Plant the seed pumpkin. How pumpkin seeds are planted in open ground. Protecting pumpkin from diseases and pests

This vegetable is good for everyone: it is unpretentious, gives a large harvest, is perfectly stored and is very useful. We are talking about a pumpkin, planting and caring for it in the open field is within the power of even a novice gardener.

There are many of them. Pumpkins differ in the ripening period and the size of the fruit. There are other differences: the sugar content, and, therefore, the sweetness of the fruit, the ability to withstand long-term storage, cold resistance. The choice of variety also depends on the region of cultivation. Heat-loving varieties will not mature in cold climates. Our experts will recommend pumpkins that will yield guaranteed yields in any region.

Hard-bore pumpkins most often have a bush shape and are easy to grow. They are high in sugars.

Smile- early ripening variety, ripens within 3 months after germination. There are many orange fruits on the bush - up to 15, but their weight is small - up to 1.5 kg. To get larger fruits, their number must be normalized. The smile has a sweet pulp and can be stored for up to 5 months.
Freckle- an early ripe bush pumpkin variety. Forms 4 short lashes with strongly dissected leaves covered with white spots. Rounded-flattened fruits are medium-sized, up to 3 kg in weight. They have a light green color with a yellowish reticular pattern. The pulp is orange with a pear flavor, sweet. Stored for a very long time.
Bush orange- early ripe variety with fruits up to 5 kg of orange color. The taste of the vegetable is excellent, the pumpkin is well stored, unpretentious in cultivation.

Large-fruited pumpkins are intended for lovers of large fruits. They are considered the sweetest, they easily adapt to unfavorable conditions.

Volzhskaya gray- ripens 4 months after germination. Yields powerful whips and fruits with an average weight of up to 7 kg of gray color. Good taste with moderate sweetness, keeping very well.
Dawn- ripens in the mid-early period. Its fruits weighing about 5 kg have a segmented surface and a beautiful dark gray color with bright pinkish-orange spots. The bright orange pulp contains a lot of sugars and tastes good, and there is simply a record amount of carotene in it - more than in carrots. This variety has a high resistance to many diseases of pumpkin crops.
Curative- early maturing variety, has a slightly segmented rounded shape. Fruits reach a weight of 5 kg, have a gray color with a lighter mesh, are stored until the end of spring.

Butternut pumpkin is more thermophilic than its other relatives, it takes more time for its cultivation. Many butternut squash are elongated. Their seeds are concentrated in the widest part of the fruit, so there is more tasty pulp compared to other varieties. All pumpkins in this group are well kept.

Butternut. Refers to late-ripening varieties. Small portioned fruits weigh up to 1.5 kg, pear-shaped and light gray in color.
Vitamin- late ripening variety. It has an elongated shape and green color with barely visible stripes. Fruit weight up to 6.5 kg.
Prikubanskaya- mid-season. The weight of one pumpkin is up to 5 kg. It is pear-shaped and light beige in color.

Features of growing pumpkin

Pumpkin is a thermophilic vegetable. To form a large harvest, she needs fertile soil, enough moisture and proper plant formation. The long taproot allows the plant to extract nutrition and moisture from the lower layers of the soil. A powerful leaf mass and large fruits require a high nutritional density, therefore, for bush varieties, the minimum distance between plants is 0.5 m, and for climbing varieties - at least 1 m.

Landing in open ground

To grow comfortably, a pumpkin needs a soil temperature of at least 10 degrees at a depth of 10 cm. Pumpkin loves warm air - at least 20 degrees.

It is impossible to sow and plant it early. Therefore, the question arises, how best to grow it: seeds or seedlings?

Seeds or seedlings?

The choice depends on the ripening time of the variety and the region in which the vegetable is going to be grown. In the south, seedlings are needed only for those who like to eat pumpkin in the middle of summer. In the middle lane and further north, the choice is not so straightforward. Planting pumpkin seeds will yield fully ripe fruits if their growing season is early. But the cold summer can make its own adjustments - the lack of heat will not allow these varieties to give a full harvest. Therefore, it is even better to grow them through seedlings, and even when planting mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties, you cannot do without it.

How and when to plant?

For growing seedlings, the best time is the end of April, beginning of May, if you sow prepared and germinated seeds in advance. After the end of return frosts and the establishment of warm weather, which happens in early June, it will be possible to plant ready-made seedlings at the age of about 30 days. It is not recommended to grow her longer - she will not have enough pot volume for full development.

Seed preparation:

calibration - selection of full-fledged, well-made seeds of the correct shape, without damage;
soaking in water with a temperature of about 50 degrees for 2 hours;
germination in a damp cloth in a warm place;
hardening for 3-5 days by keeping in a refrigerator for ½ day and in a warm place with a temperature of about 20 degrees the rest of the time.

The prepared seeds are sown in peat pots or other dishes, the diameter and height of which should not be less than 10 cm.

Pumpkin has a negative attitude towards damage to the root system during transplantation. It is grown without picking, in individual containers, from where the sprouts can be easily removed without damaging the earthen lump.

The soil for cultivation must be loose, nutritious and breathable.

good illumination;
about 22 degrees during the day and 5 degrees below at night;
watering with warm water as needed, but without flooding the plants;
2 dressings with full mineral fertilizer;
hardening before planting for 3-5 days in order to accustom it to open ground conditions.

Seedlings are planted in prepared holes with the addition of humus about a bucket, a glass of ash and a pinch of complete mineral fertilizer. Sprinkle with warm water in an amount of about 2 liters.

Sowing pumpkin seeds is carried out only in warm soil, otherwise the seedlings can not be expected.

Sowing technology:

prepared beds are marked in accordance with the selected distance for each specific variety;
dig holes, the depth of which depends on the mechanical composition of the soil: on the lungs - up to 10 cm, heavy - no deeper than 5;
2 handfuls of humus are poured into each hole, and on poor soils and up to a bucket, but then the hole should be deeper, ash and mineral fertilizers are added, watered and spread 2-3 germinated seeds;
sprinkle the seeds with soil, slightly compact, cover the bed with a film so that the seeds germinate faster;
when shoots appear, the film can be removed or left on the garden bed by making cross-shaped cuts in it for the shoots;
cut off excess shoots, but do not pull out.

Ground requirement, site selection

According to the requirements of pumpkin for soil fertility, only cucumbers can be compared with it. It grows well on a compost heap, in the soil where manure was previously stored. If there is no such place, they choose a garden bed in a sunny place, on which plants from the pumpkin family have not grown for 3 years. Stagnant water for pumpkin is undesirable. The soil is prepared in the fall. The garden bed is well fertilized: for each square. m, up to 8 kg of manure, or compost, 15 g of potassium sulfate and 20 g of superphosphate are applied. Nitrogen fertilizers in the amount of 15 g per 1 sq. m is brought in during spring loosening.

You can not overfeed the pumpkin with nitrogen, this will lead to an increase in leaf mass to the detriment of fruit formation.

You can plant pumpkins in pre-dug trenches filled with chopped branches, grass, manure, which are sprinkled with a layer of soil. The depth of the trench is 50 cm, and the width is up to 40 cm.

Pumpkin: outdoor care

Successful cultivation of pumpkin is impossible without observing all the rules of agricultural technology: watering, loosening, top dressing.

Watering and feeding

Young plants are most sensitive to lack of moisture. They are watered regularly every 4-5 days. After the growth of the root system, watering is carried out less often, but at least 1.5 buckets of water are poured onto the plant in order to wet the entire root layer. Excessive moisture can provoke too strong leaf growth to the detriment of the harvest, cracking of the fruit, and rotting of the roots. During the ripening period of pumpkins, a large amount of moisture will lead to a decrease in sugar content. Therefore, it is better to underfill the vegetable than to pour it over.

Pumpkins are fed 2 times with a solution of complete mineral fertilizer:

in the phase of 3-4 leaves;
during the growth of the lashes.

Pumpkin also reacts well to organic fertilizing, which can be applied every 2 weeks. As the pumpkin grows, the fertilizer dose per plant is increased.

Loosening and thinning

Sufficient air supply to the roots is a prerequisite for the successful development of the pumpkin. Therefore, the soil under it is loosened after each watering, hilling plants in the phase of 3-4 true leaves and sprinkling the internodes of the overgrown lashes with earth so that adventitious roots are formed.

Plants are thinned out in the germination phase, leaving only one strongest sprout in the hole.

Forming pumpkin lashes

In order for the fruits to be larger and have time to fully ripen, all the ovaries are not left on the plant, but the lashes are pinched. In long-growing varieties, remove all axillary shoots without pinching the main lash. 1 fruit is left on it, and if they want their size to be portioned, then several. In bush varieties, the stem is pinched 4 leaves after the formation of the fruit. All shoots on which there are no fruits are also removed.

Diseases and pests of pumpkin

Pumpkin is affected by diseases caused by mushroom-like microorganisms: powdery mildew, root and white rot, bacteriosis. All of them are treated with the use of copper-containing fungicides: Bordeaux liquid and copper oxychloride. Treatments are carried out in accordance with the instructions.

A good preventive measure will be soaking the seeds for a day in a solution of zinc sulfate of 0.02% concentration.

The most common pests are spider mites and melon aphids. If the plant already has ovaries, chemical treatment is undesirable. They use folk methods. They can not always completely destroy the pest, but they will reduce its number many times. For spraying against spider mites, prepare a solution of 200 g of onion husks and 10 liters of boiling water. After insisting for 2 days and straining, the infusion is ready for use. It will also help against aphids.

Harvesting and storage

Unripe pumpkin is poorly stored. Therefore, for long-term storage, only those fruits are harvested that have acquired a color corresponding to the variety, their peel should harden. This should be done before the onset of frost in dry and preferably sunny weather. The crop is harvested carefully, avoiding mechanical damage, from which the fruits quickly rot. Incompletely ripe pumpkins are used immediately after harvest, or processed. The fruit must leave a part of the stalk at least 5 cm long.

The first two weeks, the pumpkin is finally ripe. This requires a temperature of at least 14 degrees. In the future, from 3 to 8 degrees will be enough for storage, the air humidity is maintained at 70% or slightly lower. In such conditions, pumpkins do not dry out and are well stored for a long time.

In the middle of spring, when the window sills are already filled with numerous boxes with seedlings of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, summer residents remember the pumpkin - an extraordinary vegetable in terms of size, benefits, and shelf life. It would be necessary to sow a little, but there is absolutely no room left. Then, with the arrival of warm weather, we will try to plant this crop with seeds directly into the ground and, subject to a few simple rules, we will definitely get a rich harvest.

Pumpkin is a thermophilic plant, and planting in cold ground will lead to the fact that the seeds will sprout for a long time and uncommonly. The pumpkin is planted in open ground when the soil has warmed up enough and the return frosts have passed. Specific dates depend on the region: in the northern regions, sowing is possible in early June, and in the southern regions - at the end of April or early May. In central Russia, pumpkin is traditionally planted in the ground after the May holidays.

According to ancient folk signs, the best time for planting was determined by the flowering of viburnum and peonies.

Selecting seeds for planting

Pumpkin seeds for planting are purchased in a store or harvested independently. For the second option, the ripe and sweetest is chosen and seeds are selected from it. They are freed from the pulp, washed, the floating ones are removed and the largest specimens without flaws are selected. The seeds are dried and stored until spring in a cool dry place. Pumpkin seeds remain viable for up to 4 years, with the highest percentage of germination observed in 2-3 year old seeds.

If you don't have your own seeds, before buying, you should familiarize yourself with the variety of varieties:

Hardened gourd famous for its early ripening, small fruit size and very tasty seeds. Shrub varieties do not take up much space and are convenient for growing in small areas. Hard-bore pumpkins are distinguished by a ribbed stalk, rough stem and pentagonal leaves. The cream seeds have pronounced grooves along the edges. The varieties Altai, Aport, Golosemennaya, Smile, Kustovaya orange, Almond are popular among summer residents.
Large-fruited varieties are large and high in sugar. They are characterized by rounded stalks and stems without grooves. The color of the seeds ranges from dull white to light coffee. Large-fruited varieties tolerate low temperatures better than others and can be stored without problems in room conditions for up to a year. For cultivation, pumpkin varieties Arina, Big Moon, Zorka, Rossiyanka, Gribovskaya winter, Children's gourmet, Healing, Sweetie, Parisian gold, Hundred-pound, Volzhskaya gray are preferred.
Muscat varieties are distinguished by their delicious taste and long shelf life, but they are more demanding on heat and are recommended for cultivation in the southern regions. In the middle lane, they are widely cultivated by seedlings. Butternut pumpkins have a nice bonus - you can pick them unripe, they will ripen perfectly in the apartment. Gardeners appreciate the varieties Pineapple, Vitamin, Pearl, Sugar Mace.
Decorative pumpkins are generally unfit for consumption and are grown for beauty. Fruits of decorative varieties, as a rule, are medium-sized and differ in an unusual shape and color; they are used to make original handicrafts and souvenir tableware. Pumpkins of the varieties Chalmovidnaya, Warty, Zvezdchataya will attract the attention of summer residents who love delights and general attention.

For planting pumpkins in open ground with seeds, varieties of hard-bore and large-fruited species are most suitable. They ripen quickly and react more calmly to demi-season temperature fluctuations.

Seed preparation

Proper seed preparation consists not only in a thoughtful choice of varieties, but also in competent treatment against diseases and to stimulate germination.

First of all, the planting material must be disinfected. For this, pumpkin seeds are placed in a solution of saturated pink potassium permanganate for several hours. After the procedure, the seeds must be washed under running water.

Potassium permanganate can be replaced with ash infusion, provided that the seeds were taken from a healthy plant. Ash is considered an excellent natural antiseptic and, at the same time, a storage of many essential trace elements.

For hardening for a day, they are placed on the lower shelf of the refrigerator.

After disinfection, pumpkin seeds are soaked in a biostimulant solution, changing water every day. Usually they hatch within 3-5 days. Seeds sprouted in this way have great vitality and grow quickly after planting in the open field.

How to properly plant seeds in open ground

The best place on the pumpkin planting site is a well-warmed and well-lit southern or eastern slope. The culture prefers slightly alkaline fertile loose soils without stagnant water, rich in organic matter.

The site for planting pumpkins is prepared in the fall. It is dug up and freed from weeds. Planting pits are located at a distance of 1.5 m from each other.

The well is filled with the following mixture:

half a bucket of mature compost or manure;
superphosphate and potassium fertilizer, 1 tablespoon each;
half-liter can of wood ash.

If the soil is heavy clay, before planting pumpkin seeds, additionally add coarse river sand or rotted sawdust.

Lime or dolomite flour is added to the soil with high acidity according to the instructions on the package. The addition of dolomite flour additionally enriches the soil with calcium and magnesium.

Prepared seeds are planted in holes of 3 pieces, spreading them at a distance of 5–6 cm from each other at a depth of 1.5–2 cm. The holes are preliminarily shed with warm water. Pumpkin seeds are covered with soil and slightly compacted.

Shoots appear a few days after planting. When a pair of true leaves appear, they are thinned out, leaving one strongest plant and carefully cutting off the rest with scissors.

It is better not to pull out excess seedlings, so as not to injure the root system of the remaining sprout.

How to grow a good harvest of pumpkin

Before the onset of stable heat, the pumpkin plantings are covered with any non-woven material. Above the hole, two arcs are placed crosswise and an agricultural canvas is pulled over them. In calm sunny weather, holes are left in the shelter for ventilation. At a daytime temperature of 20-22 C, the shelter is removed, leaving it only for cold nights.

During the entire growing season, the pumpkin needs regular watering with warm water. During intensive pouring of fruits, the amount of water is increased to 1 bucket in each hole. After watering, the planting of pumpkins is mulched with sawdust, cut grass or leaf litter.

Once every two weeks, the pumpkin is fertilized with a complex mineral fertilizer. Until mid-summer, nitrogen should prevail in it; in the second half of summer, its amount is reduced to a minimum. A slight lack of nitrogen in July - August stimulates the change of the vegetative path of development to the generative one.

At the end of June, the main stem of the pumpkin is pinched to stimulate the formation of lateral shoots, on which mainly female flowers are tied.

In cool, damp summers, ovary formation can be stimulated. To do this, planting pumpkins is sprayed with a solution of boric acid in a proportion of 1 gram per 1 liter of water. In the morning, artificial pollination of flowers is carried out. To do this, they pick a male flower and shake it over the female ones. It is useful to plant honey plants near the pumpkin patch.

In mid-August, the pumpkin loops are pinched and the smallest and weakest ovaries are removed so that the rest of the fruits have time to ripen before the onset of frost. Planks are placed under the pouring fruits to avoid rotting on contact with the ground and damage by slugs.

On warm September days, the pumpkin is harvested by cutting off the stalk at a distance of 6–8 cm from the place of attachment. For 1-2 days, the pumpkins are allowed to lie in the sun. During this time, they lose excess moisture and are better stored in the future. Pumpkins intended for long-term storage should have a stalk and a waxy coating on the surface.

Diseases and pests

In dry hot weather, pumpkin plantings can be affected by spider mites. To get rid of the pest, the bushes are sprayed with Fitoverm solution. This preparation is also suitable for the control of aphids.

In wet weather, plants can get sick with powdery mildew. This is a fungal disease in which white spots appear on the leaf blade. They increase in size, covering the entire sheet. As a result, pumpkin leaves become brittle and dry out, and the number of ovaries on the bush decreases. Over time, diseased bushes die, abundantly dispersing the spores of the fungus.

To fight the infection, the damaged leaves are cut and burned, the plants are sprayed with Bordeaux liquid or any other fungicide according to the instructions. In subsequent years, it is not recommended to plant pumpkin crops in this place.

It is difficult to imagine the garden beds of Russian household farms without such a culture as pumpkin. And in the gardens near Moscow, in the fall, among the dead tops, bright spots of these fruits of the most different shapes and colors are clearly visible.

It would seem that it is not difficult to grow a pumpkin in the open field in the Moscow region, and many gardeners after planting are limited to minimal attention and care for the vegetable. Indeed, early ripening, but not the sweetest and longest-stored pumpkins can be removed in the last days of August and September. But orange large-fruited beauties and fragrant nutmeg pumpkins, with a disdainful attitude to agricultural technology, do not always ripen.

In order not to be left without the desired harvest, it is important to know how to bring the harvest time closer, to properly care for the pumpkin in the open field and to determine the ripeness of the fruit.

How and when to plant pumpkin seedlings?

To obtain a friendly and maximum early harvest, which is very important when growing mid-season and late pumpkins in the open ground near Moscow, it is better to plant seedlings. To do this, large, filled seeds are immersed in warm water for a couple of days before sowing and kept at a temperature of 45-50 ° C for about three hours. Then the seed is removed and at room temperature they are waiting for the seeds to peck out between the layers of wet tissue. In this case, it is important to ensure that the moisture has not evaporated, because the dried up germ of the sprout can quickly die.

Once the flaps are open, the seed can be planted in the soil.

But for pumpkins of late-ripening varieties and seedlings that risk falling under spring frosts, it would be better to stratify the seeds in advance. For this, the seeds that have nailed are placed in the refrigerator in the same humid environment. Here, at a temperature of 2 to 5 ° C, the planting material is hardened and spends 3-4 days.

It is optimal to plant pumpkin seedlings three weeks before the young plants fall into the ground. That is, the use of such a cultivation method for at least 10-15 days brings the pumpkin harvesting time closer to the Moscow region.

But at the same time, it must be borne in mind that vegetable seedlings are difficult to transplant and all the gain in time can evaporate due to the long acclimatization of plants. Therefore, sowing is carried out in 10-centimeter peat pots filled with a peat-humus mixture with the addition of sand and garden soil.

This will be enough for the development of the seedling root system. If the seeds are planted in large sowing containers, at their bottom it is better to make a 3-centimeter layer of aged sawdust:

Until the shoots appear, the pots are covered with foil and kept at a daytime temperature of 18-25 ° C. The air can be 5–7 ° C cooler at night.
When sprouts appear above the ground, pumpkin seedlings are further lowered in temperature for additional hardening and to prevent stretching, now to 15-18 ° C during the day and 12-13 ° C at night. In such conditions, the plants are about a week.
With the onset of development of true leaves, the temperature rises by 3-5 ° C in the daytime, and at night the air can warm up to 15 ° C.

Pumpkin seedlings for growing in the Moscow Region open field need moderate, but regular watering and. If there is not enough natural light, additional lighting is arranged, which will also prevent the sprouts from stretching out excessively and weakening.

At the age of one week, the seedlings receive the first nitrogen fertilization, for which 250-300 ml of mullein solution or nitrophoska in the concentration indicated by the manufacturer is used per plant.

By the time the seedlings of pumpkin grown for open ground in the Moscow region fall into the soil, it has several true leaves of a rich green color and a strong, upright trunk. The time when pumpkin seedlings are planted in open ground comes with the departure of spring frosts from the Moscow region.

Between the plants of bush varieties, gaps of 70-100 cm are left, to ensure the nutrition of large plants that form powerful lashes, it is better to leave 1.5 meters.

Outdoor pumpkin care

If you want to get an early harvest, as well as if there is a danger of flooding, the area for pumpkins is used.

The simplest way is to plant a pumpkin on a mound about 10–15 cm high. In this case, the soil warms up better and faster, and a plant that has found itself in new conditions is easier to transplant. The soil should be moist, nutritious and loose, and the planted pumpkin seedlings must be watered and covered with a film or non-woven material.

Outdoor pumpkin care starts from the moment of planting and does not stop until harvest. So that moisture evaporates from the soil surface more slowly, weeds do not grow, and the soil is warm, the beds around the sprouts are mulched with straw. In the summer months, if the weather turns out to be rainy, this protection will prevent the ovaries and already ripening fruits from rotting.

Of no small importance for obtaining an early harvest is the choice of a site for planting. Not only does the crop require nutritious, organic-rich loose soil, the ridges need to be well lit and protected from the cold wind. For varieties that form powerful lashes, hedges and walls of buildings become such a protection and a kind of trellis.

For active and rapid growth of pumpkin grown in the open field of the Moscow region, you cannot do without regular feeding. Moreover, it is better to apply fertilizers not at the root, but at some distance from the plant, in a ring-shaped groove. Its depth increases from 8 to 12 cm as the bush develops. When the plant is still small, for the first feeding at the stage of several true leaves, such a depression is made at a distance of 15–20 cm from the stem. Then the hole is made at a distance of 40 cm. This is how all subsequent feeding is carried out with an interval of 7-10 days.

When applying fertilizers, you need to try to prevent the solution from getting on flowers, leaves and other green parts of the plant, as this can cause burns. At the end of the procedure, the gutter is sprinkled with soil. At the initial stages of pumpkin development in the open field, organic fertilizing is included in the care, which provokes the rapid growth of greenery. A week after planting, the seedlings are watered with a solution:

chicken droppings at the rate of 1:16;
diluted manure in a ratio of 1: 6;
1:10 herbal infusion, for example, nettles;
synthetic fertilizers containing nitrogen in the proportion indicated on the product.

As they grow, they are introduced, and by the time of harvest, nitrogen fertilizing is practically excluded and the proportion of potassium in fertilizers is increased. Such a measure will not allow the fruits to accumulate nitrates, but it will make it possible to form well and bring closer the moment when pumpkins will ripen in the Moscow region. Pumpkin responds well to foliar dressing, for which you can take ready-made universal action products.

Outdoor caring for pumpkin cannot be effective if the plant is limited in moisture. Watering, especially in the early days before the pumpkin has grown green, is extremely important. They may be rare, but not superficial. Roots located at a depth of 40 cm must receive enough moisture to ensure the development of a large and abundantly fruiting plant. In this case, the water for irrigation is taken standing and warm.

A month before the pumpkins in the open field ripen or will be cut due to the onset of cold weather, watering is gradually reduced, and then completely stopped.

Under artificial drought conditions, the plant will determine when it is time for the pumpkins to ripen. And by the time of harvest, the bark of the fruit will be harder, the stalk will dry out and woody, the pulp will become dense, with a high sugar content.

Forming pumpkin in the open field

When growing pumpkin in the open field of the Moscow region, it is difficult to get a decent, early harvest, if you do not form and limit the plants in growth. If for bush varieties you can limit yourself to removing female flowers during a period when a sufficient amount of ovary has already formed on the plant, then you will have to do differently with a pumpkin that gives long powerful lashes.

At the moment when 5-6 true leaves are revealed on the main pumpkin shoot, the stem is pinched, which stimulates:

development of lateral lashes from the sinuses;
an increase in the number of flowers, ovary and ripe fruits.

This does not end the formation of the plant. When the number of ovaries about 12-15 cm in diameter reaches 3-5, depending on the variety, the growth point of this lash is removed, leaving 3 to 5 leaves above the last ovary. So that all the forces of the plant go to the already formed fruits, from this moment all lateral shoots and flowers are removed. At the end of the article, in a detailed video on the formation of a pumpkin in the open field, the entire sequence of actions is considered.

Along the way, with the formation of a pumpkin in the open field, you can provide the plant with additional nutrition using a simple technique. As the lashes grow, they are evenly laid out in the area designated for pumpkins, and the stems are sprinkled with soil at a distance of 50-60 cm from the root and watered. As a result, additional roots are formed in these places, which help nourish the ripening pumpkins.

The number of fruits on pumpkins grown in the open field of the Moscow region is determined by:

maximum permissible load for the grade:
time remaining until the end of the growing season;
the degree of maturity of the already set pumpkins.

When does pumpkin ripen in the Moscow region?

With proper care for pumpkins in the open field, early and mid-season varieties ripen well in the middle lane, giving not too large fruits.

For gardeners, who make every effort to grow large-fruited varieties and butternut pumpkins, famous for their delicious taste and aroma, it is important not to miss the moment of harvesting and know exactly how to determine that the pumpkin is ripe.

There are several signs that the fetus is ready:

By the time pumpkins ripen, the stalk becomes coarse and looks like a dry cork.
Scourges and leaves begin to turn yellow and dry.
The bark changes shade, a pattern characteristic of the variety appears on it. While there are plants producing gray, green and creamy pumpkins, most varieties produce orange or all shades of yellow fruit.
Not only the color of the peel changes, but also its hardness. If the bark of the ovary can be easily damaged with a fingernail or a rough lash, then the bark of a pumpkin ripened in the Moscow Region becomes extremely strong.

And although the most delicious fruits are those that ripened in the sun, it is important to harvest the crop before the onset of persistent cold weather.

Do not forget that autumn in the Moscow region is insidious because the sun shines during the daytime, and the temperature is quite comfortable for pumpkins, and at night on the soil the September air cools down to very low levels.

Therefore, no matter how the summer resident cares for the pumpkin in the open field, it is better to remove the fruits that have not ripened in time at the first doubt. Frosts can seriously damage even ripe fruits, reducing their quality and storage capacity.

Pumpkins intended for storage are cut, leaving a stalk at least 4–6 cm long, sorted and left to dry. For 8-10 days in a dry, warm room or outdoors, under a canopy, if the weather permits, the fruits ripen, the bark hardens, the cut on the cutting dries up. If the nights are cold, as happens when a pumpkin ripens in September or early October in the Moscow region, the fruits are covered with hay or non-woven material. Unripe pumpkins are ripened in room conditions, which can take from 10 days to 1.5 months.

Planting pumpkin seedlings in open ground - video

If you have a small piece of land, and you do not know what is best to plant on it, be sure to add a pumpkin to your list. Taking care of her is not so difficult, and the harvest can be so rich that you will have enough for a long time. Pies, pumpkin jam, delicious porridge ... To provide yourself and all your relatives and friends with this useful vegetable, you need to plant it correctly.

Growing a pumpkin is easy

Site preparation

If you want to get a rich harvest, you need to choose the right site for the pumpkin. The garden bed should be located in a warm area that is warmed up by the sun's rays. But it also tolerates shading well. The soil can be any, but the most preferred is sandy or sandy loam. It is good because it warms up quickly.

It is good if before that winter wheat, corn or perennial grasses grew on the garden bed. You can choose a bed after other vegetable crops: onions, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, carrots. You should not plant it if cucumbers or squash grew here before, it is not advisable to do this in the place of cucumbers. On the same bed, you can grow pumpkin again only after five years.

Corn is a good precursor to pumpkin

Soil preparation

The land must be prepared in the fall. How to do it correctly?

Clear the area, remove weeds, plant residues.
Loosen shallowly with a hoe.
After some time, the earth must be dug up (2-3 weeks). Collect weed roots when digging.
In the spring, on the day of sowing or during the day, the earth needs to be dug again. Nitrogen fertilizers are added at the same time. After that, the area is leveled using a rake.
Make tall beds. The heavier the ground, the higher the bed should be. Standard sizes of a pumpkin bed: width - 1 -1.4 m, height should be at least 20-25 cm, and the distance between them - 50 cm.

Fertilization

When digging up the soil, be sure to fertilize the soil. The pumpkin begins to grow actively, its aerial part is rapidly growing, so it needs a lot of nutrients. How to fertilize the earth? The best option is manure or humus, rotted compost. 5-10 kg of manure are applied per square meter. They are laid to a depth of 10-15 cm if the soils are heavy, and 15-20 if light.

It is not always possible to apply such an amount of manure. Then it is put only in the seedling holes, 1-2 kg per plant. In addition to manure, it is worth putting a little superphosphate (20 g) and potassium sulfate (10 g) in the hole. Or use organo-mineral fertilizers, which apply 1 tablespoon per plant.

Pumpkin loves abundant fertilization with manure

On a heap

If you were vacationing in the village, you saw heaps of compost on which the pumpkin grows. It is not only a way to get high yields, but also to improve the compost heap. Why is it beneficial to plant pumpkin on compost:

No weeds. The compost is overgrown with herbs that must be removed. If you plant a pumpkin on it, then its green mass will not allow weeds to grow.
Accelerates decomposition. Coarse plant residues, such as cabbage stumps or sunflower stalks, etc., are also laid in the compost. They do not decompose quickly, it takes 2-3 years. And pumpkin speeds up this process. If you plant this plant on compost, then they decompose faster.
The heap looks prettier because the remains are covered with greenery.
The compost does not dry out.

Pumpkin grows well on a compost heap

Planting pumpkin seeds

If the plot is large, a planter will come in handy. The melon seeders SBN-3 and SBU-2-4 are used. The first seeder sows seeds in 2-3 rows, the distance between them is 140 or 180 cm. But this method is not suitable for an ordinary vegetable garden. Most often, you have to plant the seeds by hand.

Seeds are planted only early ripening varieties of pumpkin, or nutmeg, hardy. The rest - only through seedlings.

Training

How to plant a pumpkin? If you are looking for a good harvest, choose only full-weight seeds. To select the best, you need to prepare a 3-5% salt solution and dip the seeds into it. Those that surfaced are not good. The rest must be collected, washed and dried. Pumpkin seeds can be stored for 1-4 years. For seedlings to be friendly, the pumpkin grows healthy and strong, pre-sowing preparation of seeds is necessary. How to do it right?

Warming up

This is necessary to obtain friendly seedlings. They need to be kept at a temperature of 60 degrees for at least 2-3 hours.

Hardening

The pumpkin must be resistant to sudden changes in temperature. To make the plant better tolerate the cold, the seeds are hardened. They are kept at a temperature of + 1 ° C for 48 hours.

Disease resistance

Diseases can destroy still not matured plants. To prevent this, the seeds must be processed:

- crezacin;
- potassium kumate;
- Hellene;
- wood ash - for 1 liter of water 2 tbsp. ash. It needs to be infused for 1 day, filtered and immersed in a gauze bag for 1 day. Then rinse with water.
- Potassium permanganate. It should be pink. The water must be changed after 4 hours, treated for 12 hours.

Germination

The seeds are wrapped in a damp cloth, making sure that it does not dry out. After 2-3 days, sprouts will hatch.

Pumpkin seeds can be stored for up to four years

Landing

Pumpkin is the most resistant to cold weather, if we take all melons, but it also loves warmth. Therefore, you need to plant it in late spring, when there is no frost. If planted too early, the seeds will simply rot in cold soil. Therefore, pumpkin planting in open ground occurs when the soil temperature should be 13 ° C at a depth of 10 cm.

One plant has a nutritional area of 1 to 4 square meters. For early-ripening varieties, it may be less, for late-ripening varieties, more.

Therefore, the distance between plants is so important. If these are long-leaved varieties, then a distance of 1.5 - 2 m is left between the holes, and 1.4 - 2 m between the rows.When choosing bush pumpkin varieties, the planting scheme is different: this is a nesting method, 80 by 80 cm or 1, 2 by 1, 2 m. With light soils, planting seeds is deep - 5-8 cm, with heavy soils - 4-5 cm. You can put from 2 to 5 seeds in one hole: less in large-fruited, more in nutmeg. They are placed at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other.

The pumpkin must be planted at a distance from each other.

Through seedlings

If you want to grow late-ripening varieties that ripen in 120-140 days, the crop will only mature if you plant seedlings. Seed planting is carried out in April (end) or May (beginning). It is important to calculate the planting time so that after a month (25-30 days) it can be planted in open ground.

Growing seedlings

Buy peat pots (diameter 10-15 cm), fill them with peat soil. You can prepare the land yourself. To do this, take 4 parts of humus and mix it with one part of turf. Fertilizers must be added to the ground. For one bucket, you will need ammonium nitrate (4 g) + potassium salt (4 g) + superphosphate (5 g). All this is moistened, mixed. Seeds are sown to a depth of 2-3 cm, covered with foil.

Planting pumpkins for seedlings is carried out in peat pots or cassettes

At first, the temperature is 18-25 degrees. After 4-5 days, you will see the sprouts hatching. The film must be removed, the temperature must be lowered to 15-20 degrees. To do this, ventilate the room more often. If this is not done, then the seedlings will stretch out. Seedlings are not watered often so that the plant does not grow pampered. Don't forget to feed. The first is done 8-10 days after the sprouts hatch.

They are fed with a mixture of darin. The second time feeding is needed before planting, any mineral fertilizer will do. Add 3-4 g of fertilizer to 1 liter of water.

Landing

You can plant a pumpkin outside only when the weather is stable. If suddenly there is a frost, all your work will be lost. The seedling holes are arranged in the same way as described above. I make the holes large to fit the plant with a clod of earth. 1-2 liters of warm water are poured into each well in advance. Seedlings are planted deeply, covering them with earth until the cotyledon leaves. Then additional roots are formed. Then the seedlings must be watered. If you are planting seedlings on a compost heap, the distance between the plants should be 70-80 cm.

Familiar in the garden space and culinary use pumpkin lends itself well to cultivation and care in various conditions, including open ground.

Pumpkin: a description of the garden culture

Smooth, bumpy or warty pumpkin fruits obtained as a result of natural farming are very diverse in shape, color and weight. The latter ranges from tens of grams to a centner. Growing pumpkin in open ground is facilitated by the peculiarities of its root system - the depth (up to 3 m) of the main root and a wide spread (up to 10 sq. M) active part, located in arable land 20-25 cm from the surface.

This gives a solid drought tolerance. Although varieties in the form of bushes have already become known in gardening practice, the classic pumpkin stalk creeps (crawls) along the ground, stretching up to four or more meters. The huge leaf surface consists of large, with elongated petioles, pumpkin leaves that do not have stipules. Each of the plants is a common home for male and female flowers.

The heterosexual flowers having the same red-orange color differ:

flowering sequence (male ones appear first);
place on the stem (female - higher);
pedicels (for men - longer);
the presence of sometimes inflorescences (only in males).

In addition, non-pollinated female flowers last longer. Pollination is carried out by insects (due to the natural severity of the pollen, which the wind cannot carry) or manually by humans. The morning hours of the first days after watering or rain are most favorable for natural pollination.

The absence of bees due to cold, heat or prolonged rainfall leads to the fall of unpolished flowers. The ellipses of pumpkin seeds, rounded and pointed at different ends, are well known to many lovers of eating them. Germination capacity lasts up to four years.

In connection with the latter circumstance, it is possible to give an answer to the question of whether it is possible to sow pumpkin with fresh seeds: there should be more of them than the usual amount (after all, the germination rate is slightly worse), and if we are talking only about a few seeds, then it is recommended to cut them with a sharp side, since the strong fresh shell prevents the growth of the sprout.

Did you know?Of the eight hundred pumpkin varieties known in the world, only 200 are edible.

Features of growing pumpkin, how to choose a site for planting

In addition to natural attention to the light and temperature regime and the soil structure of the area where the pumpkin will grow, it is also necessary to take into account the peculiarities of its root system, which actively removes nutrients from the ground, and wide foliage that can drown out neighboring plantings.

Lighting requirements

Ideally, the pumpkin needs lighting, as gardeners say, full sun, that is, it should have at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. The result of this impact will be increased yields and improved fruit quality.

But she will endure the penumbra with dignity. This is used to maximize the exploitation of the available land, compacting crops of long-stemmed maize with pumpkin plantings. The shade from the pumpkin itself makes it very difficult for the weeds to grow. In this sense, it can be used as a means to cleanse the soil.

Optimum temperature for seedlings or seeds

The general rule is that the extreme limit of the daytime air temperature when planting pumpkin seedlings was not lower than + 8 ° С(for seed planting - from + 13 ° С and above) subject to its reduction at night not lower than + 3 ° С. In other cases, the risk is not worth it.

What should be the soil for planting

Growing well in any soil, pumpkin prefers a soil rich in humus, moist but not too moist, with good drainage. To get this, before planting (sowing), the soil is mixed with a lot of compost.

The soil for pumpkin can be both slightly acidic and slightly alkaline, but acidity (pH) 6.5 is recognized as optimal. You should not plant a pumpkin on the site where its relatives grew up before (cucumbers, zucchini, squash).

After other crops, the soil for pumpkin is suitable, and planting after potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, carrots, winter cereals (corn and wheat), various legumes and herbaceous perennials is very favorable.

Important!Do not be afraid of ground waters close to the ground (0.6 - 0.7 m) - they will not affect the yield of the pumpkin.

Planting pumpkins in the garden (planting dates, sowing technology, picking seedlings, preparing seeds, etc.)

What is the best way to proceed when determining whether to plant a pumpkin with seeds or seedlings, the owner must prompt the climate of the area in which his site is located. That is, before sowing a pumpkin directly into open ground or for seedlings, you need to devote some time to studying and assessing natural factors. It depends on the latitude in which month of the year the gardeners will plant the pumpkin. In particular, for the middle lane, this is the end of April.

Sowing seeds in open ground

Pumpkin seeds are planted directly in open ground in vegetable gardens where the July air temperature does not fall below 18 degrees. Before that, you need to make sure, after studying the forecast of meteorologists, that there is no threat of a quiet disaster, as recurrent frosts are sometimes called. After such a danger has passed, sowing is carried out. If the weather worsens, it is better to cover the crops with non-woven textiles.

Important!The day before planting, the seeds are warmed up and soaked in water with dissolved ash.

Once you've opted for the seedling method, care must be taken to properly germinate the pumpkin seeds for seedlings. So that the roots are intact when they are moved into open ground, planting pumpkin seeds for seedlings is done immediately in peat pots or just in paper cups.

When using seed boxes, a layer of sawdust is poured into their bottom, under a substrate made of a mixture of peat and soil. Sowing is carried out three weeks before moving into open ground. In order for the pumpkin seeds to sprout well, the germination temperature in the first three days can be brought to 25 degrees, reducing it at night to a maximum of +15.

Planting pumpkin seedlings involves a number of prerequisites. When the prepared soil is not yet warmed up, pumpkin seedlings should not be planted. You can determine the optimal (12 degrees) soil temperature by simply inserting an ordinary household thermometer for 10 minutes into it. If it is lower, then make a blanket of plastic (preferably black) film for the soil. If you can't stand time or there will be no other case for planting, then three (or more) liters of hot water can be poured into the landing holes.

Seedlings grown in peat pots are planted with them, burying 3 cm deeper than in greenhouse soil. Seedlings from boxes are placed in holes filled with water so that the roots, being located in the soil, avoid unnecessary bends.

How to properly care for a pumpkin

Pumpkin care begins with watering it immediately after planting. About a week later, it is advisable to mulch the soil surface with compost containing effective microorganisms, placing crushed nettles on top of its layer. Peat, humus, pine needles and even dry soil are also suitable as mulch.

An essential point of care is supportive loosening of the soil, which must be done at least every two weeks. This procedure is almost always combined with weeding. Immediately after planting, the loosening depth can be up to 12 cm, and by the end of the first month it must be reduced to 5-8 cm in order to avoid damage to the root system. In the absence of natural (insect) pollination, it is necessary to use the manual method - otherwise, decay of untied fruits occurs.

The operation, which should be carried out before noon, is quite simple: the anthers of each plucked male flower with the petals removed should be gently touching the pistils of one or two female flowers. When the weather improves, then to attract insects as pollinators, you can spray the flowering pumpkin with honey water every week (one teaspoon of sweetness per 10 liters of water).

Important!To prevent the fruits from rotting, do the pollination yourself.

How to form a plant correctly

Pumpkin seedlings quickly become sprawling plants with long stems and large leaves. So that a powerful plant does not violate the boundaries of its growing territory, it is required to form a pumpkin, which is easy to do in the open field. For this, the pumpkin pinching technology is used, and it must be done while the plant is young. Pinching occurs by removing the apical bud (with part of the shoot).

Its purpose is the accelerated development of lateral shoots bearing a greater number of female flowers. In addition, excess young axillary shoots that have reached 5-7 cm are removed - this procedure is called pinching. It is carried out in the open field simultaneously with the removal of excess leaves and the direction of all processed pumpkin lashes in one direction. At the same time, leaving one ovary on each lash, excellent fruit sizes are obtained at the harvesting stage.

Watering and fertilizing pumpkin

The watering period for the pumpkin is the time of its flowering, the emergence and development of ovaries. At the beginning of fruit setting, the plant is watered sparingly so that they do not grow too small. Then the volume of moisture, moreover warm (at least +20 degrees), is increased.

Warm significant watering promotes the formation of female flowers. Cold watering with well or artesian water can ruin the planting. When real foliage appears on the growing pumpkin, they begin to feed it with dry nitrophosphate (10 g for each plant) and 15 grams of nitrophosphate, diluted with water, are given to each vegetable during the formation of lashes.

- ash at the rate of 1 glass / 1 plant;
- a solution (1: 8) of mullein at the rate of 10 liters per six plants, when the growing season began, and by three - during fruiting;
- humus, rotted chicken droppings or manure, humus - you can by eye.

How to protect pumpkin from pests and diseases

Pests and diseases	Manifestations	Protection methods
Melon aphid	Rolling leaves, falling flowers	Spraying with infusion of celandine (or garlic, or onion husks) or a chemical solution (kemifos, actellik, fufanon). Autumn collection and elimination of plant residues, deep digging of soil
Slugs	Damage to young leaves (round holes and silvery stripes), later to ovaries	Soil loosening, thinning, weeding. Traps of cabbage leaves, watermelon peels, soaked rags, followed by destruction of pests in a concentrated saline solution. Superphosphate and other chemical protective bands around plants. Spraying with creocide solution
Powdery mildew	Drying of diseased leaves, covered with abundant white bloom, spreading to the stems and petioles	Timely weeding. Warm watering. Removing diseased leaves. Spraying with chemicals (strobe, topaz) and treating the soil with them three weeks before harvest
Peronosporosis (downy mildew)	Growing and drying light yellow spots and gray-purple bloom on the leaves	Warming up the seeds before sowing. Spraying with chemicals (strobe, kartotsid, copper oxychloride, cuproxate)
Anthracnose	Drying out and forming holes on the leaves depressed spots with a pink bloom. Also appear on cotyledons and petioles	Removal of diseased plants. Spraying (Bordeaux liquid, copper oxychloride, abigalic)

In general, pumpkin is not very susceptible to harmful influences, but basic protection methods will come in handy in case of negative manifestations.