Bitter melon "married" to pumpkin, bitter melon pumpkin grafting skills

Did you know that bitter melon and pumpkin can be combined?

Bitter melon "marries" to pumpkin

This morning, braving the drizzle, the reporter drove to Fengmu Town, Tunchang County for an interview. At a bitter melon seedling base of Tunchang Fenglu Fruit and Vegetable Production and Marketing Professional Cooperative, eight farmers, under the guidance of Li Hanqiang, a technician of Tunchang Fenglu Fruit and Vegetable Production and Marketing Professional Cooperative, were cutting off the newly sprouted bitter melon seedlings one by one with a knife, leaving only about 3 cm, and then inserting the cut bitter melon seedlings into a young pumpkin seedling, and then covering the pumpkin seedling with a film to keep it warm and moist. In two days, new bitter melon seedlings will grow, and they can be transplanted a few days later.

Both bitter melon seedlings and pumpkin seedlings are very tender. Can they survive after being grafted like this? In response to the reporter's concerns, Li Hanqiang said confidently that he could not guarantee 100% survival, but he could guarantee a survival rate of more than 90%.

"By grafting technology, we can improve the disease resistance of bitter melon," said Li Hanqiang. Because Tunchang Fengmu bitter melon has a 20-year history of cultivation, farmers grow bitter melon every year, and the soil contains certain pathogens. If bitter melon is grown on the same land for several consecutive years, the fruit is prone to wilt disease, which will harm the bitter melon plants and reduce production, affecting farmers' income.

In order to improve the disease resistance of bitter melon, Li Hanqiang and other members of the cooperative have tried to use pesticides and other methods after years of exploration, but the effect is not ideal and dead plants often occur. By chance, Li Hanqiang saw some farmers using pumpkin seedlings to graft watermelon seedlings, and he also wanted to try it. After many experiments, he found that grafting bitter melon seedlings onto pumpkin seedlings not only does not affect the growth of bitter melon, but also increases the yield of bitter melon, and more importantly, it can also improve the disease resistance of bitter melon.

"Experiments have shown that after grafting, the bitter melon plants grow well, their moisture resistance increases, their ability to adapt to temperature increases, the harvest period is long, the yield is high, the melons are large, and the quality is good." Li Hanqiang said that through two years of trial planting, he found that the yield of grafted bitter melon per mu can reach 8,000 catties, which is more than 1,000 catties higher than the yield of ungrafted bitter melon.

According to the head of the Tunchang County Agricultural Bureau, maple bitter melon is well-known in the province and is the flagship product of Tunchang's winter melons and vegetables. In recent years, the county party committee and county government have attached great importance to the cultivation of maple bitter melon. The Tunchang County government plans to invest 810,000 yuan this winter to cultivate 1.35 million grafted bitter melon seedlings and distribute them to farmers for planting to increase farmers' income.

It is reported that 1.35 million grafted seedlings can be planted in about 3,000 mu, accounting for about one-tenth of the area planted with bitter melon in the county this year. The head of the Tunchang County Agricultural Bureau said that grafted bitter melon will be gradually promoted and the planting area will be expanded year by year.