Watermelon

Meet watermelon, the crop that likes it hot. While the winter vegetables retire in April, watermelon vines are just setting off, running across a sunny bed with lobed leaves and pale yellow flowers.

Its character is sprawling and thirsty. Each plant claims a couple of square metres and wants steady water, a drip line and mulch to keep its roots cool. Shade cloth over the bed takes the edge off the afternoon sun.

What it brings is a summer fruit that you can honestly say you grew. Watermelon is thought to have been domesticated in Sudan and cultivated in Egypt by 2000 BCE (Wikipedia), so it is an old crop of this part of the world, and one ripe fruit from your own bed, chilled and cut, is a big reward for a hot season.

Watermelon runs the opposite way to the winter vegetables. The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's calendar lists nursery sowing in February to March and field planting in March to April, with harvest 80 to 90 days later, which puts ripe fruit in the hottest weeks. BBC Good Food Middle East lists melons, watermelon included, for May to June in the hot season, with shade cloth and careful watering; the Ministry's earlier dates give the vines a longer start. A Dubai gardener told Gulf News that melons and watermelons are among the crops she grows in summer, under green shade from May to October.

UF/IFAS gives the working numbers. Watermelon grows best with daytime temperatures of 70 to 85°F (21 to 29°C) and can handle up to 90°F (32°C), and Dubai's average high passes that in April (34°C) and reaches 38°C in May, so plan for shade cloth and mulch from the start. Each plant needs 18 to 24 square feet (1.7 to 2.2 m²). The Grow Your Food guide that The National published with Dubai Municipality says melons, marrows and pumpkins really need their own patch of ground, while a Gulf News feature on balcony gardens says melons can grow in 20-gallon containers. Transplants have sensitive roots and do best from peat pots; grow in full sun and well-drained soil, and expect 80 to 100 days to ripe fruit.

NC State says to keep the soil moist but not soggy, and warns that stress from heat, too much water or poor pollination gives poor fruit set. FAO rates watermelon as moderately sensitive to salt, an estimate rather than a measured threshold, so use mains water on a drip line and fill the bed with sweet soil. To judge ripeness UF/IFAS says to look for a cream-coloured or bright yellow spot where the fruit rests on the ground, and to check the curled tendril nearest the melon: when it turns brown and shrivels, the fruit should be ripe.