How to Grow Pumpkins for High Yield? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Planting Methods

Pumpkin is a fruit-type vegetable with fairly high edible value, and it is grown in many regions of our country. Sometimes pumpkins produce many flowers but simply never set fruit, and the yield is not very high, yet the pumpkins some people grow are big and sweet with high yields too. Today let us follow Qinongwang and take a look at how others achieve high yield and high quality.

1. Choosing and Preparing the Land

Pumpkin has fairly strong drought resistance, but its water requirements are quite strict, and there must not be too much water. So when choosing land, pay attention to choosing land with relatively high terrain and good drainage and irrigation. It must not be planted in soil that easily accumulates water or where water drains poorly. When preparing the land, pay attention to deep plowing as much as possible, and spread farmyard manure as base fertilizer to ensure the soil fertility is sufficient to supply the pumpkin's growth.

2. Sowing Methods

There are two sowing methods for pumpkin. The first is direct sowing. In the prepared field, at a certain spacing (generally the distance between rows is 2 m to 3 m, and the distance between plants is 50 cm to 70 cm), put 3 to 5 seeds into each hole, then cover the seeds with soil. The second method is transplanting. First cultivate the seedlings in one plot until the seedlings grow to 50 cm, then we can transplant them. After transplanting, be sure to remember to water until they grow new roots.

3. Sowing Techniques

The technique for high-yield pumpkin generally adopts the method of joining multiple plants together, that is, when the pumpkin seedlings grow to about 50 to 60 cm, use a knife to cut off the tips of the main stems of two adjacent seedlings, then tie the two seedlings whose tips have been cut tightly together. Generally after 2 to 3 days the joint will grow new shoots. When the new shoots again grow to 50 to 60 cm, join the seedlings again, and so on. At the same time, excess vines should be removed in time.

4. Field Management

When the seedlings grow to about 2 m, we should promptly remove the tops of the vines, so they will grow more vines, which helps increase yield. At the same time, at this point some frames can be built to guide the seedlings onto the frames and let them grow along the frames. This can also avoid damage to the vines from rain and reduce pests and diseases, improving the probability of fruit setting. Several important points in field management: the first is fertilization, and the time for fertilization is generally after planting is finished and when the vines grow to about 20 cm. The second is pollination; to increase the fruit-setting rate, we all use artificial pollination. The third is vine pressing, which generally waits until after the first batch of pumpkins has set fruit and part of the vines have turned yellow. In this way it will grow new vines, continue life, and thereby increase yield.

5. Disease Prevention

Pumpkin usually has relatively few diseases, and the most common one is powdery mildew, but its harm is very great. It will directly affect the growth of pumpkin and lead to poor quality, so it must be treated in time. We generally use spraying with a 2000-fold solution of triadimefon emulsifiable concentrate, a 200-fold solution of % agricultural antibiotic 120 aqueous solution, or spraying with a 1500-fold solution of thiram.

The above are the high-yield pumpkin planting methods brought to you by Qinongwang. If you want to learn more about agriculture, remember to follow us.