Green in garden fresh on table.
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Winter melon is another popular gourd in Asia.
Matured winter melon has very hard skin.
It can withstand long distance shipping and months' storage,
which make it a great vegetable to balance market demand
among different areas and seasons.
After removing its skin, winter melon's flesh is juicy
and has very light taste.
It is used in many soup, steaming and stew recipes.
Other than that, winter melon is also made into juice, tea, candy or snack.
Like its sister fuzzy melon, winter melon is cooling, diuretic and detoxifying.
Winter melon like warm and hot weather.
The best temperature is 75~85 degree.
Temperature lower than 60 degree, it will not grow well.
At temperature between 85~95 degree, winter melon seeds germinate quickly.
Winter melon's growing cycle can vary from 4 months up to 6 months
depending on environment temperature and varieties.
So for cold area, indoor seed starting can help to maximize its growing season.
Winter melon seeds have hard shell.
So you may need to germinate them first before you put in potting mix.
I will have a video about different methods to germinate vegetable seeds later.
When winter melon grows 4~5 leaves, transplant the seedling into garden.
Add a lot of organic fertilizer, turn the soil over and bury the fertilizer deep.
Row distance have to be wider than 4 ft.
Plant distance is about 2~3 ft.
When winter melon grows more than 1 ft long, you should start pruning work.
Winter melon has many different varieties, oblong or short round shapes,
covered with white powder or smooth dark green skin,
weigh from few pounds up to 60 pounds.
Winter melon is grown for its full size matured fruit,
so the growing method is different from fuzzy melon.
Generally speaking, how many fruits a winter melon plant can produce varies from size to size.
One plant can produce more than 3 fruits for melon size smaller than 10 pounds,
while 2~3 fruits for 10~20 pounds,
1~2 fruits for more than 20 pounds.
Knowing your winter melon size, you can decide
how many vines to keep for fruiting when you prune the plant.
Single vine pruning is usually for winter melon bigger than 20 pounds.
Remove all the side sprouts when winter melon vine grows.
Keep the vine on ground until female flower is seen,
then direct the vine onto trellis.
The first female flower is usually seen after the 18th leaf,
then a female flower in every 5~7 leaves after that.
Some varieties produce the best fruits at the first 3 female flowers.
Some varieties' first few female flowers are weak and will wither before flowering.
So you should carefully drop the vine back on ground and let new female flower grow.
Keep on doing this until you see a female flower successfully bloom.
Let the vine climb to the top of trellis,
keep a second female flower and extra 2~3 leaves after, then remove the tip.
After pollinated, the first bloomed female flower has about 70% chance to grow into melon.
If for some reason it cannot make it, the second flower will be a back-up.
For smaller winter melon, twin vines or triple vines pruning is recommended.
When the plant grows about 1 ft, remove the tip and let side vines grow.
Keep 2 ~ 3 side vines, treat each vine as a single plant and prune it with method above.
Keep at least 2 ft distance between vines on trellis.
Sometime there is more than one fruit on one vine,
but at the end only one can grow bigger and the others will wither.
To focus the nutrients on the fruit, you should remove any side vines, flowers from fruiting vine.
Spread some 10-10-10 inorganic fertilizer
near winter melon roots and gently mix with top soil.
This will help the fruit grow bigger.
Trim off any yellow leaves to reduce bugs and disease problem.
To secure winter melon fruit, tie the fruit stem up to trellis with a strong string.
In the next 2 months, winter melon will grow bigger and bigger.
The skin gets harder.
Some varieties develop a layer of white powder on the fruit,
some lost the hair, become smooth and turn dark green.
. By the time all the leaves almost turn yellow, you can harvest winter melon fruits.
A well preserved winter melon can be kept up to half year,
but a cut-opened one should be consumed in a week.
So for back yard gardener, I recommend you to grow small varieties that weigh less than 20 pounds.
I grow this giant winter melon just to show you in this video,
it will be more than 40 pounds when it gets matured.
I actually don't know what to do about it because it is too big.
I have been very busy these days and am trying to keep up my videos.
I haven't been able to check and reply comments on Youtube.
I apologize for that.
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please visit my website and post in "community" section:
asiangarden2table.com/community.
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You can upload pictures in your post which is really helpful to explain your gardening questions.
As always, thank you very much for your support. I will see you soon.