WATER MELON( )

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Have you seen a square watermelon? look at the picture on the left side. I’m not kidding. This watermelon is being sold in Japan for around 10,000 yen ($83) while regular oval watermelon costs $15-$20. Quite expensive eh? here in the Philippines it won’t cost that much if you will grow it locally. There are abundant sources in the provinces but because of our poor transportation condition all of those supplies can’t reach metro manila in perfect condition and most of the time it cost higher than it suppose to be.
Then how about the square watermelon, are we able to make those like what they are doing now in Japan? looks like its not harder that we thought. I saw website that sell polycarbonate casing (Fig. 1 below) to mold the watermelon during the growing stage . Obviously you can’t shape it when it is already fully grown because the peel is already hard. You just have to put the fruit still attached to the vine inside the polycarbonate casing and let it grow until is occupies all the space inside and forms a cube or a square.


Fig 1. Polycarbonate Casing (courtesy of square-watermelons.com)
Also it is more convenient if the watermelon have a square or cubic shape for it will not roll and you won’t have to chase it. Stacking it only requires a smaller space unlike the round or oval shape. But before you can do that, you have to know how to plant and produce ordinary watermelons as per below Watermelon production guide I got from the Bureau of Plant Industry Website.

Watermelon Production Guide

(Citrullus lanatus (Thumberg) Matsum and Nakai)
Watermelon is now widespread in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Mostly grown for fresh consumption of the juicy and sweet flesh of mature fruits. Locally known in the country as “pakwan” it is one of the most popularly grown fruit vegetable in the country today during summer
Its is planted 5000 hectare, the bulk of which is planted during the regular season (October to January) however there are few commercial off-season grower in Marinduque, Sorsogon and Pampanga.
VARIETIES

Variety	Shape	Flesh color	Rind Color	Types
Sugar Baby	round	red	Dark green	OP
Goody Ball	round	red	Dark green	F1 hybrid
Charleston gray	oblong	red	Light green	OP
Maharlika	round	red	Dark green	F1 hybrids

ADAPTATION
Climate – watermelon grows best when the monthly average temperature is about 21oC to 29oC. Planting is on the month of October to January. And for off- season is early August.
Soil – A well drained, fairly fertile and sandy loam soil is ideal for watermelon production, however with proper it can be successfully grown in clay soil.
CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT
Land preparation – Field should be prepared thoroughly by plowing and harrowing and removing the different plant debris. It should also be pulverized and leveled, furrows are made 2 meters apart.
Sowing – Pre-germinate the seeds before sowing; soaking it in water for overnight period. Drill 2-3 seeds per hill at a distance of 1.5x 2,0 meter apart. Ten to fifteen days after emergence thin to one plant per hill, a hectare of land will need 3-4 kilograms of seeds.
Fertilization – soil analysis is recommended but in general for organic fertilizer a hectare should need about 10-15 tons. Side dress with 10-20 grams per hill of 14-14-14 two weeks until onset of female flower. At fruit setting apply 10 grams of urea (46-0-0) and muriate of potash (0-0-60) at 1:1 ratio 2-3 times every two weeks.
Irrigation – Field should be irrigate whenever necessary by either using furrow irrigation or by manual watering. Frequent high irrigation 10-15 times is recommended at planting time, vegetative, flowering and fruiting development stage. Do not allow the fruits to get wet while irrigating. Two weeks prior to maturity irrigation should be stop.
Weeding and Cultivation – Shallow cultivation by off baring, 15 days after planting followed by hilling up at 30 days after planting and hand weeding thereafter until the crop have attained sufficient size to cover the soil which in turn will suppress the growth of weeds.
Training of vines – Rearrange or train the vines along the rows 25 days after planting to facilitate watering and weeding but main vines should not be touch anymore
Fruit thinning – removal of misshapen fruits, thinning of two fruits per vines of varieties which produced large size fruits and 4-6 in the case of small fruited varieties are suggested and done when the largest fruit is 10 cm long and 10 cm in diameter.
PEST AND DISEASE
Insect
Thrips, aphids, cucurbit beetle, melon fruit fly, spider mites, cutworm. Spray insecticide at manufacturer recommendation.
Disease
Downy mildew, powdery mildew, mosaic, anthracnose, use appropriate chemicals in controlling these diseases by following the manufacturer recommendation.
HARVESTING
Watermelon fruits do not ripen further after picking, hence the fruits should be mature enough when harvested. It takes a watermelon to mature from 35 to 45 days after pollination.
Harvest indexes could be used:

• Tapping – a dull or hallow sound is an indication to maturity

• Color – fruit part resting in the ground becomes a distinct yellow patch as in sugar baby

• Tendril right behind each fruit dried down up to the base.

Cost and Return Analysis Per Hectare.

Activity	Quantity	Unit	Amount / Unit (Peso)	Total Amount
Land preparation
A. Labor cost (200/MD)
Plowing	10	MD	200	2,000.00
Harrowing (2x	8	MD	200	1,600.00
Manure application	10	MD	200	2,000.00
Planting	8	MD	200	1600.00
Mulching	10	MD	200	2000.00
Fertilizer application
Basal	3	MD	200	600.00
Side-dress	10	MD	200	2,000.00
Irrigation	40	MD	200	8,000.00
Trellising	50	MD	200	10,000.00
Pruning and thinning	40	MD	200	8,000.00
Weeding	40	MD	200	8,000.00
Spraying	35	MD	200	7,000.00
Harvesting	20	MD	200	12,000.00
Miscellaneous	20	MD	200	4,000.00
Sub-total				68,800.00
B. Materials
Seeds	4.0	Kilograms	700	4,900.00
Animal manure	10	Tons	1,200	12,000.00
Fertilizers
14-14-14	7	Bags	700	2,800.00
46-0-0	7	Bags	800	5,600.00
0-0-60	3	Bags	700	2,100.00
Plastic mulch	4	rolls	2000	8,000.00
Pesticides			5,000.00	5,000.00
Fuel and oil			6,000.00	6,000.00
Miscellaneous			5,000.00	5,000.00
Sub-total				56,400.00
II Fixed cost
Land rentals				7,500.00
Depreciation
Scythe 2yrs	5	Pcs	12	63.00
Hoe 3yrs	3	Pcs	125	375.00 ers By geekgardener, on May 16th, 2010 Nothing can define summer better than piled up watermelons on the roadside. I still remember my schooldays, the way we used to buy slices of watermelon and eat them dripping the juice all over. I still love the watermelon for being such a nice fruit to eat and to grow! Watermelon contains about 6% sugar and 92% water by weight. It is a good source of Vitamin C. Surprisingly, It seems that the white part of the flesh is highly nutritious but we all avoid them.  Usually the ones that you see on the road sides weigh about 8-10 kg and are very huge in size too. For growing in our garden in containers, we don’t grow such varieties as their nutritional requirements is also quite high. So for this summer, I chose a variety called “Sugar Baby”. Its not too big in size. Its compact and suitable for our home needs (at least mine). It doesn’t have the traditional stripes. It is totally dark green. I seed started them in small sized pots ( 6” dia) and they were transplanted into dustbin buckets and paint buckets after they showed 2-3 true leaves. The medium, as you can see is cocopeat. 11/3/2010     14/4/2010 -  You can see the vine is already exploring my terrace. Shade net was of support to the vine. My idea was to let it spread on the terrace floor so that I dont have to worry about supporting the melon. But the plant’s idea was something else. So I let it decide what works for it. It started climbing the net and flowering at 2-3 feet high. 4/5/2010 – The unexpected happened! I told you not to climb there!. As the fruit started growing, the stem started bending and it was going to break anytime. I think this fruit likes to hangout.. Anyway I was not ready to lose a fruit so I kept a pot to support the fruit.   Well this is not the only fruit, there are couple more.. These are still growing. Lets see how big they get.
Knapsack sprayer 5yrs	2	Pcs	800	1,600.00
Sub-total				9,538.00
Total Cost				134,738.00

Marketable yield of 10 to 15 tons hectare at P15 per kilograms