Paano Magtanim ng Melon: How to Plant Melon the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng melon? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant milon (melon), step by step from getting the field ready to the harvest, with the day of each step and what to change for a higher yield.
This guide shows how traditional farmers usually plant milon. Use it as a starting point. For a higher yield, update it: plant certified seed or clean planting material, test your soil, and follow the right spacing and fertilizer.
How Filipino farmers grow melon, both the netted kind and honeydew, in the dry months: seed sprouted and planted in hills or set out from trays, vines run on the ground over mulch, and fruits cut when they smell sweet and come away from the stalk. It is a short guide for small lowland farms, since fewer farmers grow melon than pakwan.
Before you plant, get the field ready with our land preparation guide for cucurbits. Then choose your seed or planting material with the milon varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the milon nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng gulay, vegetables in the Philippines.
When to plant milon
Melon needs hot, dry weather while the fruits ripen, because rain at that time splits the fruits and makes them less sweet. Lowland farmers plant at the start of the dry season so the harvest falls in the driest months, on loose, well drained soil.
What you plant
Seed. Melon seed is costly, so most farmers sprout it first in a damp cloth and either plant it straight in the hills or raise it in trays and set out the seedlings once they have a few true leaves.
Paano magtanim ng melon, step by step
Early kinds can be picked from about 65 days after planting, as growers in Tarlac report. Larger kinds and honeydew take longer. The crop is ready about 65 days after sowing.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
21 days before sowing: Plow and harrow the field
Plow and harrow two or three times until the soil is loose and airy. Pick a field that drains well and has not grown melon, pakwan or other gourds lately.
5 days before sowing: Manure the rows and lay mulch
Work well rotted manure or compost into the rows with a basal dose of complete fertilizer such as 14 14 14. Many growers cover raised beds with plastic mulch and punch planting holes along the middle.
2 days before sowing: Sprout the seed
Soak the seed for a few hours, wrap it in a damp cloth and keep it warm and shaded until the tiny roots show.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Sowing day: Plant the sprouted seed
Plant one or two sprouted seeds a hill, root down, and cover lightly with fine soil. Water gently.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 5: Guard the seedlings
Check the young plants every day or two for leaf beetles and cutworms, which can wipe out a stand in the first weeks. Replant empty hills.
Day 7: Water lightly and evenly
Water the hills or run water in the furrows when the topsoil dries, a little at a time. Never let water stand around the stems.
Day 14: Thin to one plant
Keep the strongest plant in each hill and pull the rest.
Day 21: Side dress as the vines run
When the vines begin to run, side dress with urea a hand span from the stem and cover it. Weed the rows by hand before the vines cover the ground.
Day 30: Help the fruits set
If few bees come, touch an open male flower to the female flowers, the ones with a small ball behind the petals, early in the morning. Do not spray while the flowers are open.
Day 35: Keep the best fruits
Keep a few well shaped fruits on each vine and remove the crooked or stung ones. Rest each fruit on straw or the plastic mulch so it does not touch wet soil.
Day 40: Potash for sweetness
Once the fruits are the size of an egg, side dress with muriate of potash or complete fertilizer and water it in.
Day 55: Cut back the water
As the fruits near ripeness, water less so they do not crack and their flesh turns sweeter.
Harvest (Anihan)
Day 65: Pick ripe fruits
A ripe netted melon smells sweet, its skin turns from green to tan under the net, and it slips off the stalk with a light push. Honeydew does not slip: cut it when the skin turns creamy and slightly waxy.
Day 66: Handle gently
Carry the fruits in lined baskets or crates, keep them in the shade, and sell them within a few days.
Watering milon, stage by stage
Melon is planted at the start of the dry season on loose, well drained soil and watered lightly and evenly, by hand at the hills or by a quick furrow, whenever the top soil dries. Growers give more water while the fruits swell and less as they ripen, and never let water stand around the stems. Water poured at each hill with a can or hose, or a quick furrow watering, is the usual way. Growers on plastic mulch often use drip lines. Water in the morning, at the base of the plant, keeping the leaves and fruits dry.
Flowering and fruit set, when dry soil drops flowers and young fruits. Fruit swelling, when the fruits gain most of their size. Ripening: no heavy watering or rain on the fruits, and no hard drought either.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprouting the seed | 2 days before sowing to sowing day | Keep the soaked seed in a damp cloth until the root shows | Damp, not dripping |
| Sowing to first leaves | Sowing day to day 7 | Water gently right after planting, then lightly by can if the hills dry | Moisten each hill, no puddles |
| Young vines | Day 7 to 30 | Water the hills or run a quick furrow when the top soil dries, a little at a time. Water in the side dressing | Light waterings that wet the root zone, then drain |
| Flowering and fruit set | Day 30 to 40 | Keep the soil evenly moist. Water whenever the top soil dries | Light, even waterings at the base |
| Fruits swelling | Day 40 to 55 | Water more often than before, and water in the potash dose | Fuller waterings that soak the root zone, never standing water |
| Ripening | Day 55 to 65 | Water less, but do not let the vines wilt | Light waterings only |
Without irrigation. Melon is a dry season crop: rain on ripening fruits splits them and makes them less sweet, so farmers plant at the start of the dry season and water by hand or furrow. Plow deep, lay plastic or rice straw mulch to hold moisture, and keep the field close to a well or pump.
In the dry season. Water lightly whenever the top soil dries, more often while the fruits swell and on sandy soil, then less as they ripen. Water when the leaves stay limp into the late afternoon or the soil a few cm down feels dry.
In the rainy season. Avoid planting so the fruits ripen in the rains. If rain comes, keep the drains open and the fruits on straw or mulch off the wet ground. Soaked soil rots the stems and roots, and rain at ripening splits the fruits and spreads leaf disease.
- Too little water: Leaves wilt and stay limp into the afternoon, flowers and small fruits drop, and the fruits stay small and poorly netted.
- Too much water: Vines yellow and wilt, the stem base rots, and fruits crack, rot on the ground or taste watery.
To water better for a higher yield: A drip line under plastic mulch gives the light, even water melon needs and keeps the leaves and fruits dry. Keep the vines free of stress from flowering through harvest. Ease off the water near ripeness instead of cutting it off.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for milon
Spacing
Rows wide enough for the vines to run, often 1.5 to 2 meters apart, with one plant every half meter or so along the row. Big fruited kinds get more room.
Water
Light, even watering by hand or furrow, more while the fruits swell and less as they ripen. Water must never stand around the stems.
Fertilizer
Well rotted manure or compost and a basal dose of complete fertilizer such as 14 14 14 before planting, urea when the vines start to run, and muriate of potash or complete fertilizer once the fruits form. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Thinning to one plant a hill, weeding by hand before the vines spread, plastic mulch or straw under the fruits, hand pollination when bees are few, and removal of crooked or stung fruits. Farmers check often for beetles and fruit flies.
When and how to harvest
Netted melons are ripe when they smell sweet, turn tan under the net and slip from the stalk with a light push. Honeydew is cut when its skin turns creamy and waxy. Fruits are handled gently, kept in the shade and sold within a few days.
Common mistakes when planting milon
- Timing the crop so it ripens in the rainy months, which splits the fruits and spoils the sweetness.
- Picking before the fruit slips or smells sweet, so it never sweetens off the vine.
- Planting where melon, pakwan or other gourds just grew, so soil diseases carry over.
- Watering heavily near harvest, which cracks the fruits and dilutes the flavor.
- Leaving too many fruits on one vine, which gives small, bland melons.
How to get a higher yield of milon
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Have the soil tested and feed by the result, with enough potash for sweet fruits.
- Buy good hybrid seed suited to the lowlands and sprout it before planting so none is wasted.
- Use plastic mulch on raised beds with drip irrigation for clean fruits and steady water.
- Scout weekly and use integrated pest management for thrips, aphids, beetles and fruit fly.
- Rotate with rice, corn or beans and keep two seasons between gourd crops on the same field.
anee.io helps with each of these. The NPK Plus calculator checks that your fertilizer plan feeds the yield you want, the pest and disease finders tell you what is on the leaves before you spray, and Anee, the smart farm technician answers your questions in Tagalog or English.
Members open this guide in the How to Plant tool and send every step to the Protocol Builder in one tap, each on its own day. There you can change the seed, the spacing and the fertilizer, then turn it into a cropping calendar for your lots.
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