Fencing and netting won’t keep bugs away from your watermelon crop. Spray repellents are the most effective and common way of protecting ripe fruit from insects. A few sprays of a vegetable-safe repellent can keep away aphids, ladybugs, and various other watermelon-eating insects.
What is the best pesticide for watermelon?
Use 70g of mancozeb in 20 litres or 50g of copper in 20 litres. Aphids and melon fruit flies are the major pests that attack melons. Aphids suck sap from the leaves, leading to curling and drying of the leaves, which eventually leads to the death of the plant. Dusban always works effectively to kill the aphids.
How do you protect a watermelon farm?
Coolong stresses that the best way to protect vines is to turn them back in drive rows. Watermelon fields are set up in several groups of five or six beds that are divided by larger drive rows, which make the vines accessible by farm equipment.
What is eating holes in my watermelon?
Raccoons and birds make holes in the tops of melons and scoop or suck juices from the fruit’s inside. If you are unsure of the animal culprit, sprinkle a light dusting of limestone powder around your melon plants and try to identify the animal based on the footprints left behind.
What is the best time for spraying watermelon?
Start spraying when vines start to run, no later than when the first (male) flowers open. From vine run until mid-May, spray every ten days. After mid-May, spray every week through harvest regardless of the weather. Downy or powdery mildew can attack any time a crop goes more than a week without a fungicide.
How do you control fruit flies in watermelon?
Control – Spray Malathion 25 EC (25 ml/litre) 1-2 times at the interval of 15 days. Management – Do not cultivate watermelon or cucurbits continuously at the same place because continuous cultivation lead outbreaks of fruit fly. Destroy all infested fruit.
How do I keep ants off my watermelon plants?
One is to mix equal amounts of borax and sugar and place this around the base of the plant. The mixture will kill any ant that eats it. Cornmeal and sugar are also a good mixture to try. The cornmeal will expand after it is eaten and will also kill the ants.
How do you take care of watermelon plants?
While melon plants are growing, blooming, and setting fruit, they need 1 to 2 inches of water per week. Keep soil moist, but not waterlogged. Water at the vine’s base in the morning, and try to avoid wetting the leaves and avoid overhead watering. Reduce watering once fruit are growing.
What animals eat watermelon plants?
Raccoons and deer also like watermelons, particularly as the fruit becomes ripe. Damage inflicted by these animals usually is less extensive than the handiwork of coyotes. They may make holes in the rind and scoop or chew some of the inside of the flesh, but they don’t usually consume an entire melon.
What to put under watermelons while growing?
Instead, place small patches of plastic sheeting, coarse straw or a piece of plywood directly under melon fruits that have become at least softball sized. As long as the melon doesn’t rest directly atop wet soil or mulch, there’s much less chance for the melon’s underside to rot.
How do I get rid of aphids on my watermelon?
Soap solutions are an all-purpose way to get rid of numerous types of garden pests, including aphids on watermelon plants. Mix 1 tablespoon of liquid castille soap in 1 gallon of water, shake it well and spray all leaf surfaces, including the undersides of the leaves. This mixture dehydrates aphids.
How do I keep squirrels from eating my watermelon?
Build a Fence
Ground squirrels are persistent pests, but the right type of fence around your watermelons and other valuable plants can be effective at keeping them out. Use 1/2- to 1-inch wire mesh that is at least 42 inches high.
Do rats eat watermelon?
Rats, much like people, love sugary treats, and sweet fruits are no exception. Berries are especially a hit with rats. Be aware that red berries can turn a rat’s stool red, which can resemble blood. Other fruits to feed pet rats include pears, watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, peaches, plums and grapes.
How do you keep raccoons away from watermelons?
Fences for Raccoons
The best way to keep raccoons out of the corn patch—or melons, tomatoes, and anything else that is ripe and tasty—is to exclude them from the area. Fencing works well, although raccoons are excellent climbers.
Is Epsom salt good for watermelons?
For sweeter watermelons and cantaloupes when the plant starts vining and again when small 1-inch melons appear, spray with 6 1/2 tablespoons Epsom salts and 3 1/2 tablespoons borax in 5 gallons of water. For more fruit on your pepper plants, fertilize the plant by burying an open one-half pack of book matches near it.
Is Miracle Grow good for watermelons?
Grow melons faster by starting with young plants from Bonnie Plants®. Plant melons when ground temperatures are above 70 degrees F. Before planting, add nutrients to native soil by mixing in a 3-inch layer of Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose In-Ground Soil.
How do you make a watermelon bigger?
To maximize the size of the melon, water the plants regularly in deep water sessions that keep the soil moist. Side dress the Watermelon plants with fertilizer prepared for edible crops or fertilizer tea to feed the plants. Fertilizer encourages growth to produce large melons.
How do you prevent melon flies?
The melon fruit fly can successfully be managed over a local area by bagging fruits, field sanitation, protein baits, cue-lure traps, growing fruit fly-resistant genotypes, augmentation of biocontrol agents, and soft insecticides.
Can you get fruit flies from watermelon?
Watermelon and muskmelon crops are hosts of different insects which may cause crop loss. Melon Fruit flies [Bactrocera cucurbitae], is one of the most important insects which attck on the fruits of both watermelon and muskmelon crops. Holes on the fruits are observed where the maggot of fruit flies would have entered.
How do you make a Melon Fly Trap?
To adopt this method, we need to drill a small hole in the centre of a bottle cap and thread it with iron wire to make a small hook for hanging the tube. With food bait composed of pumpkin juice, peptone, honey and cooking oil, the trapping system can also lure and kill both female and male melon flies.
What can you spray on plants to keep ants away?
Lemon Juice – dilute lemon juice with water (50/50) and spray liberally. The lemon destroys the scent trail ants depend on for survival. Vinegar – similar to lemon juice, a 50/50 vinegar to water concentration will destroy the ants scent trail as well as often killing ants on contact.
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