Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus, cucumber-ketimunan tribe or Cucurbitaceae) is a creeping plant that comes from the half-desert region in southern Africa. This plant is still sekerabat with pumpkin-Labuan (Cucurbitaceae), melon (Cucumis melo) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Regular watermelons harvested fruit to be eaten fresh or prepared juices. Seeds are dried and roasted watermelon can also be eaten its contents (cotyledon) as pumpkin seeds.
As a member of another tribe cucumber-ketimunan, habitus is creeping plants, but he can not form adventitious roots and can not climb. Reach propagation can reach dozens of meters.
The leaves are grooved on the edges. The flowers perfect, yellow, small (3cm diameter). Watermelon is andromonoecious monoclinic, which has two types of flowers on one plant: the male flowers, which has only stamens (stamens), and flower pansy / hermaphrodites, which have stamens and pistils (pistillum). Hermaphrodite flowers can be recognized from the ovaries (ovaries) at the base of the flower in the form of an oval-shaped enlargement.
Watermelon has a hard skin, dark green or light green with dark green lines-lines. Depending kultivarnya, juicy flesh that is red or yellow. This plant is quite resistant to drought, especially if it has entered a period of fruit formation.
Rainfall ideally 40-50 mm / month. The entire planting area to sunlight from sunrise to drown. The optimal temperature ± 250 C. Watermelon suitable to be planted in the lowlands to a height of 600 m above sea level.
Planting media. The soil is friable, rich in organic matter, not the acid soil and soil garden / paddy fields that have been dried. Matches on sandy loam soil type. Soil acidity (pH) from 6 to 6.7.
