When you can plant a pumpkin in open ground. How to grow a pumpkin in the open ground. Factors Affecting Pumpkin Yields

Among Central American farmers, holding contests to determine the largest pumpkin is popular. In American culture, pumpkin is an integral part of Halloween (the festival in honor of the evil spirits). The fruit is freed from the pulp, a face is cut out on the surface, and a lamp is inserted inside.

They love pumpkin very much in Russia. The culture is unpretentious in cultivation and care, even inexperienced vegetable growers will cope with this task. Excellent fruiting in temperate zones and in the northern regions, while not requiring the construction of greenhouses.

In gratitude for the elementary care, the plant will give a high yield.

Dates of sowing pumpkin seeds into the ground

Pumpkins seeds in open ground depends on weather conditions:

Pumpkin is a heat-loving plant, therefore it is necessary to plant it when the earth warms up to at least +10 - + 12 ° C and night frosts are no longer expected.
In terms of time, this is most often May 10-15 in the middle lane, sometimes you can plant already 5-6 numbers.

If there is a threat of frost, the seedlings will need to be covered with cropped plastic bottles, banks or film cover. Some gardeners use the old-fashioned method: they make bonfires at night to remove frost from the site.

You can plant a pumpkin in a cold greenhouse (under a film shelter) much earlier: from the end of March to the end of April. This method is very popular with the most impatient vegetable growers who want to get a crop a month and a half earlier.

Pumpkin growing place

Site lighting and groundwater availability

To get a good harvest, for a pumpkin, select a site well lit by sunlight. It is better to plant on hills, the occurrence of groundwater should be more than 1 m. Low and moist areas are contraindicated.

Wind protection and soil composition

A good location would be the south side of the wall or fence. This will provide protection from cold winds and maximum access to the warming rays of the sun.

The soil requires nutritious, saturated with organic fertilizers, the reaction is neutral.

Predecessors

Favorable crop predecessors can positively affect yield: beans, peas, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes.

Do not plant a pumpkin after cucumbers, squash, zucchini.

Preliminary site preparation

Preparation of the site should be done in advance (since the fall). Under deep digging (to a depth of at least a bayonet of a shovel) fertilizers should be applied.

For 1 m², you will need 2 buckets of humus, 1 liter can of wood ash, 200 g of superphosphate and 100 g of potassium chloride, the last two ingredients can be replaced with 1 glass of nitrophoska.
In the spring immediately before planting, the site is leveled with a rake, having previously scattered ammonium nitrate in the amount recommended by the manufacturer.
Spill ridges with hot water (80 ° C) to disinfect against possible diseases.

What to put in a hole when planting a pumpkin

It happens that in the fall they didn’t have time to prepare the plot, then you can get out of the situation in another way: when planting, 1 kg of humus is put in each hole, you can add wood ash for shrimp. If there is no organics, put 30 g of complex mineral fertilizers (for example, ammophos, nitrophoska, nitroammofoska, potassium nitrate) in each well. A good mixture would be 10 grams. potassium sulfate + 20 gr. superphosphate per well.

Processing pumpkin seeds before planting

How to soak pumpkins before planting? Whether it is necessary to germinate pumpkin seeds before planting, everyone decides for himself. Even without pre-soaking, pumpkin seeds germinate well if the soil is moist enough. To do this, after sowing, you need to water the wells.

Keep in mind that pre-treated seeds will have to be watered: if the seeds wake up and get a lot of moisture at the start, and it is dry and hot in the ground, the seedlings will die.

Seed suitability and disinfection

A common mistake: some gardeners sometimes sow old seeds, naturally they do not receive seedlings. If you are not sure about the planting material, the seeds must first be checked for germination. Immerse in normal saline. Those that have sunk to the bottom are quality. Then for 10 minutes, hold in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate to disinfect from diseases, and be sure to rinse.

Do I need to soak a pumpkin before planting?

Do I need to germinate pumpkin seeds before planting? If you are ready to pay a little more attention to caring for a pumpkin, the procedure will be useful: shoots will appear much earlier.

How to sprout a pumpkin for planting

Seeds are soaked to speed up germination. To do this, the seeds are placed in a damp cloth and constantly monitor how swollen they are - start sowing when they swell and bend a little, but will not germinate. If you overexpose the seeds and they let out thick roots, when sowing they can be broken and there will be no seedlings.

Soaked and sprouted seeds are planted in the mud or watered immediately after planting.

How to treat pumpkin seeds before planting to improve growth

There is another good way: for a day they soak in a solution of potassium humate or sodium humate, then for 1-2 days they are placed in a moist tissue. Keep the air temperature at 22-23 ° C.

Proper planting of pumpkins in open ground

The scheme of planting pumpkins in the open ground

It is important to dig a pumpkin bed very deep (about 40 cm).
Make a ridge about 70 cm wide. The holes should be centered.
Keep a distance of about 0.8 m between individual wells.
The width of the passage between the ridges is 70 cm.

Depth of planting pumpkin seeds

Germinated seeds in moist soil, the seeding depth is 6 cm. For reliability, sow 2 seeds in one hole, and when the shoots appear, remove the weaker specimen.

Outdoor Pumpkin Care

How to pinch and form lashes

Correct for a pumpkin in the open ground, first of all, is to form a plant. When the main stem reaches a dyne of 1.3-1.5 m, it should be pinched, leave 2 side shoots 60-70 cm long. On each shoot, form one fruit. That is, one plant will “feed” three fruits: one on the main shoot and one on two lateral.

Remove excess shoots and flowers. To improve the fruit pouring, it is recommended to leave the shoots pressed to the ground with a wire or bark from a tree and sprinkle with a small layer of soil (6-7 cm), so the whips will take root in this place. Place a plywood under each fruit, or better, a piece of glass (additional heating and a dry surface will be obtained).

How to feed

Favorably the size of the fruit will be affected by the introduction of fertilizing:

Feed for the first time, when 3-5 leaves appear, repeat the procedure with an interval of 15 days.
You can use organic matter (per 10 liters of water, 1 liter of mullein infusion, consumption - for 2 plants)
or mineral fertilizers (2 tablespoons of nitrophosphate for the same volume, consumption is similar).

How to water

Pumpkin is hygrophilous. During flowering and fruit loading, water about 1 time per week. Under each bush, add 20-30 liters of warm water. Do not make abundant hydration until the fruits grow a little (all the strength can go into the leaves). Loosen the soil after watering. Remove weeds regularly.

Harvesting and storage

In order for the pumpkins to be stored well and for a long time, ripened fruits must be cut together with the stem (5-6 cm long). Store in a dry place, it is possible at room temperature, but at a temperature range of 5-8 ° C the fruits remain until spring.

Diseases and Pests

Pumpkin has many diseases and pests, so you should study the possible problems and methods of dealing with them.

Pumpkin Disease:

Bacteriosis - manifests itself in high humidity and sudden changes in temperature. Brown spots and sores appear on the leaves and fruits. Remove affected leaves. Treat with cadmium sulfate or Bordeaux.
White rot is a fungal disease that affects the entire plant (leaves, fruit shoots). It can be recognized by a whitish coating, if you do not take measures, the plant will rot. Sprinkle the affected areas and the beds themselves with copper sulfate powder, fluffy lime or crushed charcoal.
Root rot - the development of the disease provokes watering with cold water or sudden changes in temperature. In the fight against the disease, proceed as follows: cut off rotten roots, treat with fungicide, sprinkle with earth on top, so that the plant takes root.
Powdery mildew - a white coating appears on the leaves, gradually they dry out, the fruits develop poorly. Remove affected leaves, treat with isophene or colloidal sulfur.

Among the pests:

Spider mite - a thin cobweb appears on the back of the leaf plate, the plant withers (the pest sucks the juices). Rinse with plain water, spray with a solution of infusion of onion peel or garlic.
Melon aphid - small greenish insects provoke twisting and drying of leaf plates. Treat with 10% malathion solution.

Prevention of disease and pests is proper care.

Pumpkin varieties

To date, 800 hybrids and registered. About 30 are suitable for cultivation on a site for human consumption (they are sweet).

Consider the best of them, classifying by maturity.

Early ripening (sugar content is 5.5-9%):
Muscat (ripening period is 90 days);
Butternut (100 days to ripen)
Therapeutic (matures over 100-115 days).

Mid-season (maximum yield, sugar content is 7-13%):

Almond
Marble
Barn

Late-ripening varieties (sugar content of about 12%, the technical ripening period is 140-160 days):

Dawn of the East
Winter sweet
Mushroom winter

If you have a small plot of land, and you have not decided what to plant on it, be sure to include a pumpkin on the list. Caring for it is not difficult, but the harvest is rich. And about how to plant a pumpkin in the open ground, I will describe in detail in this article.

Growing pumpkins is a snap

How to plant a pumpkin: preparing the site

If you are interested in a rich harvest, then you need to choose the right place for planting. The ridge should be located in a warm place, on the sunny side. The soil can be any, but sand or sandy loam is preferable, such soil warms up better. It is best to plant after winter wheat, corn or perennial grasses. You can also pick up ridges after tomato, onions, potatoes, cabbage or carrots. It is not recommended to plant after cucumbers or squash. You can’t sit in the same place, you need to wait 5 years after the previous landing.

Preparing the soil for planting pumpkins

Land for landing to prepare in the fall, for this you need to perform the following work:

To clear the earth of the remains of plants.
Loosen shallow hoe.
After 2-3 weeks, the earth needs to be dug up, while collecting weedy roots.
In the spring, before planting, dig again, with the addition of nitrogen fertilizers, after which the ridge is leveled with a rake.
High ridges are made. The heavier the earth, the higher the ridge. The standard ridge should be 1-1.5 meters wide, 25 centimeters high. The width of the furrows between the ridges should be about half a meter.

Fertilizing before planting pumpkins in open ground

When digging the earth, they necessarily fertilize the soil. After planting, pumpkin begins to grow rapidly, for this you need a lot of nutrients. The best option for fertilizer is humus or manure. A bucket of manure or humus is added per square meter.

Pumpkin loves plentiful manure fertilizer

In heavy soils to a depth of 10-15 centimeters, on light soils - 15-20 centimeters. If you do not have the required amount of manure, then you can put only in the holes for seedlings - 1..2 kilograms per hole. In addition to manure, 20 grams of superphosphate and 10 grams of potassium sulfate are also added. Or use complex fertilizers, a tablespoon per plant.

Planting Pumpkin Seeds

For a large plot you need a seeder. For this, the gourds seeders SBN-3 and SBU-2-4 are used. At the first seeder, the seeds are planted in 2-3 rows, with an interval of 140 or 180 centimeters. For small gardens, they will not work, you have to plant seeds by hand.

Important: Planting with seeds is performed only in early pumpkin varieties, such as nutmeg and hard bark. The remaining varieties are planted only through seedlings.

How to plant a pumpkin

If you are interested in a good crop, you need to choose full-weight seeds. To select the best seeds, salted water is prepared, into which the seed is lowered, the pop-up seeds are rejected. The rest is collected, washed and dried.

Pumpkin seeds are stored for up to four years

Duration of storage of seeds reaches up to 4 years. For a better shoot and a healthy harvest, it is necessary to carry out preparatory measures:

Warming up. This process will give good shoots, done at 60 degrees, within 2-3 hours.
Quenching. The plant must tolerate temperature extremes, for this the seeds are kept at a temperature of +1 degree for two days.
Increase Disease Resistance. Diseases can damage shoots that have not yet matured, and so that this does not happen, the seeds are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, potassium kumat or wood ash infused in water.
Seed germination. To do this, they are wrapped in wet gauze, in a couple of days the first sprouts will appear.

Of all gourds, pumpkin is the most resistant to cold, so it is planted in late spring, when the possibility of frost is already excluded. If you hurry up and plant early, the seeds in the cold earth will simply rot, so they will plant when the temperature of the soil reaches +13 degrees. For one plant you need 1-4 sq.m of soil for nutrition.

Please note: For early varieties, the area may be smaller - for later varieties more, so the distance between plants is very important.

For long-graded varieties, you need to leave a distance between holes of 1.5-2 meters, and between rows also up to 2 meters. Shrub varieties are planted in a square of 80 by 80 centimeters. On light soils, the planting depth should be 5-8 centimeters, on heavy soils 4-5 centimeters. From 2-5 seeds are placed in one hole, at a distance of three centimeters from each other.

Pumpkin needs to be planted at a distance from each other

Planting pumpkins through seedlings

This method is chosen for late-ripening varieties with a growing season of 120-140 days. To do this, the seeds are germinated in April or early May. The main thing is to calculate the planting dates so that the monthly seedlings are already planted in the ground.

Planting pumpkins for seedlings is made in peat pots or cassettes

To plant seedlings, peat pots with a diameter of 15 centimeters are purchased and filled with soil. You can buy the finished land or prepare it yourself. To do this, take 4 parts of humus and mix with one part of soddy soil. The prepared soil is fertilized, a bucket will require 4 grams of ammonium nitrate, 4 grams of potassium salt, 5 grams of superphosphate. The resulting mixture is moistened and mixed. Seeds are sown to a depth of two centimeters and covered with a film. The germination temperature should be + 18..25 degrees, after the appearance of the first shoots, the film is removed, and the temperature drops to + 15..20 degrees. For this, the room is simply ventilated more often, if this is not done, the seedlings will simply stretch. Watering is also not done often, so as not to get pampered seedlings.

Important: The first top dressing is performed a week after the appearance of the sprouts. The second is produced before planting, any complex fertilizer is suitable for this.

Planting seedlings in open ground is done in warm weather, if you freeze, you simply lose seedlings. Planting pattern is the same as when planting seeds. Holes are dug large to plant with a lump of earth. Wells are spilled with hot water before planting. Deepen the seedlings to the leaves, this will allow the formation of additional roots. After planting, seedlings should be watered.

Video: Planting pumpkin seedlings in the ground

Plant common pumpkin (lat. Cucurbita pepo) - A type of grassy annual of the genus Pumpkin of the Pumpkin family, which is attributed to melons. The birthplace of the plant is Mexico. In the Oaxaca Valley, it has been growing for at least 8,000 years. Even before our era, pumpkin was distributed in North America along the Missouri and Mississippi river valleys. Spanish sailors brought pumpkin to the Old World in the 16th century, and since then it has been widely cultivated not only in Europe but also in Asia. Record holders for growing pumpkins are China, India and Russia. Pumpkin vegetables are not only tasty, but also useful, and the pulp of the plant, which contains, in addition to a number of substances necessary for humans, rare vitamin T, and pumpkin seeds, oil from which is a regenerative and anti-inflammatory agent that does not cause allergies, also benefit.

In this article we will tell you how to grow pumpkin seedlings, when to plant a pumpkin in open ground, how to water a pumpkin, how to treat a pumpkin from diseases and pests, how to fertilize a pumpkin, what a pumpkin is sick with, and share other important information that will allow you to hesitation to begin cultivating this tasty and healthy plant.

Landing: sowing seeds in the soil - when the soil at a depth of 7-8 cm warms up to 12-13 ˚C; sowing seeds for seedlings - in April or early May, planting seedlings in open ground - in late May or early June.
The soil: any, but better fertile, previously dug up with organic and mineral fertilizers.
Watering: after planting seedlings - daily, until the seedlings take root, then infrequent, until the ovaries reach the size of a fist. In a season with a normal amount of rainfall, you can not water it at all. When the fruits begin to gain mass, gradually increase the flow of water to 1 bucket per 1 adult plant.
Top dressing: 1st — with a solution of chicken droppings or mullein a week after transplanting seedlings, then 3-4 organic top dressings are carried out every month.
Reproduction: seedling seedling and seedling method.
Pests: gourds, aphids, (or white footstails), wireworms, slugs.
Disease white rot, anthracnose, ascochitosis, powdery mildew and black mold.

Pumpkin Vegetable - Description

The root of the pumpkin is branched, stem, creeping, pentahedral, rough stem with spiny pubescence reaches a length of 5-8 meters. The leaves are alternate, heart-shaped, five-branched or five-lobed, long-leaved, with a plate length of up to 25 cm, pubescent with hard short hairs. In the sinus of each leaf, a spiral tendril develops. Flowers unisexual, large, solitary, orange or yellow. Female flowers on short pedicels, while male flowers on long peduncles bloom in June or July and are pollinated crosswise. The fruit is a fleshy, large, oval or spherical false pumpkin berry with a large number of seeds, ripening in late summer or early autumn. Pumpkin seeds are creamy white, 1 to 3 cm long, with a protruding rim around the edge and a woody outer shell.

Growing pumpkin from seeds

Sowing Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkins are grown from seeds using seedlings and seedlings, but cultivation of a variety such as nutmeg pumpkins involves an exclusively seedling method of propagation. Sowing pumpkin seeds into the soil is carried out no earlier than the soil at a depth of 7-8 cm warms up to a temperature of 12-13 ºC. Pumpkin cultivation in the open field begins with pre-sowing treatment of the site and seed.

Before planting, the seeds are heated for 9-10 hours at a temperature of 40 ºC, then they are immersed for half an day in an ash solution (2 tablespoons of wood ash are diluted with stirring in 1 liter of boiling water) in order to facilitate the passage of the embryo through a dense peel. The seeds are heated in the oven, then they are wrapped in several layers of gauze, abundantly moistened with ash solution. You can, of course, not do any of this, but then the ripening time of the pumpkin is increased, and if you live in an area with a short and not hot summer, then your pumpkin will not have time to ripen before frost without seed treatment.

Before planting a pumpkin (we’ll talk about how to prepare a pumpkin patch a bit later), draw rows in the garden and make holes in them with a diameter of 30 cm. If the winter was snowless and the land is dry, each hole is poured one and a half to two liters of water with a temperature of 50 ºC, and when it is absorbed, plant 2-3 seeds, but not in a heap, but spread them at a distance from each other, deepening by 5-6 cm, if the soil on the bed is medium loamy, and 8-10 cm if the soil is light. Seeds are covered with fertile soil, and the site is mulched with peat crumb or humus.

Between the rows leave a gap of at least 2 m, and between the holes in the row - at least a meter. To make holes better in a checkerboard pattern. To accelerate the emergence of seedlings, a film is thrown onto the crops, sprinkling its edges with earth.

When shoots appear, and this happens under normal conditions in a week, remove the film, wait until 2 real leaflets develop on the seedlings and thin them: leave no more than 2 plants in each hole, do not pull out the rest, but simply cut them at ground level, so as not to injure the root system of the remaining seedlings. If you are still afraid of frost, install a wire frame in the area and throw a film on it.

Growing pumpkin seedlings

Planting pumpkins for seedlings is carried out 15-20 days before planting seedlings in open ground. The pumpkin seeds bent after pre-sowing treatment are laid out one by one in plastic or peat pots with a diameter of 10-15 cm, half filled with soil mix from two parts of humus, one part of turf land and one part of peat. Fill the seeds with the same soil mixture, but with the addition of a five percent solution of mullein and 10-15 g of wood ash. The crops are moistened, after which the pots are covered with a film.

How to grow pumpkin seedlings and prevent it from stretching, what often happens with seedlings at home? Caring for pumpkin seedlings involves keeping crops under good lighting, which excludes direct sunlight, and at a temperature of 20-25 ºC, and when shoots appear, set the temperature regime: during the day, the room should be 15-20 ºC, and at night - 12-13 ºC. If, however, some seedlings are extended, then after a week and a half, the sub-cotyledonous section of such a seedling is folded into a ring and covered with cotyledonous leaves with moist soil.

Water the crops sparingly, avoiding waterlogging of the substrate. Twice during the seedling period, seedlings receive complex top dressing. Pumpkin fertilizer is prepared according to this recipe: 1 liter of mullein, 17 g of ammonium sulfate, 15 g of potassium sulfate and 20 g of superphosphate are diluted in 10 l of water. Consumption - half a liter of solution per seedling. Before planting in open ground, seedlings are taken out to the veranda or balcony and tempering procedures are carried out, opening the window for an hour or two, and gradually for a longer time, so that the plants get used to the environment in which they will soon find themselves. A couple of days before planting in the ground, the window is no longer closed at all.

Pumpkin pick

To the question of how to dive a pumpkin, we answer: it is contraindicated to dive a pumpkin, since it is very easy to damage the root system of seedlings during transplantation. That is why it is recommended to sow pumpkin seeds in separate pots.

Planting pumpkins in the open ground

When to plant a pumpkin in the ground

Planting pumpkins in the ground is carried out with the onset of steady warm weather. This usually happens in late May or early June. Pumpkin is a melon culture, which means that it needs a lot of sun, so choose the southern section for planting the pumpkin. The optimum temperature for pumpkin growth is 25 ºC, and if the temperature drops to 14 ºC, plant growth stops. Pumpkin grows well in areas where green manure, onions, cabbage, carrots, beets, soybeans, peas, beans, beans, lentils or peanuts grew last year. Potato, sunflower, cucumber, zucchini, squash, watermelon, melon and pumpkin are considered to be bad predecessors.

Pumpkin soil

Pumpkin grows on any soil, but large and sweet, it can ripen only on fertile soil. A pumpkin plot is prepared in the fall: they are dug up, introducing 3-5 kg \u200b\u200bof compost or manure into one-m² infertile soil, 200-300 g of ash or lime into heavy or acid soil, and 25-30 g of phosphorus and 15-20 g of potash fertilizer. In the spring, after the snow melts, to prevent the soil from drying out, they harrow it, then loosen it slightly and clean it of weeds, and before planting seedlings or sowing the seeds, they dig it to a depth of 12-18 cm. If for some reason you did not manage to prepare a site with autumn, apply fertilizer at the time of planting in each hole dug under the seedling.

Growing pumpkins in a greenhouse

Pumpkin is rarely grown from beginning to end in a greenhouse. More often, the greenhouse is used to grow pumpkin seedlings, which then are still planted in open ground. Planting pumpkins in the greenhouse is carried out one seed at a time in peat pots 10x10 in size to avoid picking, which pumpkin seedlings do not tolerate. Until the seeds sprout, the temperature in the greenhouse should be 26 ºC, and from the moment of emergence of the seedlings it is lowered to 19 ºC for a week, and then return to the previous temperature regime. Two weeks after the appearance of the first sprouts, seedlings are fertilized with mullein.

Water the seedlings as necessary, but abundantly: the earth with an average indicator of humidity should be loose. In open ground, seedlings are planted 4 weeks after the appearance of the first seedlings.

How to plant a pumpkin in the open ground

We already wrote how to place a pumpkin in the garden, but the holes for seedlings do a little deeper than when sowing seeds: they must fully accommodate the root system of seedlings at a depth of 8-10 cm. If you have not fertilized the area since autumn, keep in mind that when planting in each well, you need to add half a bucket of humus or compost, 50 g of superphosphate and 2 cups of ash, carefully mixing the fertilizers with the soil. Here, on the basis of this, and calculate the depth of the holes for seedlings.

Spill the holes with one or two liters of hot water, let it soak, and then transfer the pumpkin seedling along with the root ball from the pot, fill the voids with soil, ramming it tightly. After planting, the site is mulched with peat or covered with dry soil to prevent the formation of a crust on the soil surface.

Pumpkin Care

How to grow a pumpkin

After planting seedlings, their care consists in thinning, watering, weeding, top dressing, and, if necessary, in artificial pollination, for which no later than 11 a.m. a couple of male flowers are torn off, petals are cut off on them and anthers of both flowers gently touch the stigma several times. female flower, leaving the last of the male flowers on the stigma of the female. This measure is necessary for incomplete fertilization of the ovaries, which may lead to the formation of irregularly shaped pumpkins.

Watering pumpkin

Freshly planted seedlings are watered daily until they take root. After this, the soil is moistened as rarely as possible until the ovaries become the size of a fist. If the summer is rainy, then stop watering at all. When the fruits begin to gain mass, the pumpkin beds are moistened again and gradually the rate of water consumption is reduced to one bucket under one adult plant.

Soil loosening

After watering or rain it is very convenient to loosen the soil around the plants and clean it of weed grass. The first loosening to a depth of 6-8 cm must be carried out with the appearance of seedlings. It is better to loosen aisles to a depth of 12-18 cm before watering, so that the water penetrates faster to the roots. During loosening, slightly harden the plants, giving them stability.

Thinning seedlings

If you sowed seeds directly into the soil, during the formation of two real leaves at the seedlings, you need to thin them, leaving two sprouts in one hole of a hard-barked or nutmeg pumpkin, and one-fruited one. The second thinning is carried out when 3-4 seedlings are formed in the seedlings. But we remind you: you do not need to pull out extra seedlings, since you can damage the root system of those seedlings that you decide to leave. Just cut off the unnecessary seedling at ground level.

Pumpkin dressing

The first top dressing with diluted water chicken manure or manure in a ratio of 1: 4 is carried out a week after transplanting seedlings or three weeks after sowing seeds in the ground. The frequency of such organic dressing 3-4 times a month. A pumpkin responds well to top dressing with a solution of 10-50 g of a garden mixture in a liter of water at the rate of one bucket per 10 plants. An excellent fertilizer is a solution of a glass of wood ash in 10 liters of water. To make the first feeding, make around the plants at a distance of 10-12 cm grooves with a depth of 6-8 cm and pour the solution into them. For further feeding, grooves are made with a depth of 10-12 cm, placing them 40 cm from the plants. After fertilizing, the furrows are covered with earth.

If it happens that it will be cloudy for a long time, spray a pumpkin with a solution of 10 g of urea in 10 l of water.

Pumpkin Pests or Diseases

Pumpkin can get sick with fungal diseases black mold, powdery mildew, rot, ascochitosis and anthracnose.

Black mold it is manifested by yellow-brown spots between the veins of the leaves, which with the course of the disease become covered with a dark coating with spores of the fungus. After the spots dry, holes form in their place. Young pumpkins shrink and stop developing.

At ascochitosis on leaves, stems, and shoot nodes, large yellow-brown spots first form, then light spots with a chlorotic edge, covered with black pycnids containing the body of the pathogenic fungus. Pumpkin dries and dies.

Powdery mildew - a real scourge of gardens and orchards, the symptoms of which look like a thick whitish coating, similar to spilled flour, which contains spores of the fungus. Powdery mildew leaves dry, the fruit deforms and ceases to develop. This disease is most active in conditions of a sharp fluctuation in air humidity and temperature.

Anthracnose manifested by large watery yellowish spots on the leaves. In wet weather, pink streaks cover the veins of the leaves. Gradually pink spots spread along the leaves, petioles, stems and fruits, by autumn the affected areas turn black. The most dangerous anthracnose in high humidity.

White rot develops on all parts of the plant, causing damage to the root system, drying out of fruiting stems and a decrease in yield. Pumpkin turns yellow, turns brown, becomes covered with a flaky coating of mold. Mucus may appear on the stems. Gray rot is manifested by brown blurry spots, quickly merging with each other and affecting the whole plant. Wet bacterial rot may appear as a result of damage to the ovaries and young fruits in saplings or fools in too dense plantings.

Of the insects, the pumpkin is affected by gourds, aphids, or white nails, wireworms, and slugs.

Slug eat leaves of plants, sometimes leaving only a network of veins from them. Especially a lot of them happen in rainy seasons. In addition, they are able to live and harm plants for several years.

Gourd aphids damages shoots, flowers, ovaries and the underside of the leaves, from which they curl and wrinkle.

Fools - the smallest white insects with a cylindrical body up to 2 mm long, feeding on seeds and underground parts of plants. The greatest harm is caused by plants in cold, humid weather.

Wireworms - larvae of nutcracker beetles gnawing the root neck of young seedlings, which leads to the death of plants. Most wireworms like to accumulate in wet lowlands.

Pumpkin processing

The fight against pumpkin diseases is conducted in fact and prophylactically, which is undoubtedly preferable, since the disease is much easier to prevent than to cure. In order to protect pumpkin melon from fungal diseases, it is necessary to observe crop rotation, comply with agricultural requirements, be responsible for each type of work, and especially for presowing seed treatment. At the first signs of the disease, spray the plants and the area with one percent Bordeaux fluid or another fungicide. And try to make spring and autumn treatment of melon with Fitosporin mandatory - this will help you avoid many unpleasant surprises.

It will be necessary to collect the sleeter by hand or set up beer traps for them: place beer cups in the area and from time to time collect mollusks crawling onto its smell. The wireworms are also caught on bait by digging holes in different places of a hole 50 cm deep, placing root vegetables cut into pieces - carrots or beets - and covering the holes with boards, wooden shields or roofing felt. After a while, traps check and destroy the wireworms gathered there. With fools they are fighting by dusting the soil around plants with wood ash. Aphids are destroyed by Phosphamide, Karbofos or a solution of 300 g of soap in 10 liters of water.

Nevertheless, we remind you that diseases and pests usually affect weak and groomed plants, so observe crop rotation, comply with agricultural requirements, take good care of your plants, and you won’t have to heal and save them.

Pumpkin picking and storage

Harvesting is usually done when the plants reach biological maturity, but before picking the pumpkin, make sure that it is really ripe. A sure sign of maturity is the drying out and testing of the stalk in hard-boiled pumpkins, and a clear pattern on the hardened bark in varieties of large-fruited and nutmeg pumpkins. Harvest in dry weather, after the first freezing, which will kill the leaves of pumpkin. The fruits are cut with a stalk, sorted by quality and size. Act as carefully as if you were dealing with eggs.

Unripe or damaged fruits will have to be processed, and those intended for long-term storage should be dried in the sun or in a dry, warm room with good ventilation for two weeks, so that the stalks are planted and the bark is finally hardened. After that, the pumpkin can be put in storage.

Before frost, the pumpkin can be on the balcony, loggia or in a dry shed, covered with straw or rags, but when the temperature drops to 5 ºC, the pumpkin is transferred to a living room and kept in a warm, dry place with a temperature not lower than 14 ºC - so it should be stored the first two weeks, and then you need to find a place for the pumpkin with a temperature of 3-8 ºC and a humidity of 60-70%, where it will lie until spring, or even until a new crop. Dry sheds, attics or basements are suitable for this. At a higher storage temperature, for example, 15-20 ºC, the pumpkin loses about 20% of its weight and can rot.

If the harvest is too large, you can store the pumpkin on the shelves, laying straw on the shelves and laying the fruits in a row so that they do not touch. Or put them in boxes, sprinkled with dry moss. A mandatory storage requirement is good ventilation.

You can store the pumpkin in the garden, in a trench lined along the bottom and walls with a 25 cm thick layer of straw. When the freezing weather sets in, the trench with the pumpkin is thrown over the ground, leaving ventilation holes in it that are closed during severe frosts and opened during thaws.

If the crop is modest, it can be stored in an apartment or in a house in a dark place so that seeds do not germinate and the flesh does not acquire a bitter taste. Sliced \u200b\u200bpumpkin is stored only in the refrigerator.

Types and varieties of pumpkin

All pumpkin varieties are for open ground, since it is difficult to grow such a large vegetable in a greenhouse. Although if you live in an area with short and cool summers, but really want to grow a pumpkin, try to do it in a greenhouse. Three varieties of pumpkin are grown in culture:

Common pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo), or hard bark

Herbaceous annuals with large and smooth rounded fruits are most often yellow, although there are varieties with fruits of other shades. The fruits of common pumpkin ripen in September. The seeds in them are white or yellowish, with a thick skin, 3-4 cm long. With proper storage, the fruits can lie until the next harvest. The best varieties:

Spaghetti - early ripening variety, ripening in 2 months. The fruit pulp after boiling breaks up into long fibers similar to pasta, for which the variety got its name. The pulp is tasty both hot and cold;
Mushroom bush 189 - a popular early ripening variety growing in a bush, on which usually two slightly ribbed pumpkin shaped stalks of 6-7 kg ripen each. Ripe pumpkins are bright orange in color with green slices, their flesh is bright orange, juicy and sweet;
Almond - mid-ripe climbing variety with round orange fruits weighing up to 5 kg with yellow-orange crispy, juicy and sweet pulp;
Acorn - an early ripening variety, sometimes bushy, sometimes climbing with small green, yellow or almost black fruits, similar to an acorn, with almost white or light yellow, slightly sugared flesh. The second name of the variety is Acorn;
Freckle - early ripening bush variety with small green mesh fruits weighing up to 3 kg with not very sweet orange or yellow pulp and small seeds;
Bush orange - A variety with bright orange fruits weighing up to 5 kg with a soft and sweet core. Pumpkins of this variety are perfectly stored;
Altai 47 - An early precocious variety of universal purpose, ripening within two months, with yellow-orange hard-fruited fruits weighing from 2 to 5 kg with yellow-brown or pale yellow stripes. The pulp is fibrous. The variety is resistant to low temperatures, perfectly stored.

Muscat Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata)

Originally also from Central America - Peru, Mexico and Colombia. This is a plant with a creeping stem, regular, pubescent long-leaved leaves. It has yellow or brownish-pink fruits with longitudinal bright spots and bright orange aromatic, tasty, dense, but tender pulp and small seeds of a grayish-white color with a darker rim along the edge. The species has a variety called chalmovid because of the unusual shape of the fruit. The best varieties of nutmeg pumpkin:

Nutmeg - late ripe long-walled variety with fruits weighing from 4 to 6.5 kg and a dense, juicy and sweet orange pulp;
Kadu Palace - late climbing variety with large, rounded, segmented orange fruits weighing up to 10 kg with juicy and sweet orange flesh, characterized by amazing taste;
Pearl - late ripe pumpkin weighing up to 7 kg with a bark of dark green color and a very juicy, rich orange pulp;
Butternut - late ripe climbing pumpkin with medium-sized pear-shaped yellow-brown or light orange fruits weighing up to one and a half kilograms with fibrous, sweet, oily pulp of a bright orange color with a nutty flavor;
Prikubanskaya - a medium late wattle pumpkin with smooth pear-shaped orange-brown fruits weighing up to 5 kg in brown and orange spots with delicate, juicy and sweet red-orange pulp;
Vitamin - a late ripening variety, maturing for at least 130 days, with dark green fruits in a yellow stripe weighing up to 7 kg with bright orange flesh.

Large-fruited pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima)

It is represented by varieties with the largest fruits, which are at the same time the sweetest. Sugar content of some varieties reaches 15% - an indicator higher than that of watermelon. The peduncle of the pumpkin of this variety is round, cylindrical, with a beardless rounded stem. Pumpkin seeds of this type are dull, milky white or brown. Fruits tolerate low temperatures better than other varieties and are stored at home for the longest time. The best varieties:

Dawn - medium early variety with powerful and long lashes, with dark gray fruits in orange spots up to 6 kg in weight and bright orange, very sweet and dense pulp containing high concentration carotene;
Marble - late ripe long-ripened high-yielding variety with tuberous round dark green fruits weighing up to 4.5 kg with crisp, sweet, rich orange dense pulp rich in carotene;
Sweetie - an early ripe climbing pumpkin with large, rounded red-orange fruits weighing up to 2 kg with dark orange sweet, juicy and dense pulp, rich in sugars and vitamin C. This variety is cold-resistant and high-yielding;
Volga gray - mid-ripe climbing variety with slightly flattened round light gray fruits weighing from 7 to 9 kg with flesh from pale yellow to bright orange in color of medium sweetness. The variety is drought tolerant and well stored;
Smile - early ripening variety with bright orange round fruits with whitish stripes and crispy orange, very sweet pulp with a delicate melon aroma. The variety is characterized by cold resistance and the ability to be stored for a long time at room temperature;

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This vegetable is good for everyone: unpretentious, gives a large harvest, is well stored and very healthy. We are talking about a pumpkin, planting and caring in the open ground for it is possible even for a novice gardener.

There are many of them. Pumpkins differ in ripening and fruit size. 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 depends on the region of cultivation. Heat-loving varieties will not ripen in places with a cold climate. Our experts will recommend pumpkins that will give a guaranteed harvest in any region.

Hard-barked pumpkins most often have a bush form, are convenient to grow. They contain a large amount of sugars.

Smile - an early ripening variety, ripens already 3 months after germination. There are a lot of 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 flesh, can be stored up to 5 months.
Freckle - an early ripe bush pumpkin variety. It forms 4 short whips with strongly dissected leaves, covered with white spots. Roundedly flattened fruits are medium-sized, up to 3 kg in weight. They have a light green color with a yellowish mesh pattern. The pulp is orange with a pear flavor, sweet. It is stored for a very long time.
Bush orange - an early ripe grade 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 designed for lovers of large fruits. They are considered the sweetest, easily adapt to adverse conditions.

Volga gray - ripen 4 months after germination. Gives powerful whips and fruits with an average weight of up to 7 kg of gray. The taste is good with moderate sweetness, very well stored.
Dawn - ripens in the mid-term. 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 the carotene in it is just a record amount - more than in carrots. This variety has high resistance to many diseases of pumpkin crops.
Medical - an early ripe variety, has a slightly segmented rounded shape. The fruits reach a weight of 5 kg, have a gray color with a lighter mesh, and are stored until the end of spring.

Nutmeg pumpkin is more thermophilic than its other relatives, it requires more time for its cultivation. Many nutmeg pumpkins 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 of this group are well stored.

Butternut. Belongs to late ripening varieties. Small portioned fruits weigh up to 1.5 kg, pear-shaped and light gray in color.
Vitamin - late ripening grade. 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 has a pear-shaped and light beige color.

Features of growing pumpkins

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

Outdoor landing

To grow in comfort, a pumpkin needs a soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm of at least 10 degrees. 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 maturity 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 to the north, the choice is not so clear. 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 crop. Therefore, it is even better to grow them through seedlings, and even planting mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties can not do without it.

How and when to plant?

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

Seed preparation:

calibration - selection of full, well-made seeds of the correct form, without damage;
soaking in water with a temperature of about 50 degrees for 2 hours;
germination in wet tissue in a warm place;
hardening for 3-5 days by holding it in the refrigerator for ½ days and in a warm place with a temperature of about 20 degrees the rest of the time.

Prepared seeds are sown in peat pots or other dishes whose diameter and height should not be less than 10 cm.

Pumpkin negatively affects damage to the root system during transplantation. It is grown without picking, in individual containers, from where the sprouts are easy to extract without damaging the earthen lump.

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

good lighting;
about 22 degrees during the day and 5 degrees lower at night;
watering with warm water as necessary, but without flooding the plants;
2 top dressing with full mineral fertilizer;
hardening before planting for 3-5 days to accustom it to the conditions of open ground.

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

Sowing pumpkin seeds is carried out only in warm soil, otherwise you can not wait for seedlings.

Sowing technology:

prepared beds are marked in accordance with the selected distance for each particular variety;
dig holes, the depth of which depends on the mechanical composition of the soil: on the lungs - up to 10 cm, heavy - not deeper than 5;
2 handfuls of humus are poured into each hole, and on poor soils to the bucket, but then the hole should be deeper, add ash and mineral fertilizers, water and sprinkle 2-3 sprouted seeds;
sprinkle seeds with soil, slightly compact, close the bed with a film so that the seeds germinate faster;
when shoots appear, the film can be removed or left on the bed, making cross-shaped incisions for the shoots in it;
the extra shoots are cut, but not pulled 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, choose a bed in a sunny place on which for 3 years plants from the pumpkin family have not grown. Stagnant water for pumpkins is undesirable. The soil is prepared in the fall. The bed is well fertilized: for each square. m make up to 8 kg of manure, or compost, 15 g of potassium sulfate and 20 g of superphosphate. Nitrogen fertilizers in the amount of 15 g per 1 square. m contribute with 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 pumpkin cultivation is impossible without observing all the rules of agricultural technology: watering, cultivating, fertilizing.

Watering and feeding

Young plants are most sensitive to lack of moisture. They are watered regularly at intervals of 4-5 days. After the root system has grown, watering is less common, but at least 1.5 buckets of water are poured onto the plant to wet the entire root layer. Excessive moisture can provoke too strong leaf growth to the detriment of the crop, cracking of the fruit, 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 pour it.

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

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

Pumpkin also responds well to organic dressings, which can be applied once every 2 weeks. With the growth of pumpkins, the dose of fertilizer per plant is increased.

Loosening and thinning

Getting enough air to the roots is a prerequisite for successful pumpkin development. Therefore, the soil under it is loosened after each watering, hilling the plants in the phase of 3-4 real leaves and sprinkling the internodes of the overgrown lashes with soil to form additional roots.

Thinning plants in the seedling phase, leaving in the hole only one of the strongest sprout.

Pumpkin lash formation

So that the fruits are larger and have time to fully ripen, they do not leave all the ovaries on the plant, and pinch the whips. In long-variegated varieties, all axillary shoots are removed 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, pinch the stem 4 leaves after the formation of the fruit. All shoots on which there are no fruits are also removed.

Pumpkin Diseases and Pests

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

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

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

Harvesting and storage

Unripe pumpkin is poorly stored. Therefore, for long-term storage, only those fruits are collected 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. Harvested carefully, avoiding mechanical damage, from which the fruits quickly rot. Not fully ripe pumpkins are used immediately after harvest, or processed. The fruit must leave part of the stalk not less than 5 cm long.

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

Pumpkin is an incredibly useful vegetable that is not at all difficult to grow, so it has a place in almost any garden. The easiest way to do this is to plant pumpkin seeds in open ground. Of course, if the spring is warm enough and the summer is long so that the crop has time to ripen to frost.

How to choose and prepare seeds for planting

You can buy pumpkin seeds for planting in a store or collect pumpkin seeds, which were planted in your garden in previous years and fully ripened. Everyone knows how to collect the seeds: you just need to remove and rinse them after cutting the ripe fruit, and then dry and put into storage in a bag of natural fabric all the collected material for future sowing. They are considered suitable for use for as long as 4 years, but fresh seeds do not plant, it is better to preserve them for a couple of years, then germination will increase significantly. A large, full-weighted seed will give a healthy plant, so the planting material is calibrated by size, the unfit is discarded. To do this, it is enough to soak the pumpkin seeds before planting in salted water - the worst seeds will remain on the surface.

Vegetable growers often talk about how to properly prepare the seed. It must not only be taken away, but also disinfected, stimulated germination. To protect their future plants from diseases, the seeds are treated with different substances. Most often they are placed for several hours in a bright pink solution of potassium permanganate, but you can use potassium humate, crezacin, infusion of wood ash.

All these measures are designed to protect plants after planting pumpkins in open ground. Is it possible to do without this? Of course. Whether it is necessary to soak pumpkin seeds before planting, each owner decides for himself. But, as a rule, all preparatory efforts take a little time and attention, while increasing the germination and quality of plants.

We germinate and harden the seeds

Before planting a pumpkin in open ground with seeds, the soaked seeds germinate or wait only for the sprouts to bite, and then they harden. This will help to shoot more quickly, which means reducing the total growth time, that is, managing to grow the crop even if the summer ends early, especially since the pumpkin grows better when the daylight is less than 12 hours, being a short daylight plant. And hardening will increase the immunity of plants, make them stronger in conditions of changing weather.

In order to make the sprout easier to overcome the skin of a seed, the seeds are heated for 8–9 hours at a temperature of + 50–60 degrees. You can use an oven for these purposes, or simply hold them in the sun, periodically turning over for even heating. After that, they are placed in an ash solution for 12 hours (2 tablespoons of wood ash and 1 liter of boiling water are insisted until the temperature is acceptable - about +50 degrees) or simply wrapped with a well-soaked solution of gauze, pre-rolled several times.

Before planting, sprouted or stubborn seeds are placed on the last day in the refrigerator, leaving on the lower shelf. Sometimes they are simply kept alternately for 10 hours in a room, 2 in the refrigerator, and only then planted.

Top dressing and other soil preparation

A place for pumpkin beds is chosen sunny, although many varieties grown in partial shade do not lose when it comes time to harvest. The soil should be non-acidic, fertile, loose enough so that the water does not stagnate, and the air gets to the roots. The best option would be a fertile sandy loam or loam. In the same place, pumpkin crops are planted no earlier than 5 years later. Good predecessors are cereals, legumes, cabbage, green manure and perennial herbs.

Before planting pumpkin seeds in the garden, it is worthwhile to carry out some preparatory work. The plot is best prepared in the fall. It must be freed from weeds, dug to the depth of the shovel bayonet, humus and compost can be added, even an unrefined mullein with a total complexity of up to 10 kg per 1 square meter of area can be added.

You need to add superphosphate and potash fertilizers (up to 20 g each), a 1-liter can of wood ash. If the soil is too heavy, sawdust is added to it (preferably semi-overripe), sand, loam should be added to too sandy. If the soil is acidic, then in the fall, dolomite flour or even lime is added to it. Those who did not manage to enrich the soil in the fall usually apply fertilizers before planting directly at the bottom of the hole.

Landing time

The timing of pumpkin planting is determined by the climatic conditions of the region. Pumpkins are sown in the ground in the south, usually in early May, a little north - by the end of May, in the summer (if the weather does not allow earlier), it is better to grow this vegetable not directly from the seeds, but through seedlings. Before planting a pumpkin in open ground, you need to make sure that the ground has warmed up to a depth of at least 10 cm to +12 degrees. At lower temperatures, they will germinate very slowly, and may even rot.

Planting dates are calculated as follows: you need to harvest before frosts, from the emergence of sprouts to ripening fruits usually takes 3-5-4 months, prepared seeds germinate for less than a week, unprepared - from 10 to 14 days.

Knowing when the colds come in the fall, when the earth warms up to the desired temperature in the spring, you can navigate with the sowing dates.

Planting seeds in the ground

Now it's time to talk, actually, about how to plant pumpkin seeds. On the selected and prepared plot of the garden, the emerging weeds are harvested in the spring, dig (or just loosen) the bed, at a distance of 80-100 cm from each other, dig shallow holes with a diameter of 30 cm. Between the rows leave a distance of one and a half to two meters. It is best to stitch the holes. If fertilizers were not applied in the fall, then at least 5 kg of organic and 1 tablespoon of complex mineral fertilizers, wood ash, are placed on the bottom of each hole (which is dug deeper). All this is slightly mixed with the ground. 1-1.5 liters of hot (about +50 degrees) water is poured into each well, and after it is absorbed, seeds can be planted.

3-5 pieces are placed in each hole to a depth of 5 to 8 cm, they are planted not nearby, but at the maximum possible distance from each other. Then sprinkle with earth, sawdust or humus. After all the plants have sprouted, they will have a couple of real leaves. Only two plants are left. Which pumpkin to choose will be shown by their condition, the rest are plucked from the ground itself.

Video "Planting pumpkins in the open ground"

In this video, you will hear some helpful pumpkin planting tips.