First, to prevent freezing, first understand the temperature of cucumber.
1, green-skinned wax gourd can adapt to low temperature.
Wax gourd with green skin is one of the common vegetables, and its growth needs suitable temperature. Green-skinned wax gourd likes warm climate, is heat-resistant and cold-resistant, and the suitable growth temperature is generally 20℃-30℃, while the stems, leaves, flowers and fruits grow better in the range of 20℃-25℃. When the temperature decreases, the growth of stems and leaves, flowering and fruiting will be affected. When the temperature is about 15℃, the growth, flowering and fruiting will be slow, and when it is lower than 10℃, it is easy to suffer from freezing injury. If the temperature is lower than 10℃ for a long time, the freezing damage will be serious. Therefore, to prevent the wax gourd with green skin from freezing, the minimum temperature should be kept at 15℃.
2. Cucumber freezing injury
In the green-skinned frozen wax gourd, the stems and leaves stop growing, and the leaves seem to fade, droop and turn yellow after being scalded. Young leaves are more serious than old leaves, and stems, leaves and vines gradually wither. If it is a young stem, it will wither faster; The flowers at flowering stage are thinner and fall off; The fruit is too small and easy to rot, but the swollen old melon generally has wrinkled skin, local flesh is frozen and rotten, and the taste is poor. The skin turns pale and yellow, and some juice flows out. Finally, the whole melon may rot. Green-skinned wax gourd, not yet fully mature, is still expanding. If it suffers from freezing damage, it cannot be picked and sold. The investment of several months was in vain, and the loss of melon farmers was not small. Freeze in time to keep the melon intact.
Second, use newspapers to prevent winter melon from freezing.
1. Newspapers can absorb water and keep warm against wind.
Speaking of some wonderful uses of newspapers in life, I think my friends have used them a lot. Put it in shoes or on the ground to absorb moisture, put it on the window to keep warm like warm clothes, and so on; These advantages of newspapers can be used to freeze the swollen winter melon.
2. Selection of newspaper paper size
The newspapers we brought to prevent winter melon from freezing are ordinary newspapers we usually read, some new and some old; Newspapers are generally four-cut paper, with a length of 540mm and a width of 390 mm Long-cooked wax gourd is generally about 50cm long, with a round surface and a diameter of about 20cm. The melon that matures gradually during the expansion process is slightly smaller. Just wrap them in newspapers one by one.
3. How to freeze newspapers for cucumbers?
With newspapers, how can we freeze wax gourd? Wax gourd itself is relatively large, long, thick and heavy, and it is difficult to move, so the method is to cover it with newspaper along the head and tail direction of wax gourd/,and then press both sides under the side of wax gourd/so that the head and tail are not exposed.
As we all know, after winter, the weather is obviously cold, the temperature difference between morning and evening is large, the dew is large in the morning and evening, and it is easy to wind, and the wind in the fields is very strong; When the temperature drops, strong winds and high humidity will make it difficult to preserve swollen melon and melon once it is frozen. Wrap wax gourd in newspaper and add wax gourd. It grows underground and contains some rattan leaves, which can reduce the damage caused by cold wind. Besides, newspapers dry easily after absorbing dew. The small space wrapped in newspapers is dry, with little wind blowing, and the temperature inside is slightly higher than that in the open fields, which plays a role in keeping out the cold. Moreover, the used newspaper dries quickly after absorbing water, so you don't have to worry about affecting the land. You can collect it again and make full use of it.
4. Why not choose other ways to keep warm and keep out the cold: ridging, straw mulching and plastic white film mulching?
4- 1, uplift
This is Gua Tian in the late growth period of green-skinned wax gourd. The vines in the field are long and lush, crawling everywhere, and the fields are overgrown with weeds. It is particularly inconvenient to cultivate the soil, and Guateng may accidentally shovel it. And because it's late, you can pick melons in about ten to twenty days, and you don't need to cultivate the soil.
4-2. Cover with straw
Although straw is often used for heating in winter, it is not suitable for covering swollen cucumbers growing on the ground. Because straw is a root, you should cover a big melon and get dozens of straws to cover it directly. It's windy in winter and easy to be blown away by the wind, but it's too time-consuming for you to weave a small mat and cover hundreds of thousands of melons.
4-3. Cover with white plastic film
The position of cucumber crawling on the ground is not so neat, but it can be said that it is scattered at different intervals. How much plastic white film should be covered on such a large area of several acres or even more than ten acres of melon land? Moreover, the space covered with plastic white film has high humidity and poor ventilation, which may cause other diseases of wax gourd, which is uneconomical and unnecessary.
Third, other benefits of wrapping cucumbers in newspapers.
Of course, wrapping cucumbers in newspapers in winter not only has the advantages of freezing, but also has other benefits. Let's continue to understand:
1. Insect repellent
I think all my friends have read this newspaper? Many words were printed in the newspaper. When you open the newspaper, you can smell the ink. It takes a long time for this ink smell to be completely eliminated; Moreover, this ink tastes a bit pungent, and some bugs don't like it; Parents and grandparents of the older generation like to take the finished newspaper and put it at the bottom of the wardrobe, and then store the clothes to prevent insects from biting. The deworming effect of newspapers is also good for the swollen cucumber in the later period, because the cucumber itself has a lot of water and a faint fragrance, which will be attacked by insects. Melons are wrapped in newspapers, and the smell of ink from newspapers makes some pests afraid to destroy them.
2. Reduce diseases
2- 1, the wax gourd is sunburned.
Green-skinned wax gourd is a kind of wax gourd and a short-day plant. Melon is not fully mature, swollen under high glare, and easily sunburned by melon. Sunburn of wax gourd is local, and usually the sunny side is easy to get sick. In the affected area, the epidermis of melon is slightly concave inward, but it is still hard and not rot, while the epidermis turns yellow and white, and the appearance is not very good, which affects the appearance.
Green wax gourd can be planted in some areas in winter. Although the weather is cold, melon may get sunburned when exposed to a high temperature of about 30 degrees. The green-skinned wax gourd, on the other hand, grows gradually in the process of expansion and needs less light in the later stage. Covering with newspaper can reduce excessive mild burns of melon; In rural areas in the south, like Cai Xiao, the temperature is generally between 15-25 degrees after winter, and sometimes there will be a big sun of about 30 degrees, so melon farmers should wrap their melons in newspapers.
2-2, melon anthracnose
Melon anthracnose is also one of the plant diseases that should be paid attention to. Leaves and fruits may be damaged, and the main factor of the disease is high temperature and high humidity climate; In the field of green-skinned wax gourd, rattan leaves are still flourishing, and people don't weed in the later period of growth, so the whole Gua Tian looks prosperous. The temperature difference between morning and evening is large, and heavy dewdrops wet Gua Tian, which may cause melon anthracnose.
Covering melons with newspapers can absorb water. When wrapping melon with newspaper, the uncovered parts of stems and leaves are usually pulled off, which can make the melon better ventilated, and the temperature is slightly lower under the cover of newspapers, stems and leaves, which destroys the occurrence conditions of melon anthracnose and reduces the occurrence of melon anthracnose.
4. What should I pay attention to when wrapping winter melon with newspaper in winter?
1. After all, the melon was wrapped in the newspaper, but it was blocked. If it is not necessary, don't use it too early, otherwise it will affect the lighting; If the local weather is cold, use it, and when it gets warmer, open it in time.
2. Wrap the melon in a newspaper, and leave some holes and ventilation in other places except the melon on the side, so don't stick it completely; If you are worried that the cold wind will blow to the head and tail, you can properly remove the melon leaves next to it.
It is usually dry in winter and seldom rains. Just use newspapers to prevent freezing. But if it rains heavily, the newspaper will be damaged by water, so if it rains, don't use it first to avoid waste; In addition, cucumber is not resistant to waterlogging, and melon water is easy to rot when climbing on the ground. If it rains, deep drains should be dug underground to drain water, and some ditches should be dug underground to speed up the drainage. Sprinkle some plant ash on the ground next to melons to absorb water and reduce stagnant water and rotten melons.
4. consider the cost; Green-skinned wax gourd grows big and weighs at least 5 kilograms. Generally, the cucumber is at least 3000KG per mu, and there are 600 melons per mu. In other words, an acre of land needs about 600 newspapers, while there are about 40 newspapers per kilogram, and the price is generally 3 yuan/copy. However, not all the green melons planted in the field are of good quality. When the time comes, good ones will be selected for wholesale, so those melons that grow better will be given priority. Those melons that are small, crooked, sunburned and poorly sold can be covered by pulling the stems and leaves of the melons next to them, without newspaper bags.
Spray melon vines to keep warm if necessary.
Finally, there may be some questions from friends. Why is antifreeze aimed at melons? Don't care about the stems and leaves of vines? Generally speaking, it doesn't matter, because it is the late growth stage, and the stems and leaves of vines are old and yellow, which is more cold-resistant than the stems and leaves of tender vines. Of course, if the local weather forecast has obvious low temperature, it is best to spray some cold-resistant agents in advance to keep the stems and leaves of melons. After all, as melons swell and mature, they need to absorb some nutrients and water. If melons and vines are frostbitten, it will also affect the expansion of melons and ultimately affect the yield and quality.
Summary: Farming is not easy. Green wax gourd grows late and can be harvested in a few days. But cucumber is not cold-tolerant. When the temperature drops in winter, it is very practical to use newspaper to freeze melons in time to keep them fresh. For example, in the attached picture, rural dishes pass by melons.