Barka F1 (Watermelon)

A. Land Preparation

1. Clearing the land of grass/weeds and remaining plant roots, so that plant growth is not disturbed by pests and disease hosts.
2. Plowing the land and rotating if with a tractor as deep as 30-40 cm to loosen the soil and improve soil drainage and aeration.
3. Giving dolomite lime when tilling the soil if the soil pH < 6.
4. Making beds with a width of 60 cm and a height of 20 cm according to the season, the width of the ditch 50-60 cm and the length of the beds according to the conditions of the land. Next, make an overlay for the watermelon with a size of 150-200 cm.
5. Apply manure on the bed and stir evenly until loose, needs 5 tons/Ha.
6. Apply basic fertilizer NPK 50 gr, SP36 25 gr Per m².
7. Covering the surface of the beds with soil from the ditch until it is evenly distributed.

B. Nursery

 

1. Seedling Media

 Fine Top Soil
 Fine manure
 Baked husk/sand of times
 Comparison of media 2 : 1 : 1

2. Seedling Tools & Materials

 Pre sowing plastic tray
 Used newsprint
 Ice plastic for garnishing
 Pesticide Benlate 0.5 gr/liter
 Carbofuran Insecticide 50 gr.
 The seedling medium is mixed evenly with insecticide.
 Seed Watermelon, usually done pre-sowing
 Soak Watermelon Seeds in warm water for 1 hour, then drain on a plastic tray, cover with 2 sheets of wet newspaper, space the seeds so they don't overlap and then cover with 2 sheets of newspaper wet again and cover the plastic tray for 1 day 1 night.
 Then the seeds that have started to grow are transferred to a plastic seedling tray that has been filled with seedling media, and watered. The need for watermelon seeds per hectare is 6000 plants.

C. Planting

1. Setting the spacing of watermelons in rows of 60 cm.
2. Planting of watermelon seeds is carried out after the seedlings are 5-7 days old from the seedlings, that is, after they have 2 leaves.
3. Before the seeds are planted, to prevent bacterial wilt attack, polybags containing seeds are soaked in Agrept solution.
4. Plant one seed per planting hole, by prying the media tray or tearing the piece of plastic so that the media near the roots does not break and planting it into the planting hole. Flush/sow a few grains of carbofuran insecticide and nematicide to control caterpillars/crickets.

D. Plant Maintenance

1. Propagating the branch on the overlay that has been created.
2. Irrigation
 Irrigation is carried out regularly in the morning or evening, especially in the early growth phase, either by licking or watering with a hose.
3. Topping
 Toping or pruning the main branches is done by cutting the third segment at the age of 10 dap and maintaining 2 water branches or secondary branches and then directing the ends to the bed.
4. Pewiwilan
 Pewiwilan aims to remove unproductive branches and leaves, the branches that are maintained are the branches on the third segment and above while the branches below the third segment are removed or in the wiwil. The Pewiwilan technique itself is to cut the branch using a sterile cutter at the segment position, then apply a fungicide to the part that has been cut to avoid being exposed to the fungus. The stems in the wiwil are spaced one segment from the stems being maintained, a good time is at 09.00-14.00 or when the weather is sunny.
5. Selection of fruit
 Fruit selection aims to select quality fruit while unqualified fruit is discarded, fruit that is in the good fruit category is the fruit that is in the 3rd segment not the first fruit, besides that also normal fruit shape. Fruit selection is done at the age of 35 hst.
 After selecting the fruit, then under the selected fruit is given a pile of straw which aims to maintain humidity and moisture content under the fruit.
6. Weeding
 In plastic mulch, weeding is done in the planting hole by pulling it out carefully so as not to damage the roots of the watermelon plants.
 Weeds that grow in the ditches are cleaned so they don't become nests for pests.

E. Fertilization

 

No	Type of Fertilizer	Dose of Fertilizer (Gr/ Liter)
7 hst	14 hst	21 hst	28 hst	35 hst	45 hst	55 hst
1	NPK Mutiara	5	5	10	10	10	10
2	KNO3 Merah	5	5	5
3	KNO3 Putih					5
4	KCL				5		5	10

F. Disease Pests

Spraying is carried out after 5 DAP using insecticides with active ingredients (imidachlorophyte/methomyl/deltametri) and fungicides with active ingredients (propineb/mankozeb/defeneconazole) then adhesives, and spraying time is carried out 7 days after the initial spraying, but if pests or diseases attack increasing the spraying interval is done once every 3 days until the plants look normal. The following includes types of pests and diseases of watermelon plants:

1. Pests

No.	Pests	Application
1	Oteng oteng	Confidor /OBR
2	Aphids	Curacron/Decis
3	Earthworms	Regent/ Furadan
4	Leaf miner	Thrigart
5	Helicoverpaarmigera (Fruit borer)	Decis/Regent
6	Leaf caterpillars/Span caterpillars	Prevaton/ Dangke

2. Disease

G. Harvesting

Watermelon can be harvested around the age of 60-65 DAT, the characteristics of watermelons that are ready to be harvested are the normal fruit shape, if you tap the fruit it makes a loud sound, the fruit stems are smaller then the leaves of the plants are starting to dry.