Giant Pumpkin Growing Techniques and Giant Pumpkin Seed Prices
Although the workings of the world follow certain laws, and these laws are real and objective, the progress of human science and technology has caused many things to change according to people's subjective needs. The giant pumpkin is one such case: driven by people's demand for larger individual pumpkins, the giant pumpkin was gradually bred into existence.
Seedling Cultivation of Giant Pumpkins
Seed soaking: Place the seeds in 55°C water and stir for 15 minutes. When the water temperature drops to 30°C, stop stirring, then soak for 12 hours.
Germination: Place the soaked seeds in a 30°C constant-temperature incubator to germinate, for about 24 hours. At the halfway point of 12 hours, wash the seeds to be germinated with 20°C warm water. After 24 hours, the seeds break open and grow a 1 cm sprout.
Nutrient pot seedling cultivation: To ensure seedling quality, you can fill 10*10 nutrient pots with commercial substrate, place the germinated seeds into the nutrient pots, burying them about 0.5 cm deep, then cover with 2 cm of vermiculite. They are expected to emerge in one week. After the pumpkin seedlings have grown for 10 days, carry out low-temperature seedling hardening. When the seedlings have 4 to 5 leaves, carry out planting and transplanting.
Field Management of Giant Pumpkins
1. Timely pinching: Generally, when cultivating extra-large pumpkins, 2 to 3 main vines should be kept, and side vines are generally not removed. Select and keep one pumpkin with complete development and a round, upright shape. After the pumpkin has been selected, pinch the side vines. Remove the first female flower and the tendril before the flower. When the main vine has grown to about 10 m, pinch it.
2. Pollination: The ideal pollination temperature during the day is 25°C, and it must not exceed 28°C, so as to avoid excessive vegetative growth from high temperatures causing fruit abortion. The best pollination time is before 9:00 in the morning. Flowering begins in mid-May. Usually, remove the first female flower on each pumpkin vine and keep the second or third female flower. At this time, the vine has grown to about 2.5 m. Before 9 o'clock in the morning, pick fresh male flowers, remove the outer petals, and evenly smear and shake the pollen from the stamens onto the stigma of the female flower. Treat the third female flower in the same way. All female flowers produced afterward are removed. When the young fruit of the third female flower grows to the size of a tennis ball, select and keep one pumpkin that is better shaped and relatively large from the 2 young pumpkins, and promptly remove the other one.
3. Protecting the pumpkin: When the pumpkin grows large, it needs to be protected promptly. Level the ground where the fruit sets, raise it slightly with a foam board, and leave 1 sq m of growing space.
4. Pruning and removing branches: At this stage, also prune the pumpkin vines. When the vines have grown to about 10 m, pinch off the new growth at the top and sides, so as to ensure that the nutrients on the vines are supplied to the growth of the pumpkin.
5. Fertilizer and water management. Because pumpkin leaves are large and numerous, apply organic fertilizer once every 5-7 days, with 0.5 kg each of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer per plant. When topdressing, at a distance of 1 zhang from the pumpkin roots, build up soil all around, mix thoroughly rotted manure with water, add ammonia, phosphorus, and compound fertilizer, and pour it into the manure trench.
Giant Pumpkin Seed Prices
There is a very large difference in the prices of giant pumpkins online. Some are 1~2 yuan per seed, while others range from 12~13 yuan per seed. Therefore, the price of giant pumpkin seeds needs to be determined according to different choices.
Can Giant Pumpkins Be Eaten?
American giant pumpkins can be eaten in addition to being ornamental, but they do not taste good, because during cultivation they are heavily forced to grow large, with the focus on ornamental use.
Giant pumpkins originate from the Americas. To celebrate the annual Halloween, Europeans and Americans plant pumpkins in their own homes and make various jack-o'-lanterns during the festival to ward off evil spirits and ghosts. The current Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin is in the United States, weighing more than 780 kilograms. Giant pumpkins are orange-red, bright and eye-catching, tall, and round, and are loved by many people. Because they are giant, they are not suitable for trellis cultivation.
Because many growth enhancers are used during the cultivation and breeding of giant pumpkins, giant pumpkins are generally not used for eating. Moreover, the original intention of people in creating giant pumpkins was not for eating, but for ornamentation and to meet the needs of Halloween. Therefore, the value of giant pumpkins lies mainly in ornamentation.