“Watermelon Growing Tips”
Comment Page 4

@Evelyn, Drip irrigation helps reduce watering cost and makes irrigation simple so that if you are doing telephone farming are assured the plants will be watered well in your absence cause the process is so easy the farm hand has no reason to avoid.

@Millan, I do not understand the rains, certainly not for Kilifi. You should try determine the rain pattern from local residents, try asking ten different people and you can have an idea, if you are planting towards the end of rains please mulch heavily. If possible cover the entire Soil surface (lots of mulching material required) so that you conserve enough moisture for subsequent later stages even as rains become more erratic before finally disappearing.

A complete and good mulch cover where the soil is not visible is very helpful apart from conserving moisture and suppression of weeds it is slowly chewed up by termites and other detritivores in the soil. Contrary to common perception termites are good for the farm. They normally do not attack living plants unless there is no dead plant on the soil, so put lots of much to cover our soils to enrich the soil, the termites chew and cut the dead crop residues and carry it deep in to the top Soil to grow fungus, the fungus is what they feed on. In doing this they improve the soil structure and add nutrients to the soil by ferrying things deep into.... So please no need to kill them wasting money on chemicals just supply lots of mulching and they will have plenty of dead debris to grow their fungus food (good fungus) and no reason to attack your living crops. The presence of plenty of good fungus in Soil associated with termites will hinder or compete and suppress the development of the other bad fungus like fusarium, phytophthora etc.... So it is to our own good to encourage Soil flora and fauna and complete mulching really goes a long way in achieving this. (Google on 'Farming God's Way' for more on this)

Watermelon farming success is pegged on:1. having a low running cost at your farm, 2. being there on the farm frequently, like another watermelon expert, Josphat Odhiambo, likes to say: THE BEST FERTILIZER THAT YOU CAN PUT ON YOUR FARM IS YOUR OWN TWO FEET ON THE GROUND.

3. getting the timing right, away from the rains season when few people planting you have a good chance. This is something you master as you continue the more you get lucky on timing

4. Having several market options. Like I always say feel free to call me I give you several numbers for brokers so that you can take the best offers. And if you are far from markets do over ten tons to attract a buyer. If you are totally in town you can easily sell even a ton since transportation is low. Good luck and God help you farmers.

@Samuel Gaithoh (S-Farms), Thank you Sam. Was your diligence and continued planting of melons and search for more knowledge on the same will increasingly get rewarded. Was amazed at how you were getting 17 tons of melons in one acre when using manual irrigation. Good luck as you expand no need to be conservative, with two acres you should target 50 tons total. In Ukunda you did not have a beehive, you might have reached 30 tons. May God continue blessing your diligence. There is a Garissa Farmer who wants to hire you to help her manage a watermelon crop season.

@kamene, it's easier to perfect melons on a small piece of land. And Kitengela is near market. You can work Hard and get three tons on that small place, small canter load. That's a good return considering you may only have about 300-600plants. The soil is black so do deep planting holes and add lots of manure per planting hole.You can even add loam/ redsoil in the planting holes mixed with manure to reduce the manure required. Time will to avoid cool months and God help you

@steve, send me farm details and location to my email address for customized quote,  Wanyoz@gmail.com 

@muli, Farming including commercial Melon farming is a risky undertaking, also expensive, with no guarantees for success, arm yourself with good information, get farm with low running costs so that even if crop fails you dust yourself and replant. Make work as easy as possible for yourself and your workers, Drip irrigation system if your budget allows with simple Fertilization unit for application of soluble fertilizers with irrigation water, if using hosepipe to irrigate make tall tank stand to build high pressure so that the slow manual irrigation process is faster. Good luck

@Mochama, Sweetrose F1 is good,  big fruits and looks like sukari F1 watermelon so very much liked by brokers who are biased toward zebra Watermelons.  If you need links to brokers always call me please.  I give you a list of options and you can talk to them and pick the best price offer.  Good luck and God bless you. 

@Dorcas, HI,  what's the progress did you plant,  what is the progress.  Want to see how your Watermelons fair with the rains,  where is shamba located?? 

@Dorcas, Lucky you Dorcas,  the hard work really pays,  God is faithful,  Kitui is a good place for Watermelons, prices currently at 40ksh per kg farmgate.  Real melons shortage especially around Nairobi Kenya where demand is very high.  Let us know the final yield at your first attempt.  Next You may also want to consider my new Drip irrigation system for Watermelons with a simple Fertigation unit(soluble fertilizers applied via drips) ,  24.5tons per acre was obtained by the Ukunda farmer who we piloted the new modification,  but you will need to do a Soil test from Cropnuts Kangemi for proper Fertigation support . Send me an email if you need a quotation.  You must have really worked hard irrigating manually.  Good job  God bless. 

@Millan, have you planted as planned,keep us updated please?

@peter, I believe we spoke, thanks for calling, sometimes I take ages before responding here but direct call and emails quickly attended to. Your planting timing Peter somehow crossed / including the rain farmers planting time so at some of the harvest you may experience very low prices which will improve as melons from rain farmers from both Kenya and Uganda reduce in the market.

On irrigation, just maintain moisture content from flowering all the way to first harvest..... If you let the plants dry out Completely then come in with sudden and plenty of Irrigation that's when they tend to burst. Be spraying calcium foliar weekly from flowering to harvest to avoid fruit shape distortion and blossom end rot, you'll notice that the poorly shaped fruits, not properly rounded are the ones that are quick to burst.

If you still need to spray insecticide during flowering please do it in the evenings after Bees have left. For Melon fly also include 5 or more traps per acre plus evening spraying

God bless you Sir

@albert shariff,  Thank you for the call too,  hybrid tomatoes popular in the coast are Kilele F1 and Eden F1,  kilele from Syngenta you get plenty of Agronomic support from Agents in Coast,  Eden F1 has high calcium requirements so be generous on the calcium,  do Soil Analysis,  include two or three table spoons of Gypsum per planting hole  to supply some calcium and sulphur which both tend to be lacking in coastal soils,  drips will be very useful also since coastal soils dry out quickly.  Good luck Sir. 

@albert shariff, you can refer my comment #465.

@Ukulo, Brokers always tend to destabilize you in negotiations by complaining about a myriad of issues including variety to gain a higher margin by lowering your price, if you plant Kito F1, they tell you market just likes sukari f1, kito has too many seeds, If you plant Sukari F1, they tell you AsaliF1 is most preferred... Complaints never end, just make sure you do the zebra stripped fruits and get large fruits minimum 3kgs and you are in business. God bless