When should i plant pumpkin seeds

• When to plant
• Soil for pumpkins
• Growing in greenhouses How to plant 1

• Growing conditions
• Watering
• Loosening
• Thinning
• Pumpkin dressing

• Pumpkin treatment

• Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) or hardbark
• Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata)
• Large-fruited squash (Cucurbita maxima)
• 270 Literature
• Comments

Plant common pumpkin (lat. Cucurbita pepo) is a species of herbaceous annual plant of the genus Pumpkin of the Cucurbitaceae family, which is classified as a gourd. The plant is native to Mexico. In the Oaxaca Valley, it has been growing for at least 8,000 years. Even before our era, the pumpkin was distributed in North America along the valleys of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Spanish sailors brought the 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 vegetable is not only tasty, but also healthy, and the pulp of the plant, which contains, in addition to a number of substances necessary for humans, rare vitamin T, and pumpkin seeds, the oil from which is a regenerating 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 causes a pumpkin to get sick, and share other important information that will allow you will not hesitate to start cultivating this tasty and healthy plant.

• Melon: growing in the garden, varieties

Planting and caring for pumpkins

• Planting: sowing seeds in the ground - 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.
• Soil: any, but better fertile, previously dug up with organic and mineral fertilizers.
• Watering: after planting the seedlings - daily until the seedlings are established, then infrequently until the ovaries reach the size of a fist. In a season with normal rainfall, you can not water at all. When the fruits begin to gain weight, gradually increase the water consumption to 1 bucket per 1 adult plant.
• Top dressing: 1st - with a solution of chicken manure or mullein one week after transplanting, then 3-4 organic top dressing every month.
• Propagation: by seed seedling and non-seedling method.
• Pests: gourd aphids, podura (or white springtails), wireworms, slugs.
• Diseases: white rot, anthracnose, ascochitosis, powdery mildew and black mold.

Read more about pumpkin cultivation below

Botanical description

Pumpkin root is branched, rod, creeping, five-sided, rough stem with prickly pubescence reaches a length of 5-8 meters. The leaves are alternate, heart-shaped, five-parted or five-lobed, long-petiolate, with a plate length of up to 25 cm, pubescent with stiff short hairs. A spiral tendril develops in the axil of each leaf. Flowers unisexual, large, solitary, orange or yellow. Female flowers on short pedicels, and male flowers on long ones, bloom in June or July and are cross-pollinated. 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 prominent rim around the edge and a woody outer shell.

Growing pumpkin from seed

How to sow seeds

Pumpkin is grown from seed using seedling and non-seedling methods, but the cultivation of the nutmeg variety requires only seedling propagation. Sowing pumpkin seeds in the ground is carried out not earlier than the soil at a depth of 7-8 cm warms up to a temperature of 12-13 ºC. Growing pumpkins in open ground begins with pre-sowing treatment of the site and seed.

Seeds are heated before planting 9-10 hours at a temperature of 40 ºC, then immerse them for half a day in an ash solution (2 tablespoons of wood ash are diluted in 1 liter of boiling water with stirring), in order to facilitate the passage of the germ through a dense peel. The seeds are heated in the oven, then wrapped in several layers of gauze, richly moistened with an ash solution. You can, of course, do nothing of this, but then the pumpkin ripening period increases, and if you live in an area with a short and cool summer, then your pumpkin will not have time to ripen before frost without pre-sowing seed treatment.

Before planting a pumpkin (we will talk about how to prepare a plot for a pumpkin a little later), rows are marked in the garden and holes 30 cm in diameter are made in them. pour one and a half to two liters of water at a temperature of 50 ºC, and when it is absorbed, plant 2-3 seeds, but not in a bunch, but lay them out at a distance from each other, deepening by 5-6 cm, if the soil in the garden is medium loamy, and 8-10 cm if the soil is light. The seeds are covered with fertile soil, and the site is mulched with peat chips or humus.

Leave a gap of at least 2 m between rows and at least a meter between holes in a row. It is better to make holes in a checkerboard pattern. To speed up the emergence of seedlings, a film is thrown over the crops, sprinkling its edges with earth.

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

• Watermelon: growing from seeds in the garden, varieties

Growing seedlings

Planting pumpkin seedlings is carried out 15-20 days before planting seedlings in open ground. The pumpkin seeds that have been hatched 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 a soil mixture of two parts of humus, one part of soddy soil and one part of peat. The seeds are covered with the same soil mixture, but with the addition of a five percent solution of mullein and 10-15 g of wood ash. Crops are moistened, after which the pots are covered with a film.

How to grow pumpkin seedlings and prevent them from stretching, which often happens with seedlings at home? Caring for pumpkin seedlings involves keeping crops in good light, excluding direct sunlight, and at a temperature of 20-25 ºC, and when shoots appear, set the following temperature regime: during the day the room should be 15-20 ºC, and at night - 12-13 ºC. If, nevertheless, some seedlings are stretched out, then after a week and a half, the subcotyledon section of such a seedling is folded into a ring and covered with moist soil up to the cotyledon leaves.

Water the crops moderately, avoiding waterlogging of the substrate. Twice during the seedling period, seedlings receive complex top dressing. Pumpkin fertilizer is prepared according to the following recipe: 1 liter of mullein, 17 g of ammonium sulfate, 15 g of potassium sulfate and 20 g of superphosphate are diluted in 10 liters 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 hardening 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.

Picking a pumpkin

To the question of how to pick a pumpkin, we answer: it is contraindicated to pick a pumpkin, because 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 outdoors

When to plant

Planting pumpkins in the ground is carried out with the onset of stable 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 a southern site for planting pumpkins. The optimum temperature for pumpkin growth is 25 ºC, and if the temperature drops to 14 ºC, the growth of the plant 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, patisson, watermelon, melon and pumpkin are considered bad predecessors.

Soil for pumpkin

Pumpkin grows on any soil, but large and sweet, it can only ripen on fertile soil. A pumpkin plot is prepared in the fall: they dig it up, introducing 3-5 kg ​​of compost or manure into infertile soil per m², 200-300 g of ash or lime into heavy or acidic soil, and 25-30 g of phosphorus and 25-30 g of phosphorus into any soil. 15-20 g of potash fertilizer. In the spring, after the snow melts, in order to prevent the soil from drying out, it is harrowed, then slightly loosened and cleared of weeds, and before planting seedlings or sowing seeds, they dig it to a depth of 12-18 cm. If for some reason you failed to prepare a plot with autumn, apply fertilizer at the time of planting in each hole dug under the seedling.

Growing in a greenhouse

Pumpkin is rarely grown from start to finish in a greenhouse. More often, a greenhouse is used to grow pumpkin seedlings, which are then planted anyway in open ground. Planting pumpkins in a greenhouse is carried out one seed at a time in 10x10 peat pots to avoid picking, which pumpkin seedlings are hard to endure. Until the seeds sprout, the temperature in the greenhouse should be 26 ºC, and from the moment the shoots appear, it is lowered to 19 ºC for a week, and then returned to the previous temperature regime. Two weeks after the appearance of the first shoots, seedlings are fertilized with mullein.

• Luffa: home care, types

Water the seedlings as needed, but abundantly: the earth should be loose with an average moisture index. Seedlings are planted in open ground 4 weeks after the appearance of the first shoots.

How to plant in the ground

How to place a pumpkin in the garden, we have already written, but the holes for seedlings are made a little deeper than when sowing seeds: they must completely accommodate the root system of seedlings at a depth of 8-10 cm. If you did not fertilize the site from autumn, keep in mind that when planting in each well, add half a bucket of humus or compost, 50 g of superphosphate and 2 cups of ash, thoroughly mixing the fertilizer with the soil. Here, based on this, and calculate the depth of the holes for seedlings.

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

Caring for pumpkin

Growing conditions

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

Watering

Newly planted seedlings are watered daily until established. After that, the soil is moistened as rarely as possible until the ovaries become the size of a fist. If summer is rainy, then stop watering altogether. When the fruits begin to gain mass, the moistening of the pumpkin beds is resumed and the water consumption rate is gradually brought up to one bucket for one adult plant.

Loosening

After watering or rain, it is very convenient to loosen the soil around the plants and clear it of weeds. The first loosening to a depth of 6-8 cm should be carried out with the emergence of seedlings. Row spacing to a depth of 12-18 cm is better to loosen before watering, so that water penetrates to the roots faster. While loosening, slightly hill the plants, giving them stability.

Thinning

If you sow seeds directly into the ground, when the seedlings have two true leaves, you need to thin them out, leaving two sprouts in one hole of hard-barked or butternut squash, and one sprout of large-fruited squash. The second thinning is carried out when the seedlings have 3-4 leaves. But we remind you: you do not need to pull out extra seedlings, because you can damage the root system of those shoots that you decide to leave. Just cut off the unnecessary seedling at ground level.

• Zucchini: growing in the garden, varieties

Top dressing of pumpkin

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

If it happens to be cloudy for a long time, spray the pumpkin with a solution of 10 g of urea in 10 liters of water.

Pests or diseases

Pumpkin can be affected by fungal diseases such as black mold, powdery mildew, rot, ascochyta blight and anthracnose.

Black mold manifests itself as yellow-brown spots between the veins of the leaves, which, as the disease progresses, become covered with a dark coating with spores of the fungus. After the spots dry up, holes form in their place. Young pumpkins shrivel and stop developing.

In case of ascochitosis , large yellow-brown spots first form on leaves, stems and shoot nodes, then light spots with a chlorotic edge, covered with black pycnidia containing the body of a pathogenic fungus. The pumpkin dries up and dies.

Powdery mildew is 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. The leaves affected by powdery mildew dry, the fruits are deformed and stop developing. This disease is most active in conditions of sharp fluctuations in air humidity and temperature.

Anthracnose appears as large watery yellowish spots on the leaves. In wet weather, the veins of the leaves are covered with a pink bloom. Gradually, pink spots spread over the leaves, petioles, stems and fruits, by autumn the affected areas turn black. Anthracnose is most dangerous at high humidity.

• Patisson: growing from seeds, varieties

White rot develops on all parts of the plant, causing damage to the root system, drying of fruiting stems and reduced yield. The pumpkin turns yellow, turns brown, and is covered with a flocculent coating of mold. Slime may appear on the stems. Gray rot is manifested by brown blurry spots that quickly merge with each other and affect the entire plant. Wet bacterial rot can occur as a result of damage by slugs or podura to ovaries and young fruits in too dense plantings.

Of the insects, pumpkin is attacked by melon aphids, podura, or white springtails, wireworms and slugs.

Slugs eat the leaves of plants, sometimes leaving only a net of veins. They are especially numerous during rainy seasons. In addition, they are able to live and harm plants for several years.

Melon aphid damages shoots, flowers, ovaries and the underside of leaves, causing them to curl and shrivel.

Podura - the smallest white insects with a cylindrical body up to 2 mm long, feeding on seeds and underground parts of plants. Podura cause the greatest harm to plants in cold, wet weather.

Wireworms are larvae of click beetles that gnaw on the root collar of young seedlings, resulting in plant death. Most of all, wireworms like to accumulate in wet lowlands.

Pumpkin treatment

The fight against pumpkin diseases is carried out factually and prophylactically, which is undoubtedly preferable, since the disease is much easier to prevent than to cure. In order to protect pumpkin melons from fungal diseases, it is necessary to observe crop rotation, comply with agrotechnical requirements, take a responsible attitude to each type of work, and especially to pre-sowing seed treatment. At the first sign of disease, spray the plants and area with 1% Bordeaux liquid or another fungicide. And try to make the spring and autumn treatment of melons with Fitosporin mandatory - this will help you avoid many unpleasant surprises.

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Slugs will have to be collected by hand or set up beer traps for them: place bowls with beer around the site and from time to time collect mollusks crawling on its smell. Wireworms are also caught with bait by digging pits 50 cm deep in different places, placing root crops cut into pieces - carrots or beets - and covering the pits with boards, wooden shields or roofing material. After a while, the traps check and destroy the wireworms gathered there. Podurs are fought by dusting the soil around the plants with wood ash. Aphids are destroyed by Phosphamide, Karbofos or a solution of 300 g of soap in 10 liters of water.

Still, we remind you that diseases and pests, as a rule, affect weak and neglected plants, so observe crop rotation, comply with agrotechnical requirements, take good care of your plants, and you will not have to treat and save them.

Harvesting and storage

Harvesting is usually done when the plants reach biological maturity, but make sure that the pumpkin is really ripe before harvesting. A sure sign of maturity is the drying and corking of the stalk in hard-skinned pumpkins, and a clear pattern on the hardened bark in varieties of large-fruited and nutmeg pumpkins. You need to harvest in dry weather, after the first frost, which will kill the pumpkin leaves. The fruits are cut with the stalk, sorted by quality and size. Proceed as carefully as if you were dealing with eggs.

Unripe or damaged fruits should be processed, and those intended for long-term storage, dry in the sun or in a dry, warm room with good ventilation for two weeks, so that the stalks stick and the bark finally hardens. After that, the pumpkin can be put into storage.

Until frost, the pumpkin can be kept on a 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 of at least 14 ºC - so it you need to store the first two weeks, and then you need to find a place for the pumpkin with a temperature of 3-8 ºC and an air humidity of 60-70%, where it will lie until spring, or even until the new harvest. 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 may rot.

If the harvest is too large, pumpkins can be stored on racks, spreading straw on the shelves and laying the fruits in one row so that they do not touch. Or put them in boxes, sprinkled with dry moss. A mandatory requirement for storage is good air ventilation.

Pumpkin can be stored in the garden, in a trench lined with a layer of straw 25 cm thick along the bottom and walls. .

• The subtleties of growing zucchini - we get fruits a month earlier than usual!

If the harvest is modest, it can be stored in an apartment or house, in a dark place so that the seeds do not germinate and the pulp does not acquire a bitter taste. Cut pumpkin is stored only in the refrigerator.

Types and varieties

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, cool summers but really want to grow pumpkins, try doing it in a greenhouse. Three varieties of pumpkin are grown in culture:

Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo)

Herbaceous annual with large and smooth, round fruits, most often yellow in color, although there are varieties with fruits of other shades. The fruits of the 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.

Best varieties:

• Spaghetti is an early maturing variety that ripens in 2 months. The pulp of the fruit after boiling breaks down into long fibers, similar to pasta, for which the variety got its name. The pulp is tasty both hot and cold;
• Gribovskaya bush 189 is a popular early ripe variety growing as a bush, on which usually two pumpkins, slightly ribbed at the stalk, drop-shaped pumpkin, 6-7 kg each, ripen. Ripe pumpkins are bright orange with green fragments, their flesh is bright orange, juicy and sweet;
• Almond - mid-season climbing variety with round orange fruits weighing up to 5 kg with yellow-orange crispy, juicy and sweet pulp;
• Acorn is an early maturing variety, sometimes bushy, sometimes climbing with small green, yellow or almost black acorn-like fruits with almost white or light yellow, low-sugar pulp. The second name of the variety Acorn;
• Freckle – early ripe bushy variety with small green mesh fruits weighing up to 3 kg with not very sweet orange or yellow flesh and small seeds;
• Orange bush - a variety with bright orange fruits weighing up to 5 kg with a soft and sweet heart. Pumpkins of this variety are perfectly stored;
• Altaiskaya 47 - early early ripening variety of universal use, ripening within two months, with yellow-orange hard-skinned fruits weighing from 2 to 5 kg with yellow-brown or pale yellow stripes. The pulp is fibrous. The grade is steady against low temperatures, is perfectly stored.

Muscat gourd (Cucurbita moschata)

Also native to Central America - Peru, Mexico and Colombia. This is a plant with a creeping stem, alternate, pubescent long-leaved leaves. It has yellow or brownish-pink fruits with longitudinal light spots and bright orange fragrant, tasty, dense, but tender pulp and small grayish-white seeds with a darker rim around the edge. The species has a variety called chalmoid because of the unusual shape of the fruit.

The best varieties of Muscat squash:

• Muscat is a late-ripening, long-branched variety with fruits weighing from 4 to 6.5 kg and dense, juicy and sweet orange pulp;
• Palav Kadu is a late climbing variety with large, round segmented orange fruits weighing up to 10 kg with juicy and sweet orange-colored pulp, which is distinguished by amazing taste;
• Zhemchuzhina - late-ripening pumpkin weighing up to 7 kg with dark green bark and very juicy, rich orange flesh;
• Butternut – late-ripening climbing squash with medium-sized pear-shaped yellow-brown or light orange fruits weighing up to 1. 5 kilograms with fibrous, sweet, oily pulp of bright orange color with a nutty flavor;
• Prikubanskaya - mid-late climbing pumpkin with smooth pear-shaped orange-brown fruits weighing up to 5 kg in brown and orange spots with tender, juicy and sweet red-orange flesh;
• Vitaminnaya is a variety of late ripening, ripening 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)

Presented by varieties with the largest fruits, which at the same time are the sweetest. The sugar content of some varieties reaches 15% - an indicator higher than that of watermelon. The stalk of the pumpkin of this variety is round, cylindrical, with a beardless rounded stem. The seeds of pumpkins of this species are matte, milky white or brown. Fruits tolerate low temperatures better than other varieties and are stored for the longest time at home.

The best varieties:

• Zorka is a mid-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 concentrations of carotene ;
• Marble – late-ripening, long-branched, high-yielding variety with tuberculate round dark green fruits weighing up to 4.5 kg with crispy, sweet, rich orange dense pulp, rich in carotene;
• Candy – early maturing climbing gourd 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;
• Volzhskaya gray is a mid-ripening climbing variety with slightly flattened round light gray fruits weighing from 7 to 9 kg with pale yellow to bright orange pulp of medium sweetness. The grade is drought-resistant and is perfectly stored;
• Smile is an early maturing variety with bright orange round fruits with whitish stripes and crisp orange, very sweet flesh with a delicate melon aroma. The variety is cold-resistant and can be stored for a long time at room temperature;
• Centner is an early maturing variety of universal use with yellow, very large segmented pumpkins weighing up to 60 and even up to 100 kg with white sweet pulp. This is an outdoor pumpkin that is often grown for its seeds;
• Arina is an early, undemanding, disease-resistant variety with light gray, rounded, slightly segmented fruits weighing up to 5 kg, with dense and sweet yellow flesh. The seeds are high in oil content.

Literature

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