Building an eco-friendly lifestyle can be done in many ways. One of the most fun and profitable ways is by cultivating fruits, such as melons.
However, you need to understand the right steps of how to grow melons so that the harvest can be successful. For that, check out the following steps so you can grow melons on your own land with ease!
How to Grow Melons for Beginners
Growing melons can certainly be a fun hobby for anyone. You can feel satisfied when you see the plants growing lushly. In addition, you will also be able to enjoy the fresh melon fruit that you harvested yourself.
But before you get started, make sure you have an AQUA gallon at home. That way, you can stay hydrated and easily refill your fluids whenever you feel thirsty while gardening.
AQUA water offers a naturally cool sensation, even at room temperature, proof that it comes from a protected source with well-preserved mineral content. That is why AQUA is the perfect companion for your gardening activities.
AQUA water is sourced from 100% carefully selected mountain springs and contains no additives, ensuring its purity is always maintained.
Once your AQUA gallon is ready, you can enjoy your gardening time at a relaxed and comfortable pace. Ready to start? Here is a simple guide to planting melons that you can easily follow:
1. Prepared Selected Melon Seeds
The first step in how to grow melons for beginners is to choose quality seeds. You can buy seeds from a store or take them from ripe melons. Here’s how to grow melons from seeds that you can follow:
- Soak the melon in water for 6–8 hours.
- After soaking, spread the melon seeds on wet paper.
- Keep them moist for 1–2 days by dripping water if they look dry.
- Plant the seed 1–2 cm deep in the planting medium.
- Place the nursery tray in the shade.
- Keep it moist by watering moderately.
- Wait for the seeds to grow 2–3 leaves.
2. Prepare the Land for Planting
After the seedlings have grown well, prepare a suitable land for cultivation. If you don’t have a garden, learning how to grow melons in polybags can be a practical solution. But if you have the land available, here’s how you can do it:
- Prepare the land according to the number of seedlings you will plant.
- Check the pH of the soil. If the soil pH is less than 5, then add 2 tons of dolomite lime per hectare.
- If the soil pH is ready, collect the necessary fertilizers such as:
- Compost or manure of 15–20 tons per hectare.
- ZA fertilizer as much as 375 kg per hectare.
- KCI fertilizer as much as 375 kg per hectare.
- SP-36 fertilizer (fertilizer containing 36% phosphate) as much as 250 kg per hectare.
- Mix all fertilizers well with the soil.
- Plow the soil evenly until it is loose and leave it for 2–4 days.
- After that, make a bed where the melon seedlings will be planted. The beds should be 10–15 m long, 100–120 m wide, 30–50 cm high, and 50–60 cm apart.
- 2 days before planting, cover the bed with silver black mulch plastic with the black side facing the ground.
- Punch holes in the mulch plastic so that the seedlings can be planted. Each bed will have two rows of melon plants with a distance of 50 cm per plant.
3. Do the Planting
Once the soil is ready, it’s time to plant the melon seeds. Handle your melon garden with care to help the plants thrive.
Also, it’s best to do the planting in the late afternoon, when the sun is not too intense. Then, you can do the planting by gently transfer the melon seedlings from the nursery tray into the prepared planting holes, one seedling per hole is enough.
Be sure to water them regularly to keep the soil moist and support healthy, vigorous growth
How to Care for Your Melon Plants
After planting, proper care is essential to help your melon garden flourish and produce abundant fruit. To ensure successful growth all the way to harvest time, it's important to follow the right steps. Here’s how to care for your melon plants:
1. Install Support Stakes (Ajir)
Stakes, or "ajir," are used to support the melon plant’s stems and help them grow upright. You can create these supports from wood, arranging them in an X-shape near each plant. This will help keep the plants healthy and encourage strong growth.
2. Watering Regularly
Melon plants need enough water. However, avoid watering the melon until the water stagnates. If you are applying the method of planting melons in polybags, make sure the pot has drainage holes so that the water does not settle inside the pot.
3. Give Supplementary Fertilizer
To promote optimal growth, it’s important to provide additional fertilization. Use NPK fertilizer as needed to ensure your plants get the nutrients they require. It’s recommended to water your melon plants with fertilizer once a week to keep them healthy and thriving.
4. Harvest the Melons
Melons are typically ready for harvest about 3 months after planting. To know when they’re ready, look for signs like a crack or rough texture forming on the mesh pattern of the skin. Be sure to harvest only melons that are truly ripe to enjoy the best flavor and texture.
5. Rotate Crops as Needed
Crop rotation is essential for maintaining long-term soil fertility and health. It also helps protect your garden from pests that could damage your crops. By rotating your melon plants with other crops, you can keep the soil balanced and reduce the risk of pest infestations.
Now that you know how to grow melons, from planting seeds to maintaining your plants, you’ll soon be able to enjoy a sweet, refreshing melon harvest!
Gardening is not only fun but also rewarding. It offers economic benefits while allowing you to stay active and connect with nature. Just remember, while you're enjoying your time outdoors, you need to stay hydrated to avoid exhaustion.
For this reason, always keep an AQUA Gallon available at home, so you can quickly replenish the fluids lost during your gardening activities. This way, you can easily meet your hydration needs and support your body’s health.
The AQUA Gallon comes in a 19-liter size, making it perfect for meeting your family’s daily drinking requirements. Plus, it’s affordable, priced at just Rp1.000 per liter!
AQUA Gallon is also carefully sanitized up to 20 times with high-pressure water before being refilled, ensuring it’s always clean and safe. So, you can trust in the quality and cleanliness of AQUA Gallon.
Not all water is AQUA. AQUA has passed Halal certification, as well as BPOM and SNI standards, so it’s completely safe to drink. AQUA is 100% Pure, 100% Indonesian, and 100% Halal.
