there is any danger thatfrost may overtake the seedlings, make twoplantings in each hill a week apart, putting inhalf the seeds each time. A total of eight to tenseeds should be planted in each hill in a circle tht to 13 inches in diameter. Cover the seedsth an inch of soil. After the first true leaves'pear on the young plants, reduce the numberplants to four or five per hill. Gradually thinem as they grow larger, until only one or two-ong vines are left.

Mulching: Watermelon vines should beulched to keep down the weeds and conserveAsture, but the mulch should not be applieditil the soil is thoroughly warm. In the mean-ne, keep the area clean with shallow hoeing.raw, hay or chopped leaves are the bestIlching materials to use. Spread them in a:-inch mulch over the entire watermelonch and draw the mulch up to the base of thees. This should be done before fruits beginform, because the small fruits may be dam-.:2d by handling. The best time to apply mulch is after a rain, when the soil is thoroughly

Thinning: Commercial growers often thin

its on the vines in order to produce largertr.d more uniform melons and to speed ripen-:1g when no more than two melons are left onreach plant. In the home garden, where melon,g.ze is not so important, the vines may be per-mined to set more fruit, but late-set fruit should

removed. When too few hot days and warmfights are left for maturing fruit, all blossomsshould be removed from the plants before they7-,gin to develop. The sooner these are re-moved, the more plant energy will be diverted the development of the early-set fruit.

Harvesting: Melons are most flavorfulWhen permitted to ripen on the vine. Experi-!rice is the best judge of ripeness, and none of-fie many ways advanced to choose a ripemelon is infallible. According to Mark Twain,a green melon says "pink" or "pank" whenthumped with the knuckles; a ripe one says-punk." A less subjective way to determine:ipeness is to take a look at the melon and vines. The fruit is apt to be ripe when the un-derside turns frNm white to yellow and at leastthree tendrils o ach side of the melon aredead.

Varieties: `Charleston Gray adapts toclimates throughout the United States. It hasan 85-day maturation period, and is fiber-freeand disease resistant. Dixie Queen is wilt re-sistant and requires 90 warm days to reach maturity. Fordhook Hybrid bears small-seededfruits and is hardy in the North. Also recommended for the North are Crimson Sweet, NewHampshire Midget, Golden Midget, and SugarBaby. They are well adapted to cool climatesand have growing periods of 65 to 90 days.

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