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Ripening pumpkins give the garden an alien look, especially if there are several varieties on the same bed. But the pumpkin is grown not because of its external attractiveness, these amazing fruits are very useful for the cardiovascular system, stomach, liver and kidneys due to the content of vitamins and trace elements. They cleanse the body and prevent obesity. And yet – they cook a lot of amazingly delicious dishes.
Landing methods and conditions
This plant comes from Mexico, and grows well in the summer cottages of the middle lane. Pumpkins can be grown in a greenhouse, but they require too much space, it is better to find a sunny clearing for them on the site, you can plant a couple of plants near a fence or a barn so that the lashes curl up. It grows well on a compost heap: the plant has enough fertilizer, and the heap does not dry out under large leaves.
You can sow seeds directly in open ground, or you can plant seedlings on a garden bed, summer residents most often choose the second method for growing pumpkins. A little more than a month passes from sowing in the soil to landing on the site, and you can plant it when frosts are no longer threatened, and the soil has warmed up to 12 degrees to a depth of at least 10 cm. So it turns out that this can be done no earlier than the second half of May. If you sow, then early and mid-ripening varieties will have time to ripen before frost, and if you plant seedlings with 3-4 leaves, then they will ripen before frost and later.
Seedlings are grown in peat cups or plastic ones, which are not a pity to cut so as not to damage the roots during transplantation. In the garden, at a distance of at least 1 m from each other, holes 30-40 cm wide are prepared. Several kilograms of humus are poured into them with a couple of tablespoons of complex mineral-organic fertilizer and thoroughly spilled with warm water. Landing should be done in such a liquid slurry, but the ground around should be mulched. In the first month, the pumpkin seedling is still very tender and vulnerable, it can be covered with something (a plastic eggplant, a paper cap, a non-woven fabric) from the cold.
Choosing a grade
Timid gardeners for growing in their summer cottage choose the most common varieties from the huge variety of the pumpkin family. “Gribovskaya bush” and “Mozolevskaya 49” definitely have time to ripen over the summer, the convenience of their cultivation lies in the small space that they occupy compared to long-branched varieties.
“Winter Canteen A-5” ripens already in a plucked state, but is well stored. “Volzhskaya gray 92”, “Healing” – these varieties are early ripe, various Gribovskys, bred for our conditions, are becoming increasingly popular.
The most daring gardeners are trying to grow new varieties of pumpkins bred in different countries. I must say that this is successfully obtained in the open field in the country. So a gardener in Kaluga perfectly grows such beautiful and very tasty pumpkins as the sweet pear-shaped “Orange Hokkaido” or the blue-green “Marina from Kyoji” with a bumpy surface. You can grow exhibition large specimens of more than 10 kg in weight at your own dacha, if you set yourself such a goal. But pumpkins that are small by 2-3 kg will be more functional, they are easier to transport, and they are portioned in cooking – no need to store pieces of cut pumpkin.
Fully matures in our dachas in the open field, such a variety of nutmeg pumpkins as “Shortened Interception” with a high sugar content. The “Spanish Guitar” grows well, but it is harvested slightly unripe, which means that it is eaten before the new year.
Video “Growing and pinching”
Care and growing
Pumpkins do not require special care, they just need to be watered, periodically fed, shaped lashes in order to regulate the number of fruits, make sure that they do not fall into the shade and do not freeze.
Pumpkins are watered only with warm water, and watering is increased over time and as the plants grow older. If immediately after planting in open ground, each plant is watered with 1 liter of water, then at the end of summer it already needs 10 liters. Before watering, the soil is well loosened, weeds are removed, but this must be done carefully so as not to damage the roots. Some vegetable growers advise to stop watering after the fruit reaches the desired size. And under the pumpkins themselves, put something waterproof so that they do not rot, lying on the ground.
Fertilize pumpkins two to three times a month. Usually organic and complex mineral fertilizers are used simultaneously or in strict order. And at the end of summer, they switch only to potash, which is necessary for the ripening of fruits.
Pumpkin after planting in open ground, in addition to one main lash, forms several lateral ones, usually, in order to avoid weakening the plants, only two lateral ones are left. The whips are laid out on the ground or put on trellises so that they do not obscure each other, they are even rolled over with damp earth to fix them, otherwise the wind can turn them over. Several ovaries are left on each lash, depending on the desired size of the fruit – if you want to grow a giant pumpkin, leave one at a time. Usually, 3-4 fruits are left and 5 leaves after the last, pinch the branch to limit growth.
Sometimes spider mites, aphids, and growth flies attack a pumpkin, then you have to fight them by spraying the leaves with a decoction of onion peel, soapy water or lye. Pumpkins also have diseases such as bacteriosis, white and root rot, powdery mildew. To avoid them, you need to prevent plant residues near the pumpkin, and special means will help to cure – colloidal sulfur, vitriol, Bordeaux liquid, ash.
Harvesting
The pumpkin harvest in our dachas is harvested in late September or early October, depending on ripeness and when frosts are expected. They need to be removed before frost. During the period of fruit ripening, the lashes and pumpkin leaves dry, a pattern characteristic of the variety appears on the fruits, and the stalk of a ripe pumpkin becomes similar to a cork. The bark on a ripe fruit becomes hard.
Ripe pumpkins are carefully cut along with the stalk; without it, the fruit will not be stored. They say that it is best to store at a temperature of 4-10 degrees, but the majority of the population wonderfully preserves the pumpkin crop at room conditions, as long as the bark is not injured. Muscat pumpkins are mostly removed from the summer cottage unripe, they then ripen in the maturation. Many varieties are successfully grown in their dachas by gardeners, forgetting that this tropical crop is a hundred.
Video “All about growing pumpkins in your garden”
If you decide to grow a huge pumpkin crop, then this video tutorial is what you need. Here you will learn about all the features of the process.
