Growing Korean Melon Plant: How To Grow Korean Melons Step-by-Step Guide
Korean melon is a sub-temperate and cool crop, which grows incredibly well in the open fields, greenhouses, or your backyard. With our instructions below on growing Korean melons, we are confident that you will be able to plant the seedlings and pick flavorful and delicious melons from the vine directly.
Melons are very juicy and sweet fruits. Melons, which mature on the vines during the dry and hot season, are indeed the sweetest. For growing Korean melons and for them to ripen, hot weather is mandatory.
Korean melon plant is grown majorly in Japan, China, and of course, Korea. Nowadays, people are growing Korean melons in California and Hawaii too. Some studies suggest that these melons originated in East India and later were introduced to China.
Today, you can find melons across the world. As opposed to the other melons, the Korean melons have soft and tiny seeds and thin skin. Their white flesh is flavorful, sweet, and crispy. Both the seeds and the rind are edible, and the taste is quite similar to the honeydew melon or pear. Now, let us learn how to grow Korean melons. We will also help you understand the ideal environment needed for growing Korean melons.
Table of Contents
Everything You Need To Know Before Growing Korean Melons
Before we learn how to grow Korean melons, you need to know that certain environment prerequisites must be in check to ensure that you get the best produce. Let us address them one by one.
Soil
It would help if you shopped for a top-notch variety of seeds only from an authentic dealer for growing Korean melons. The melons need fertile, slightly acidic, and well-drained soil to ensure good air circulation for the melons to grow. Ideally, the soil’s pH levels can be between 6.0 and 6.5. When the ground is fairly warm during the spring season, you have to loosen the soil to approximately 12-inches deep.
After that, you need to prepare a 3-inch compost layer. In it, add a little organic fertilizer. Next, create wide but small, elevated hills in the soil as melons grow on vines. In there, the plants will trail and branch. On every hill, you will have to plant around three to five seeds. Keep space of approximately 2-inches in-between the seeds, and they should all be about an inch deep.
Further, be very careful with the watering of your plants. Before watering again, you need to ensure that the soil is moderately dry. The Korean melon plant is unable to grow in cold, frost, and wet soil.
Keep a close check on your growing melons, and eliminate all the weaker ones. Allow the two visibly taller plants to grow on the hill. Ensure that there is a 2-feet space between two adjacent plants. When you plant the seedlings, the holes must be as wide and deep as the root balls.
If you live in colder conditions, you can grow your Korean melon plant indoors and then transplant them outside when the weather is relatively warmer. If you want to grow your plants outdoors, you should lay a plastic mulch over the ground to ensure that the ground below is warm.
Temperature
Korean melon plant grows well at 60 and 84°F temperature. During the daytime, the ideal temperature range is 75 to 84°F, and during the night hours, it is 60 to 75°F.
Sun
Korean melon plant needs sun all-around the day. For proper growth, they need approximately 50-55 warm days.
Watering
For settling the soil, you need to give your plant approximately 2-inches of water. After settling, the Korean melon plant will require around 1-2 inches of water per week.
Mulching
You need to evenly spread approximately 2-inches of organic mulch in a 2-foot circle around your Korean melon plant. It is necessary to enable the soil to retain moisture.
Fertilizer
You have to add a tablespoon of 33-0-0 fertilizer to the soil a week after your Korean melon plant blooms. Make sure it is around 3-inches far from the plant’s base.
Pest control
Some of the pests that tend to attack the plant include cucumber beetles, squash bugs, and aphids. The plant is also vulnerable to bacterial wilt. Powdery mildew hampers the quality and taste of your fruit. Thus, we would recommend you to go for the pest-resistant varieties.
Harvesting
The ripe oval-shaped melon has bright-yellow skin and weighs approximately 300 – 500 grams when it is ready for harvesting.
Step-by-Step Process For Growing Melons
Step 1
Take two seeds in every 9 cm seed compost pot. Water it nicely, and then keep the pot in a propagator at 18°C temperature. Make sure your propagator is kept in a well-lit position.
Step 2
Following germination, you need to remove the seed, which appears weaker. Make sure your compost is moist and not very wet. After some leaves emerge, you have to reduce the propagator temperature to around 15°C.
Step 3
Plant the melons in late spring to early summer. For a thorough development, you have to pinch the main growing point to two or three buds to encourage the development of side shoots.
Step 4
When the plants establish, go ahead and tie the long main stem for adequate support. Ensure that the compost remains moist throughout. So, you will have to keep a check on your plant every day. To facilitate requisite growth, you need to add a liquid feed every once a week. To ensure that the plants do not become very crowded, pinch the side shoots after three or four leaves every week.
Step 5
Melons yield both female and male flowers. In the female counterpart, there is a fruit developing behind the bloom. On the other hand, in the male flower, there is a thin stalk. Usually, the insects will pollinate the flowers. However, in your backyard, you will have to hand-pollinate.
Step 6
For planting, you need to pick a sunny and warm day when the flowers are thoroughly open. Opt for a healthy male flower, and get rid of its petals to see the inside of the bloom wherein they yield pollen. Transport the male flower into the female one.
Step 7
Next, you will have to thin out all the developing fruits to ensure that not over four melons grow in a pot. When the fruits grow, you need to water them thoroughly and feed them with a high potash liquid feed. Anytime you can sniff a sweet aroma, you know that your fruits have ripened. So, when the stalk’s opposite end softens, skin changes the color, and tiny cracks appear around the stalk on the fruit, you know it is time to pick.
With that, we hope you have a fair idea of how to grow Korean melons.
Caution And Growing Tips
- If your Korean melon plant is blooming but not setting fruit, do not worry. Usually, the earliest flowers are male, which are pollen-bearing, and do not develop into fruits. Only your female flowers will yield melons. If pollination does not happen, both the fruit and the flower will fall from the stem.
- Make sure you grow the plant in the ideal weather and temperature conditions. If you fail to do so, the fruit will lack flavor.
- Insufficiency of adequate elements, for instance, fertilizer, well-drained and fertile soil, and water, tends to weaken the plant. If you are growing a week plant, it is more prone to a pest attack.
- As the Cucurbitaceae crossbreeds easily, you should ensure that there is adequate space between two different cultivars or kinds of melons.
- Even though the seeds and the melon’s skin are edible, you should remove some seeds and put them on paper. These will help you when you have to plant a new Korean melon plant.
Benefits Of Korean Melon Plant
Now, let us take a look at some of the pros of the Korean melon plant.
Good for your heart
Korean melons are a good source of potassium and have a low sodium content. Thus, they can be an excellent addition to your diet if you wish to keep a tab on your blood pressure and prevent hypertension.
Anti-cancer properties
Korean melons are an excellent source of Vitamin C and Vitamin A, which are known to keep cancer at bay.
Gives you a healthy and radiant skin
Korean melons have high potassium, Vitamin C, and water content, which helps you combat your summer skin woes. It will hydrate your skin and leave you looking glowing and radiant.
Good for bone health
Korean melons are an excellent source of Vitamin K and calcium, both of which are responsible for incredible bone health. If you wish to add more of these nutrients to your diet naturally, you can add Korean melons in your diet in addition to oranges and figs.
Rich source of fiber
These melons are a good source of fiber. So, they can help you have regular bowel movements. In this fruit, you can find soluble and insoluble fiber, which prevents constipation, stimulates digestion, and enables you to get rid of the toxins from your body.
Korean Melon Plant: Frequently Asked Questions
Ques 1. Is the Korean melon crunchy?
Ans. Yes, the Korean melon’s flesh is very crunchy and is quite similar to that of a cucumber or a watermelon.
Ques 2. How can you know that the Korean melon is ripe?
Ans. When the Korean melon is ripe, it has a color of the rind that is more creamy yellow than green. More so, the rind becomes more waxy and smooth rather than dusky. Further, thump on it, but be gentle as the Korean melon tends to bruise easily. You can hear a hollow sound. However, the nose test is the best. Regardless of the variety, a ripe melon will have an unusual smell or a very distinctive fragrance, absent in an unripe melon.
Ques 3. Can melons stimulate weight loss?
Ans. Melons are a low-calorie fruit as their water content is pretty high. Thus, they are very weight loss friendly. A cup comprising 150 to 160 grams of melons has about 41 to 61 calories.
Ques 4. What does a Korean melon taste like?
Ans. When the Korean melon is ripe, its flesh will have a subtle and sweet juicy flavor, which is quite similar to that of honeydew melon and pear. It has a precisely clean and delicate aroma.
Ques 5. Can the seeds of the Korean melon plant be eaten?
Ans. The seeds of the Korean melon plant are edible and have a very distinctive melon flavor. Its flesh is firm and juicy, which is unique compared to the cantaloupes.
Ques 6. Are Korean melons readily available?
Ans. The only problem is that unlike Asian pears, the Korean melons are not very easily accessible, especially outside South Korea and Japan. More so, these do not export well as they are to be eaten within a week of harvesting.
Bottom Line
We hope that with this, you have adequate knowledge of how to grow Korean melons. Please bear in mind that growing Korean melons are effortless for people who reside in the sub-temperate and cool regions.
The fruit is from the Cucurbitaceae family, and you can find a myriad of cultivars, species, and hybrids of this fruit. The two of the most famous varieties of this annual herbaceous plant include the Gotgam and Sunghwan, as they have a more significant disease resistance than the other variants.
People enjoy growing Korean melons for the reason that the fruit it yields is flavorful and nutritious. So, use our how to grow Korean melons guide above, and you can grow the melons in your backyard.
