What is wax gourd? What is the growth period of wax gourd?

Wax gourd has the benefits of clearing heat, relieving summer heat, detoxifying, diuresis, and reducing swelling. It is an ideal vegetable for hot summers. It is a variant of winter melon. In people's daily lives, it is very popular whether it is stir-fried or made into soup. What is the growth period of wax gourd? Encyclopedia Knowledge Network shares and introduces it to you below.

Contents of this article

1. What is wax gourd?

2. The growth period of wax gourd

3. Is wax gourd a winter melon?

What is the melon?

Wax gourd is also known as hairy melon and northern melon. It is an annual climbing herb of the Cucurbitaceae family. Wax gourd is native to southern my country and is suitable for growing in places with higher temperatures and stronger light. It is one of my country's specialty vegetables. It has a long history of cultivation in various parts of Lingnan, and the cultivation area is large. In Hainan, wax gourd cultivation also has a long history. Wax gourd has a strong root system, but it is weaker than pumpkin. The stem is creeping, five-ribbed, and the axillary buds of the stem nodes will produce side vines, so the branching ability is strong. At the beginning of the vine, each stem node has tendrils, the tendrils branch, and later there are flower buds, which differentiate into male or female flowers. The fruit is small, slightly longer and thicker than cucumber, 15-25 cm long, 4-10 cm in diameter, with rough and hard hairs on the skin when mature, without white waxy powder, and fine hairs on the skin that will prick the hand, and it is sensitive to nitrogen.

The growing period of winter melon

The length of the growing period of winter melon varies depending on the cultivation season and cultivation technology. The growing period of Spring Festival melon is the longest, the summer melon is slightly shorter, and the autumn melon is the shortest. Proper cultivation and management can extend the growing period, especially the flowering and fruiting period, and increase the yield.

The flowering and fruiting of wax gourd is closely related to the growth of the plant. During the growth and development of wax gourd, there are vines and leaves growing. The basic trend of vine and leaf growth is: slow growth before the seedling stage, accelerated growth during the vine-pulling stage, and rapid growth during the flowering and fruiting stage. Among them, the fastest growth is in the initial fruit stage, and the growth rate gradually decreases afterwards.

It can be seen that the growth of the leaves of the wax gourd only has a preliminary foundation before flowering and fruiting, and it will develop and grow after flowering and fruiting. From the functional leaves of wax gourd in different periods, when there are 7 leaves in the seedling stage, the main functional leaves are the 2nd to 5th leaves; 11 leaves in the vine stage, the main functional leaves are the 3rd to 8th leaves; after entering flowering and fruiting, there are 28 leaves in the full flowering stage, and the main functional leaves are the 3rd to 24th leaves; 39 leaves in the initial fruiting stage, the main functional leaves are the 5th to 33rd leaves, and 54 leaves in the full fruiting stage, the main functional leaves are the 8th to 45th leaves, that is, during the flowering and fruiting period, the main functional leaves are the 5th to 40th leaves. The growth of these leaves and their assimilation efficiency are closely related to flowering and fruiting, and fruit yield.

Is winter melon a kind of winter melon?

Wax gourd is a variant of winter melon. It also has the benefits of clearing heat, relieving summer heat, detoxifying, diuretic, and reducing swelling, making it an ideal vegetable for hot summer. In addition, it has a certain auxiliary effect on the treatment of kidney disease, edema, diabetes, etc. Therefore, wax gourd is very popular in people's daily life, whether it is stir-fried or made into soup. Wax gourd has a cultivation history of more than 300 years in Guangzhou, China. It is commonly planted in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Taiwan. It can be planted in spring, summer, and autumn, and is the largest type of watermelon in Guangdong and Guang.

It is cultivated in various parts of my country. There are wild ones in southern Yunnan (Xishuangbanna), and the fruits are much smaller. It is mainly distributed in other tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, and also in eastern Australia and Madagascar. In addition to being used as a vegetable, the fruit of this species can also be soaked into various candies; the peel and seeds are used as medicine, with the benefits of anti-inflammatory, diuretic and detumescence. The difference from winter melon (original variant) is that the ovary is covered with dirty or yellow rough hairs when alive, the fruit is small, slightly longer and thicker than cucumber, 15-20 (-25) cm long, 4-8 (-10) cm in diameter, and covered with rough hairs when mature, without white waxy powder.