Melon: nutritional value, origin, biology, cultivars

Information is provided on the nutritional and dietary value of melon (Cucumis melo), its importance in human nutrition. Melon fruits contain 82-96% water and 4-18% soluble solids, which consist of 90% soluble carbohydrates – sugars. In addition to sugars, cultivated melon varieties contain a number of substances that are valuable to the human body: 0.6 mg% dietary fiber, 0.2 mg% free organic acids; vitamins and trace elements. There are two geographical centers of origin of cultivated melons – African and Asian. India should be noted as the source of primitive melon forms with high resistance to diseases. It was the Indian forms of melon that could be the ancestors of modern cultural forms. Melon came to Russia through the Black Sea colonies of Greece, as well as from Central Asia and Turkey through Astrakhan. The first historical information about melon culture in Russia dates back to the beginning of the XVI century. It quickly spread along the river banks in the North Caucasus, the Lower Volga region, and the Don, reaching Voronezh and Kursk. The first mentions of growing near Moscow on manure-insulated soil date back to the beginning of the XVI century. The main industrial melon crops are concentrated in the south of Russia. Among the domestic varieties in demand by agricultural producers, it is worth noting the varieties of the Bykovsky melon breeding experimental station (Duna, Slavia, Osen, Idillia, Garmonia), the Institute of Irrigated Vegetable Growing and Melon Growing (Lada, Selchanka), the Agricultural Company «POISK» (Efiopka, Torpeda, Tsarskaya, Mlada, Fortuna). Of all melon crops, melon is the most demanding of heat. She is also very light-loving, especially sensitive to shading during the initial period of development. Melon plants need the dryness of the surrounding air and a dry soil surface, but they do not tolerate soil drought well. The most important specialized melon pests are the melon fly and melon aphid, fungal diseases (powdery mildew, peronosporosis, Fusarium wilt, anthracnose and ascochytosis) and bacterial diseases (angular leaf spot and various fruit rot).

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