How to Grow Pumpkin? A Full Breakdown of the Latest Planting Tips
Pumpkin is extremely high in nutritional value, containing a variety of rich nutrients, and it is basically grown in every part of our country. Although pumpkin cultivation is fairly common in our country, many people do not get very high yields when growing pumpkin, and the returns are not very good either. In fact, there are certain techniques to growing pumpkin, so what exactly are they? Today the editor brings you the planting techniques for pumpkin, so let's take a look together!
1. Planting time
Pumpkin is a plant that likes to grow in a warm environment and is suited to short-day conditions. Pumpkin is fairly drought-tolerant, but it fears waterlogging, though it can adapt to most soils. If you want to grow pumpkin well, then the first little tip is to control the planting time of the pumpkin well. Usually, if planting in spring, then pumpkin should be planted during the two solar terms of Qingming and Guyu. That is, around April to May; if using a greenhouse or plastic film mulching, then the planting time can also be moved appropriately earlier, and spring-sown varieties should mainly be early-maturing, cold-resistant and high-yielding ones.
2. Pinching to prevent excessive vine growth
When the pumpkin vines grow to more than two meters long, we should pay attention to doing the pinching work well. Remove the growing point of the main vine so as to encourage the main vine to produce side vines and raise the flowering and fruiting rate of the pumpkin. Then we must also pay attention to preventing the vines from growing excessively; if the vines grow excessively, then the number of pumpkins set will decline. So when fertilizing, control the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied and appropriately increase the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. We can cut a small slit about 30cm from the base of the pumpkin vine, then stuff a piece of charcoal into it, and this can effectively prevent excessive vine growth.
3. Building support trellises
Pumpkin is a climbing plant, so building good support trellises is also very important. We should observe the growth of the vines every day, and when the pumpkin vines grow to about 3 meters, we should promptly guide the pumpkin vines onto the trellis. Because pumpkin fruits are very heavy, the support trellis must be ensured to be sturdy and able to bear the weight of all the pumpkin fruits. Improving the air permeability between the pumpkin vines can effectively reduce pests and diseases, and the yield can also be increased. It can also prevent the pumpkin fruits from piling up on the ground and rotting.
4. Spray on top, drench below
Pumpkin fruits are fairly large, so during the fruiting period we should pay attention to doing the topdressing work well to improve the yield and quality of the pumpkin. When topdressing, the upper part of the plant should be sprayed with foliar fertilizer, while the lower part at the roots should be appropriately drenched with fertilizer. When the pumpkin is fruiting, we should spray foliar fertilizer about once every 10 days or so; when spraying, be careful to spray on the back of the leaves, and do not spray directly onto the pumpkin, to prevent the fruit from rotting and causing a decline in yield. It is best to spray in the morning and evening, because the temperature is higher at noon, which easily causes the liquid to evaporate too quickly and reduces the effect of the fertilizer spray.
The above is a brief introduction to pumpkin planting techniques. That is all for today's introduction; this article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!