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How to grow a pumpkin outdoors in the country or on the balcony
Caring for pumpkins is easy, but you can’t let the growth process take its course. Due to insufficient attention, the harvest will be poor, and the fruits lose their taste, are poorly preserved and rot already at the stage of the ovary. How to grow pumpkin in the country or at home?
Preparing the seeds for planting
The taste and quality of the crop largely depend on the preliminary preparation of the seeds. Before planting, they must be disinfected from pests and diseases. For this, a solution of potassium permanganate is used, into which a solution of salt and water (25%) is transferred for half an hour afterwards.
How to grow a pumpkin with your own hands?
Seeds that have not ripened and do not contain a grain inside float to the surface, they are unsuitable for planting. The seeds suitable for sowing will sink to the bottom of the container. They need to be rinsed with clean water and dried at 55 degrees for about 3 hours.
Sprouted seeds are ready for sowing after the first roots appear.
Preparing the soil for planting begins in the fall. In the designated place, a trench is dug 40 cm deep, about a meter wide. Branches, leaves, tops and grass are folded into it, everything is covered with half-rotted manure. A month before the start of sowing, the bed is filled with hot water.
How to grow and when to plant a pumpkin? If you are going to grow it in soil, then planting should be done when the weather is stable and warm. This is due to the fact that melons and gourds need a lot of light. The right time is late May – early June. A comfortable temperature for the pumpkin is 25 degrees, growth stops in cold weather.
How to grow a pumpkin at home or outdoors
If you do not have a garden plot, you can arrange a small vegetable garden even in a city apartment. If you know how to grow a pumpkin on the balcony, you can get a good harvest even at home. If you provide the plant with proper care and enough light, a homemade pumpkin will be as tasty as a country pumpkin.
For planting, it is advisable to choose hard-bore decorative pumpkin varieties.
This melon plant needs a special soil consisting of sand, peat, earth, humus and sawdust.
The ratio is 1: 1: 4: 1: 4. 10 days after planting, the seedlings are fed with a solution of urea, potassium sulfate and superphosphate. You can use complex ready-made fertilizers.
How to grow pumpkin outdoors? The main thing is to provide her with enough light and abundant watering with warm water. In front of it, the soil is loosened to a depth of 10-12 cm, weeds are destroyed. Also, country pumpkins need shaping: the removal of lateral shoots and excess ovaries.
Ripe fruits are cut along with the stalk. At low temperatures, the crop is well preserved until spring, without losing taste and nutritional properties over time.