Pumpkin is considered a very useful vegetable , as it is rich in vitamins, improves the work of the gastrointestinal tract, regulates metabolism and even fights with worms. It is popular and it's just a delicious product, from which you can get very interesting dishes - soufflé , pies, soups, casseroles and salads .
To get tasty and large fruits, you should know what kind of pumpkin varieties and secrets of their cultivation. About this and we will tell in our article.
Pumpkin cultivars for growing outdoors
Vegetables are distinguished by three main groups of pumpkins:
- sturdy - have stiff peels, small fruits with very tasty seeds;
- Large-fruited - a distinctive feature is a large size and sweetish flesh;
- Muscat - their fruits are very tasty with dark yellow and brown seeds, mostly late-ripening.
Each group includes a variety of varieties: bushy and stumpy, fodder, table and decorative, as well as with a different number of seeds and taste. To determine what you want to grow, you should read a brief description of the varieties you are interested in. After all, often from this change the conditions of growing pumpkins.
How to grow a pumpkin in your garden?
Pumpkin is a thermophilic plant, therefore it is necessary to remove the sunny area protected from the northern winds. Preparing the soil on it should be from the autumn: dig and make organic fertilizers. Then in the spring it will be necessary to add also mineral (superphosphates and potassium).
In areas with a warm climate, the cultivation of a pumpkin from seeds is carried out immediately into the ground, in the remaining areas through seedlings.
For growing seedlings it is better to take peat pots not less than 10 cm high or plastic containers of the same size without a bottom. First we fill them with 2/3 of soil from peat, turf and humus, taken in the ratio 1: 1: 2. In each pot, we stick 1 seed and cover the remaining space with prepared soil. That the seeds sprouted, these containers should be put in a warm place. Landing in the open ground is usually carried out when the plant will have 3 real leaves. Usually this happens in late spring or early summer.
All care for planted pumpkin is in the following activities:
- regular abundant watering;
- carrying out every 2 weeks of additional feeding;
- removal of weak and empty shoots, as well as pinching with existing ovaries (leaving after it 5-6 leaves);
- loosening of rows between rows;
- laying of materials under the fruit.
When growing pumpkins in the open, many gardeners complain that it takes up a lot of space (1-2 meters per bush). This problem is solved, for this purpose it is possible to plant the plants not in width along the ground, but in height - along a grid or a trellis.
Growing a pumpkin on a trellis
It is necessary to take a grid height of not less than 2 meters and install through a meter along the bed, where you plan to plant your pumpkin.
For pumpkin, you need to make holes at a distance of 30 cm, make fertilizer (humus or a mixture of last year's leaves with grass). Then, at the usual time, it is necessary to plant a seed (2-3 is better and leave to grow the strongest). After the appearance of 5-6 leaves on the sprout, the main stem must be pricked. Care for such a pumpkin will be to cut weak shoots, locating and tying branches with fruits on a grid, regular watering, loosening the soil around the stem and mulching it. The pumpkin obtained in this way grows more even, of a uniform color and very tasty than lying on the ground, since it will be warmed by the sun from all sides.