Why melons are not tied, they have barren flowers: what to do

The variety of melon varieties with different ripening periods and the possibility of their cultivation throughout the Russian Federation attract. Good harvests are grown not only in the North Caucasus and Nizhnevolzhsky regions. There are varieties bred specifically for the Altai Territory, regions of Western and Eastern Siberia. With the right agricultural practices, farmers and vegetable growers get good harvests in all weather conditions.

Help. Scientists have proven that it is more profitable to grow melons in a greenhouse. Higher yields and profitability.

Melons are grown on melons or in a greenhouse by direct sowing of seeds into the ground and seedlings.Strong lashes and active flowering do not always guarantee a future harvest. There are many reasons why melons don't tie. Having studied the nature and characteristics of this light and heat-loving plant, you can force it to form fruits without much effort.

What does a melon look like when in bloom?

Male flowers appear first on the zero-order shoot. In early maturing varieties, they open in the axils of 2-3 leaves, in late species - after 4-5 leaves. In total, one can count from 6 to 30 male flowers on a bush, but not a single female flower can be found. If a female flower has formed on the main shoot, then it is likely to be sterile and not form a fruit.

Productive female flowers open on shoots of 2-3 orders, it is from them that the fruit is formed. Their flowering can last for 30 days. The list of adverse factors affecting the number of female flowers and the speed of their flowering:

shading;
wrong irrigation scheme (excess, lack of moisture);
lack of top dressing or improper use of fertilizers.

The buds begin to open early in the morning (6 hours), at noon all the pollen from male flowers spills out, and they wither, and female unpollinated ones continue to bloom for 1-2 days. Consider all the reasons for poor pollination.

What doesn't a melon like?

Melon can be called a finicky plant, because the list of what she doesn't like is quite long:

low temperature;
high humidity;
bright sunbeams;
draft;
weed;
heavy ground;
acid soils.

Humid air

Bad weather for the crop is rain and a sharp drop in air temperature to 15 ° C and below. Plants planted in a greenhouse are easy to help. Air humidity can be adjusted by periodically airing, covering plantings at night with covering material or turning on the heating system.

When growing a crop in the open field, it is more difficult to control the humidity, but it is also possible. During prolonged rains, you can put plastic arcs on the ridge, pull a PVC film over them. This will save the plants from excess dampness and help save the ovaries. The film should be slightly opened from the ends during the day, as stagnation of air can provoke fungal diseases and worsen pollination.

Irrigation with cold water

Your plants will not escape root rot and other diseases caused by a fungal infection, if you get carried away with watering during the formation of ovaries. Moisture is needed by the culture in the initial period of growth.

At this time, you need to carefully monitor the temperature of the irrigation water. On cool days, the lower temperature limit is 20 ° C, in the heat it can be higher, the upper limit is 40 ° C. Any plant is more comfortable if the water temperature for irrigation is close to the air temperature, but does not exceed the lower limit (15 ° C).

Cold drafts

Drafts are dangerous for ovaries in a greenhouse, but even when melon plants are planted in open ground, they can adversely affect the development and pollination of gourds. When choosing a place to plant, consider the wind rose and plant seeds (seedlings) in places protected from the north wind.

In any polycarbonate greenhouse, the ventilation system must be properly organized.It includes: windows, doors. It is more convenient if the windows are cut into the ceiling. If they are mounted in the door, then when airing they are always opened from one side, this helps to avoid drafts.

Acid soils

Melon grows well on light soil: loamy, sandy loam. This crop does not like acidic, poorly conducting air and retaining moisture. River sand is added to heavy soil with a high clay content - ½ bucket per square meter.

Sod-podzolic soils deoxidize. Different technologies are used for this:

apply lime for the predecessor crop (root crops, cabbage);
lime in autumn;
add chalk, dolomite flour to the soil for digging in the spring (2 weeks before planting melons).

In acidic soil, melons develop more slowly, get sick more often, form few ovaries, fruits are smaller and have low sugar content.

Concentrated fertilizers

Traditionally, after planting any seedlings, many vegetable growers carry out top dressing and in the first half of summer they focus on fertilizers containing nitrogen. When growing melons, fertilizers containing nitrogen should be used with caution. Nitrogen stimulates the growth of shoots and leaves, but slows down the formation of ovaries. Bushes overfed with nitrogen are more likely to get sick, and fruits may contain nitrates.

Fertilizers are best applied to the holes when planting:

humus 1 liter;
¼ glass of ash;
1 tsp Zdraven-turbo.

After the ovaries appeared on the bushes, you need to carry out only 2 top dressings with infusion of grass with the addition of potassium monophosphate (10 g per bucket). For top dressing, dilute the infusion with water in a ratio of 1:5.

Methods of struggle

Experienced vegetable growers begin to form melon bushes after the appearance of 4 leaves on the central shoot. By pinching the point of growth, they stimulate the emergence of new shoots of the 2nd order, which appear from the axils left on the stem of the leaves.

Another proven way to deal with barren flowers and a small number of ovaries on melons is to purchase seeds 2-3 years ago. Bushes with empty flowers most often grow from last year's seeds.

Why don't the melons tie?

When growing melons in a winter greenhouse, the situation when the plant blooms, but there are no ovaries, happens due to insufficient lighting. With a lack of light, the interval between the beginning of the formation of male and female buds increases. Normally, this is 3-5 days, and with a lack of sunlight, it can reach up to 30 days.

If the plant is not formed, then the bushes will not start lateral shoots in time. This is a common reason why there are no ovaries on the melon. The probability of the appearance of an empty flower on shoots of the 2nd order is high, so the bottom two shoots are removed, leaving only the top 2, they also need to be pinched over the 5th leaf. When ovaries begin to form on shoots of the 3rd order, the crop is normalized - no more than 3-4 formed ovaries are left on each bush. One whip - one ovary.

What to do if a melon has an empty flower?

Despite proper care, there are empty flowers on the bushes. What to do in this case? Situations are different. On some bushes there are only male flowers with stamens, on others only female flowers with pistils, on the third there are both, but there are no ovaries.

Important! Short days and high air temperatures produce more female flowers.

If there are only female buds on the bushes, and the male buds have already wilted or for some reason have not formed, artificial pollination is indispensable. How to pollinate a melon with your own hands, consider below. Pollen for pollination can be taken from other gourds, such as zucchini.

Another reason for an empty flower is the absence of pollinating insects, if the entire bush is covered with flowers, and there is not a single ovary on melons. Only artificial pollination will save in this case.

Why are there no female flowers on melons?

The most common reason is the lack of shoots of the 2nd and 3rd orders. For fruiting, a melon needs shoots of the 3rd order, it is on them that female flowers are formed. To form them, pinch the central stem and shoots of the 2nd order over the 4th leaf.

Ovary fall on melon

The ovaries on the melon fall for various reasons, but the result is the same - a low yield or its complete absence. Opinions of gardeners, why they fell ovaries on melons:

during flowering it was hot, the air was dry, this prevented pollination;
hot weather impairs the nutrition of fruits and they fall off;
insufficient watering during flowering;
thick fit;
lack of lighting;
drastic diurnal temperature fluctuations;
depleted soil and lack of top dressing.

These are real opinions of amateur vegetable growers who have encountered the problem of falling ovaries on melons.

Artificial pollination of melon

Mastering the process of manually pollinating melons is easy. First you need to learn to distinguish the sex of the flower. The male flower has 5 stamens, while the female flower has a pistil and the embryo of the future fetus.

Pollen retains its ability until the middle of the day, so artificial pollination should be carried out in the first half of the day, and preferably early in the morning. Choose the largest male flowers, bend the petals and walk with them along the female buds, touching the stamens to the area where the pistil is located.