Description and features of the watermelon variety Silver Handsome

What are the features

For the northern regions of our country, a special variety is suitable - Silver Beauty. It is this variety, due to early ripening, resistance to cold temperatures and poor lighting, thanks to seedling cultivation, it gives an excellent harvest.

It takes only 80 days from the emergence of this watermelon variety to the full ripening of the fruit. Since you grow seedlings in pots for a month, and then move the bushes under a film or in greenhouses, it is quite possible to harvest a rich harvest in just a month and a half. Although the plant is early, it grows very quickly, its branches are quite long and curl very strongly. To achieve large fruits of the Silver Beauty, you need to pinch, leave up to 4-5 fruits.

Then each watermelon will weigh about 3.5 - 4 kg. Watermelon is very juicy, aromatic and sugary. The outer rind of the watermelon is silvery green, while the inside is bright red. Contains a small amount of seeds. In addition, the package with seeds for sale contains only 6 seeds. The main feature of this watermelon variety is its resistance to low temperatures, and poor lighting is not a hindrance to it.

Growing and care

To get a guaranteed yield in the northern regions, you need to use exclusively the seedling method of growing. If you are growing the Silver Beauty variety, it is preferable to use 2-3 year old seeds. There is no special preparation before sowing seeds, soak them for half an hour in hot (+ 50 ° C) water. For germination, place them in wet sand or damp soft paper at a temperature of + 22-25 ° C.

After another 2-3 days after the root is spiked, the seeds are laid out in pots. Warmth is most important. This means that the containers are covered with foil and placed in a warm place. Within a week, you will notice the first manifestations of future watermelon bushes. Additional lighting is recommended for many varieties of watermelon. The Serebryany Krasavets variety grows well even in low light conditions. Make sure that the seedlings do not stretch out. The temperature must be kept the same, but at night, gradually switch to a mode up to +20 ° C.

Your crops are still very small, but they require special nutrition, and at the stage of two or three true leaves, they need feeding with infusion of mullein and ash. Any mineral soluble fertilizer can be used. When the time comes for planting seedlings in a greenhouse, the earth should be warmed up to 12-14 ° C, and the bushes themselves should be 3-4 full-fledged leaves. This type of plant reaches the age of about 35 days.

Video "Watermelons under drip irrigation"

Favorable growing regions

The northern regions where it is possible to grow the Silver Beauty watermelon include:

• Republic of Karelia, Komi, Sakha;
• Arkhangelsk, Magadan, Murmansk, Sakhalin regions;
• Kamchatka Krai;
• Nenets, Khanty-Mansi, Chukotka, Yamalo-Nenets administrative districts.

In these regions, only by mid-June, the threat of frost and return cold will pass. The bed must be raised, mainly so that the water does not stagnate after rain and the soil warms up more strongly.

Often gardeners praise the opportunity to pin a watermelon, like cucumbers, on a trellis, thanks to which the planting is well ventilated and illuminated. Since the Silver Beauty watermelon cannot stand the close position of groundwater and acidic soil, choose an open place for planting it, protected from the north and north-east winds. For intensive growth, it will be enough for young watermelon bushes to organize abundant watering once a week, loosen the soil 3 or 4 times per season and remove weeds.

Landing dates

The most favorable for the growth of a watermelon is a 12 hour light regime. Therefore, planting of seedlings should be carried out in the second half of April - early May.

It is better to prepare the soil from peat and sod land in equal proportions. About a bucket of this mixture, add ammonium nitrate and potassium sulfate (55 g each), double superphosphate (100 g) and dolomite flour (50-60 g). Watermelons, like zucchini, pumpkins and cucumbers, terribly tolerate transplanting, picking and all procedures that injure the roots. Therefore, seedling pots should be at least 10 cm in height and diameter, filled with 300 ml of nutrient mixture.

If you plan to sow seeds directly into the ground, do this not earlier than May, but you should focus on early ripening varieties. A watermelon of the Silver Krasavets variety in the southern regions will grow well without greenhouses. Do not be afraid to experiment on your plot of land: some of the watermelons can be planted in open ground, and the other part in a greenhouse. Everything is real, you just need to want. We wish you a “successful” season and a rich harvest.

Video "Cultivation of different varieties"

To understand how to properly grow a particular variety of watermelons, we recommend watching the following video. A lot of useful and relevant information for you.