In ancient times, it was called muskmelon, sweet melon, and reticulated melon, and it was called "Kuhong" in Uyghur. In my country, only Xinjiang and Dunhuang, Gansu Province produce cantaloupe. In 1959, archaeologists unearthed half a shrunken cantaloupe in the Jin Dynasty of the Astana Ancient Ji Group in Turpan, and two pieces of cantaloupe rind were unearthed in another Tang tomb. This shows that cantaloupes were cultivated in Xinjiang more than 1,000 years ago. From ancient books, we can see many descriptions and praises about Xinjiang cantaloupe. "Changchun Zhenren's Journey to the West" in the early Yuan Dynasty said: "Sweet melons are as thick as a pillow, and their fragrance is unprecedented in China." During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Ji Xiaolan said in "Notes of Yuewei Thatched Cottage": "Among the fruits of the Western Regions, there is no such thing as rose peach. "In Turpan, melons are not in abundance in Hami." "Melons are used as tribute, and they are really from Hami." Xiao Xiong of the Qing Dynasty wrote a poem about Xinjiang melons: "It is more sweet and fragrant, and the jade is soft, and it is used as a tribute to the heavenly family." The poem explains that cantaloupe has long been famous and was listed as a treasure offered to the emperor. Zhang Yinzhi in the early Qing Dynasty vividly described the scene in the Hexi Corridor in which he witnessed a cantaloupe being delivered to the emperor in his book "The Chronicles of the Western Expedition": "On the road, there are post horses and cantaloupes, and there are hundreds and thousands of cantaloupes in groups. The people held small bags and wore yellow clothes, each carrying a melon, and glanced at each other as fast as a flying bird. "This kind of style is comparable to the grand occasion of flying lychees from the south to Emperor Xuanzong and Concubine Yang from the south in the Tang Dynasty. .
The origin of the name Hami melon is also rumored to be related to tribute. As early as the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the annual tribute paid by King Shanshan to King Hami has always been Shanshan East Lake melon. Because the melon produced in East Lake is sweet and pure, with a very unique flavor, everyone praises it. Over time, people called it Shanshan East Lake. Melon is the king of melons. King Shanshan gave this tribute to King Hami. When King Hami saw how special the melon was, he sent an envoy to deliver the melon to the court of Emperor Kangxi. When Emperor Kangxi tasted this kind of melon, he asked what the melon was called. The servant only knew that it was presented to the king of Hami County, so he replied that it was Hami melon. From then on, the name of cantaloupe spread like wildfire. This legend may not be true, but the name of Hami melon began during the Kangxi period, which is well documented. "Xinjiang Huibu Zhi" of the Qing Dynasty says: "Since the surrender of Hami in the early Kangxi period, this melon began to pay tribute, and it is called Hami melon." There is also a saying that Xinjiang melons are mostly shipped from Hami to the mainland, so people are used to calling it Hami melon. .
Hami melons can be grown in most oases in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Xinjiang produces about 500,000 tons of fresh melons every year. The famous production areas of cantaloupe are Turpan Basin, Jiashi, Maigaiti, Pishan, Yutian in southern Xinjiang and Xiayedi, Jinghe and Wujiaqu in northern Xinjiang, which are close to the desert. Among them, the crispy red heart melon produced in Turpan is the most outstanding. This kind of melon has now become a high-end commodity for export (the price is two to four times higher than that of ordinary fruits) and travels across the ocean. The melon is oblong in shape and weighs 2-3 kilograms. The skin is gray-green and the stem is covered with coarse mesh. The flesh is as bright as crystal jade, sweet and plump, fragrant and mellow, crisp and refreshing. When you bite your upper teeth, it feels like a layer of sticky honey is smeared on your lips. Since this type of melon is best produced in the East Lake area of ??Shanshan County, there is a saying that “Xinjiang melons are the best in the world, and East Lake melons are the best in Xinjiang.”
Hami melon is divided into two types: reticulated and smooth. According to the maturity stage, it is divided into early-maturing melon egg, summer melon (medium-maturing), winter melon (late-maturing) and other varieties. Different varieties of melons have different shapes, colors, and skin textures. Common fine varieties include Red Heart Crisp, Black Eyebrow Honey Gan (the melon skin has dark stripes like eyebrows, so it is called Black Eyebrow; "Mijigan" means flower skirt in Uyghur), Fortress Red, Iron Bark, and Green Ma Bark. , reticulated fragrant pear, Hami Jagheda, small green skin, white crispy pear and fragrant pear yellow, etc. In the current practice of plastic greenhouse cultivation, early-maturing melons are put on the market in May every year, and then all kinds of melons mature one after another; the later-maturing black eyebrow honey is almost in late autumn when it goes on the market. This kind of late-maturing winter melon is of high quality and can withstand storage and transportation. After being exposed to the sun in autumn, it is bagged with a rope and hung in a warm kiln for the winter. When eaten in the spring, it will still be as delicious as new. It is common for ordinary people in Xinjiang to dry watermelons on their roofs, pile melons under their beds, cut them open to entertain guests, and spend the night enjoying melons around the stove in the cold winter months. Cantaloupe is not only delicious but also nutritious.
According to analysis, the dry matter of cantaloupe contains 4.6-15.8 sugars, 2.6-6.7 cellulose, malic acid, pectin substances, vitamins A, B, C, niacin and calcium. , phosphorus, iron and other elements. The iron content is two to three times more than that of chicken and 17 times higher than that of milk. Xinjiang people love to eat cantaloupe. They believe that eating more melons can cure diseases and prolong life. This statement is not unreasonable. In addition to being eaten fresh, cantaloupe can also be made into dried melon, preserved melon, and melon juice. The melon seeds can be used as medicine to treat diseases, and the melon rinds can promote fattening when fed to sheep. Hami melon is really a great treasure of Xinjiang!
Hami melon cultivation
1. Land selection. Cantaloupe, like watermelon and other melon varieties, avoid continuous cropping, so the selection of planting plots is very important. The ideal planting plot is sandy loam soil rich in organic matter that has not been planted with melons (except pumpkins). When the previous crop is melon stubble or continuous cropping, soil disinfection must be strictly controlled. Practice has proved that using canned methyl bromide for soil fumigation is one of the more effective measures to overcome the effect of continuous cropping.
2. Sow at the right time. The purpose of sowing at the right time is to ensure the most favorable climate conditions during the ripening period of cantaloupe fruits. The fruit maturity period of cantaloupe should be arranged from May to early June for spring cropping, and the ripening period for autumn cropping should be arranged in October. During these two periods, the temperature is higher and the rain is less. There is a large temperature difference between day and night in the protected area, which can Ensure the formation of good quality fruits. Although cantaloupe fruits can develop and mature in the hot months of July and August, excessively high temperatures and small temperature differences between day and night will accelerate respiration and are not conducive to the accumulation of photosynthetic products, resulting in poor quality fruits. Therefore, the spring sowing period of several existing varieties of cantaloupe should be arranged in mid-to-late January, and the autumn planting period should be arranged in late July to early August.
3． Prune branches to retain fruits. Proper pruning and fruit-retaining techniques are a prerequisite for ensuring early fruit setting, early maturity and good quality of cantaloupe. In the cultivation of cantaloupe, whether single-vine pruning or double-vine pruning is used, only one fruit is left on each vine, and the fruit is set around 12-15 nodes. If the fruit-setting node is too low, the fruit will be flat and short, with small fruits and low yield; if the fruit-setting node is too high, the fruit will be longer, the maturity period will be delayed, the fruit will not mature fully, and there will be less sugar accumulation. The use of artificial pollination can promote effective fruit setting, but the use of fruit setting spirit will increase the proportion of deformed fruits and reduce the quality.
4. Fertilizer operations. Scientific and reasonable fertilizer management is also one of the technical keys to the successful cultivation of cantaloupe in Shanghai. According to the absorption rules of mineral elements for the growth and development of Hami melon, the absorption ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for the growth and development of Hami melon is 1:0.5:1.8. The application amount of the three elements per plant in production is: 12 grams of nitrogen, Phosphorus 16-18 grams, potassium about 16 grams. We increase the proportion of phosphorus and potassium in the fertilizer during the cultivation process, so the cantaloupe produced is large, sweet, high-quality, crunchy and refreshing.
5. Moisture management. Due to the high groundwater level in Shanghai, the supply of water under soil cultivation will not become a limiting factor in the growth and development of cantaloupe. However, attention must be paid to the matching ditch system around the cultivation field, otherwise the groundwater in the later growth period of cantaloupe (especially the fruit maturity period) will If the position is too high, it will easily cause the cantaloupe to crack. Under substrate cultivation conditions, attention should be paid to increasing the supply of water during the fruit expansion stage to meet the water demand of cantaloupe at this stage. During the fruit maturity stage, attention should be paid to controlling the water supply and increasing the concentration of fertilizer solution to prevent fruit cracking.
6. Pest control. Disease and insect pest control, especially disease control, is the most critical link related to the success of cantaloupe protected land cultivation in Shanghai. Among the existing cantaloupe varieties, "98-18" has better resistance, "Xuelihong" and "Golden Phoenix" have weak resistance to vine blight, and "Xianguo" has moderate resistance to powdery mildew. Failure to strengthen management may lead to the occurrence and spread of diseases. The experience in preventing and controlling vine blight during the cultivation process is summarized as follows:
① Maintain a low-humidity environment in the greenhouse.
In addition to strengthening the internal ventilation of the greenhouse, in the case of soil cultivation, the field should be fully covered with mulch film to reduce the evaporation of ground water; under the conditions of substrate cultivation, pay attention to timely cleaning of the water seeping out of the substrate tank to keep the shed wind dry;
② Keep the area around the base of the stem of the cultivated plant dry, and keep the dropper away from the root neck during substrate cultivation;
③ Strictly prune the branches, and apply medicine to man-made wounds in a timely manner to prevent the invasion of germs;
④ Strengthen management and be diligent in inspections. Once vine blight is discovered, use an effective agent (mix equal parts of 64 virus-killing alum wettable powder and 70 thiophanate-methyl wettable powder with an appropriate amount of water, and add some agricultural streptomycin.) and apply it around the diseased area. Apply once every 3 days or so, 2 to 3 times. In addition, apply pesticide to the base of all cultivated plants in the shed, and the effective rate of preventing the occurrence of vine blight can reach more than 90%.
The main means to prevent and control diseases such as powdery mildew and downy mildew are to strengthen ventilation inside the greenhouse, reduce environmental humidity, and at the same time strengthen inspections to control diseases in their budding stage.
Pest control adopts the principle of "prevention first, comprehensive prevention and control". Protective areas are isolated with gauze to reduce the chance of pests entering. Measures such as yellow sticky boards can be used to deal with "insects that slip through the net". Trapping, properly combined with a small amount of chemical control can achieve better control effects.
7． Harvest at the right time. Harvesting at the right time is the guarantee to ensure that the fruit is fully mature and the excellent quality is fully expressed. Since magnesium is needed during fruit development and ripening, magnesium from the leaves at the fruit setting node is transferred to the fruit, causing the mesophyll tissue to lose green due to magnesium deficiency. Therefore, when the tendrils at the fruit setting node dry up, the leaf mesophyll becomes chlorotic, and the edges of the leaves become scorched, it indicates that the fruit is about to enter the mature harvest period. If harvested too early, the fruit will not be mature enough, with low sweetness and aroma; if harvested too late, the pulp tissue will be disintegrated, lose its brittleness, and have a poor flavor. When harvesting, the melon stems should be cut into a "T" shape to prevent pathogens from invading the fruit stem wounds and causing fruit rot.