1.deep plough with a tractor
2. Make planting stations of depth 20cm.
3. Put heaped shovel of well rotten manure of either cattle, poultry, pig or goat.
4. Put (60g) of Compound C on each planting station and mix with the manure and soil within the planting station
5. Put the soil to almost level of the planting hole.
6. Irrigate to field capacity on each planting hole. The following day plant 3 plants on each planting station
7. Do a light irrigation regularly until there’s good germination. Check cutworm effect on young seedlings and if any, spray any one of the following insecticides:

  • Decis forte,
  • chloroprifos,
  • lambda.

For me, l prefer decis forte since it is persistent in the soil compared to other insecticides.

After 7days of seedlings emergence, remove one seedling per planting station leaving two seedlings per planting station.

8. 2weeks after germination, top dress with AN (34.5%N) cup 5 per plant not pagomba pagomba plus winstart (160g per 16 litre of clean water) or omni boost (300g per 16litre of clean water) for root development

9. At 4 weeks.Top dress with Pottasium nitrate at cup 2 per plant plus start to apply Triple Action (TAF) at 300 mls per knapsack of 16 litres of clean knapsack.

TAF promotes vegetative growth at this stage.

At 5, 6, 7 weeks keep on applying TAF to apply to promote crop flowering
At week 6, apply cup 2 (2g), potassium nitrate.
At Week 8, apply calcium nitrate or TAF. During this crop stage- crop flowering, irrigate daily becaus crop water requirement increases.

10. Watermelon is very prone to attack by fruitflies hence there is need to spray the following insecticides:
1) thunder
2) Acetacure
3) Malathion 50EC
4) Nemesis
5) Cartap hydrochloride

NB: Rotate at three of the above insecticides at day 3-4 interval.

11. From a 2-leaf stage of the crop, spray Preventative fungicides in rotation:

1) copper oxychloride
2) bravo
3) mancozeb

This should be done on weekly basis on crop under drip irrigation. If the crop is under overhead irrigation, spray should be done on every 4-5 day interval

12. For curative fungicides, use at least one of the following:
1) chemlaxyl / ridomil gold
2) -tebuconazole / folicur
3) otiva
4) Bion

This should be done for every fortnight on crop under irrigation. If the crop is under overhead irrigation, apply for every week.

13. Spacing is 150 cm between the rows and 75cm from plant to plant After practising these activities. You will be amazed with the results. Very big watermelons.

The agronomic practises and crop protection is similar for other cucurbits such as pumpkin kayla, Butternut Waltham Plus and cucumber.

At cucumber, spacing is 40cm x 100cm but placing one seed per planting station.