Nutritional recommendations for watermelon cultivation

The cultivation of the Watermelon, like other crops, needs all the nutritional elements that are essential for its development. Although the amount needed by the plant is different from one another, but all are fundamental for proper development of the crop.

Lack or excess of nutrients will cause problems with the crop. in order to know the amount of nutrients that we must apply to our crop, we must take into account different parameters:

1. Soil test - regular soil testing is an important element in nutrient management. A soil test should be done one year before planting. Soil analysis is performed to assess the need for soil amendment.
2. The interrelation between the nutrients of the substract. Sometimes a high concentration of one nutrient can antagonize another. therefore, decreases the availability of this element.
3. The efficiency of the type of fertilizer used.
4. The nutritional needs of the crop separated by each phase of development, which will depend on the final production expected.

Using inadequate, inferior or excessive amounts of some nutrient, takes us away from achieving the objective of the subscriber, which is to adapt the incorporation of nutrients to the needs of the crops, maximizing the use of these.
 

Then we will present different nutrition programs for outdoor cultivation (Table 1 and 2) with the following considerations:    

1. Expected production = 70 - 80 t/ha.
2. Type of soil => Franco (without soil analysis).

      3. Contribution of 10 t / ha of manure in pre-sowing.

      4. Data of crop needs in order to be extracted from the SIAR (Service of advice to the regante of Castilla-La Mancha.

      5. NPK macronutrients studied (Calcium and Magnesium are assumed to be sufficient in the soil or to be provided by irrigation water, in conditions of not being sufficient we would have to provide Haifa Mag ™ and Haifa Cal ™ GG).

Table 1.  Nutrigation ™ program using Haifa binary fertilizers. Crop needs data taken from the SIAR (Castilla la Mancha Irrigation Advisory Service).

Table 2. Nutrigation ™ program using Poly-Feed ™ (Haifa soluble NPK + Me fertilizer). Crop needs data taken from the SIAR (Castilla la Mancha Irrigation Advisory Service).

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