Dinoei/Snowball/Suggar Baby

Season Overview

Description

This extraordinary sugar melon captivates not only with its striking appearance, reminiscent of a prehistoric egg, but above all with its extremely high sugar content and delicate aroma. Growth characteristics & morphology Growth type: Strongly climbing, annual plant. Under ideal conditions, the shoots can reach lengths of 2 to 3 meters. Vigour: Very vigorous and fast-growing; forms large, heart-shaped leaves that protect the fruit well from sunburn. Flower: Predominantly monoecious (separate male and female flowers on one plant); pollination is carried out by insects. Fruit: Round to slightly oval, weight approx. 1.0–1.5 kg. The skin is smooth, ivory white when ripe with irregular green spots. Location & cultivation requirements Light & heat: Very high heat requirement. A sunny, wind-protected location is essential. Ideal for cultivation in greenhouses or in very warm wine-growing areas outdoors (with mulch film). Soil: Deep, humus-rich and nutrient-rich soil. Waterlogging must be avoided at all costs. Water requirements: Consistently high, especially during fruit formation. Avoid waterlogging to prevent root diseases. Cultivation description Pre-cultivation: From April in pots at a constant 22-25°C. Planting out: From the end of May (after the last frost), when the soil is sufficiently warm. Planting distance: approx. 80 × 100 cm. Harvest time: Depending on the weather, from August to September. You can tell when they are ripe by their intense fragrance and when the skin at the end of the stem yields to light pressure. A little gardening tip: to encourage fruit set, you can pinch out the main shoots after the 4th or 6th leaf. This stimulates the formation of side shoots on which the female flowers grow.

Growing tips

Your sugar melons should be grown in a warm environment (windowsill, greenhouse, conservatory). Once the first leaves have formed, you can separate the seedlings. It is then best to continue growing them in a warm environment until the soil is warm enough outdoors (end of May - beginning of June). The small melon plants can be carefully planted out in planting holes filled with compost (heavy feeders!). It is essential to protect the young plants from strong sunlight at the beginning. Water your melons regularly without allowing them to become waterlogged. It is best not to use cold water from the tap (especially in colder temperatures), but always use stagnant water from the rain barrel. When watering, make sure that you never water the melon plants from above onto the leaves, otherwise there is a risk of mold. During the main growing season, you can prune the tips regularly so that plenty of branches with lots of flowers develop. Over the course of the year, many large leaves will also form on these branches, most of which you should cut off so that the melon plants can put their energy into fruit development. After pruning in summer, only a handful of leaves should remain on each branch above the fruit. Thin side shoots can be cut off completely except for a few centimetres at the base.

Details

Light requirement

Sunny

Water requirement

Wet

Soil

Medium (loamy)

Nutrient requirement

High

Germination temperature

24 – 28 °C (Degrees Celsius)

Plant distance

80 cm

Row spacing

80 cm

Seeding depth

2 cm