Nghi Xuan farmers actively stick to the fields to salvage the watermelon crop

Starting from mid-January 2025, many watermelon growing areas in Xuan Hong commune, Nghi Xuan district have been planted by people, preparing for the main watermelon crop of the year. However, when the watermelon plants were only 20 days old, they encountered many prolonged cold rains, causing the roots to rot and gradually die.

Mr. Cao Dinh Toan (village 7, Xuan Hong commune) shared: "This year's melon crop is much more difficult due to unfavorable weather. Since January, I started planting seeds in the field, according to calculations, I would start harvesting in April, but without taking into account the weather, all the seeds were flooded. After 20 days, I continued to plant seeds again but it was also unsuccessful.

The reason is that from January to February, there were many cold rains, causing flooding, root rot and leaf blight; although special pesticides were sprayed, they were still ineffective. Over 2 hectares, thousands of the family's watermelon plants died and had to be uprooted, causing a loss of more than 6 million VND, not to mention the investment in fertilizer and care.

Mr. Cao Dinh Toan, village 7 sprays pesticides on the new crop of melons after 2 failed plantings.

Not only Mr. Toan's family, but many watermelon growers in village 7 and village 8 also experienced watermelons dying and root rot due to waterlogging.

The entire Xuan Hong commune has about 35 hectares of watermelon, divided into two areas, sandy soil (10 hectares) and sandy loam soil (25 hectares). This is one of the concentrated watermelon growing areas of Nghi Xuan district. According to farmers, the recent damage mainly occurred in the watermelon growing areas on sandy soil.

According to custom, households here often plant watermelons early to avoid the heat and drought when the plants are still young; if favorable, the plants will bear fruit early and have a higher price than the mass harvest time. However, due to unfavorable weather in early 2025, the entire 10 hectares of watermelon production on sandy soil were forced to be replanted.

People check melon fields after 10 days of planting

To salvage the main watermelon crop of the year, since the beginning of April, many households in villages 7 and 8 (Xuan Hong commune) have taken advantage of the sunny weather to go to the fields to sow and provide nutrition for their watermelon fields.

“I often stay in the fields to check the growth of the melon plants. More than 1.5 hectares were damaged by about 70%, so my family focused on sowing enough land. The unaffected melon plants are currently in the flowering stage, so I fertilized and used biological products to help the plants grow well. Hopefully, the weather will be favorable in the coming time, the melons will bear fruit well and will be harvested around the beginning of June this year," said Mr. Nguyen Van Hiep, village 7.

People cover melon plants with tarpaulin effectively

Not far away, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc’s family in village 8 is also covering the melon plants that were just planted 10 days ago with plastic sheets. This technical solution aims to increase the photosynthetic ability of the plants, while maintaining good humidity and limiting weed growth around them. In particular, it avoids waterlogging, soil erosion, etc., protecting the plants.

He said: "Watermelon is the main crop of Xuan Hong commune, suitable for the local soil and climate. The growing period is short (nearly 3 months), so people here plant many times and can spread out the harvest, starting from mid-May to early July. Every year, the average yield is from 20 - 30 tons of melons/ha, Xuan Hong watermelon is always favored by customers because of its bright red color, firm flesh, sweet and fragrant taste, so it is easy to sell, bringing a good income to the people".

Watermelon brings high economic value to people of Xuan Hong commune

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha - Vice Chairman of Xuan Hong Commune People's Committee said: "At the beginning of the season, many melon growing areas were damaged, which will more or less affect the total melon output of the locality. However, the local government also recommends that people monitor the weather, if favorable, they can plant 1-2 more batches of seeds because this year there are two leap months of the 6th lunar month.

To support farmers, the locality assigned specialized staff to closely follow the fields and guide people to follow the correct procedures and techniques. In particular, they guided people to apply organic fertilizer in the early stages and provide enough water for the plants so that the watermelons grow well, yield high yields and ensure quality and food safety.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/nong-dan-nghi-xuan-tich-cuc-bam-dong-vot-vat-vu-dua-hau-post285773.html