How to cultivate pumpkin shoots? Mastering these technical points is key

When growing pumpkins, you can harvest shoots in the early stage and pumpkins in the later stage. As an emerging specialty vegetable, pumpkin shoots have become one of the main vegetable varieties in urban and rural vegetable markets in recent years. The tender tips, tender stem nodes, tender leaves and tender leaf stalks of pumpkin shoots, as well as tender flower stems and flower buds, are all edible. Pumpkin shoots require no pesticide spraying for insect control, making them truly a pollution-free food. The technical points for pumpkin shoots are as follows: Select varieties. Choose local pumpkin varieties that grow both shoots and fruit well, with thick shoots and large plants, such as pillow melon, board melon, ox-leg melon, Dahongpao melon, yellow-petal melon, etc. Varieties with short shoots are not suitable.

Soaking seeds to promote germination. After the pumpkin seeds are sun-dried for 2 days, put them into 50°C hot water and stir immediately, then remove from heat. When the water temperature drops to about 30°C, soak the seeds for 15--20 minutes, then let them cool naturally and continue soaking for 7--12 hours. After soaking, promote germination, maintaining the germination temperature at about 30°C; they will sprout in two days.

Fine land preparation. Choose rice fields and vegetable plots with good drainage, a low groundwater table, and fertile soil to grow pumpkin shoots. Divide into beds 1.5 m wide, open bed furrows 30 cm wide and 15--20 cm deep, and open drainage ditches on all four sides.

Sow at the right time. To advance and extend the marketing period, sowing can generally begin in February, and then batch sowing can continue until August. Open sowing furrows with a row spacing of 20 cm, sow with a plant spacing of 10 cm, place two seeds per hill, water thoroughly after sowing, and cover with 2 cm of nutrient soil.

Fertilize in time. Apply sufficient base fertilizer. Apply 2000--2500 kg of decomposed cattle and pig pen manure or 2500--3000 kg of farmyard manure per mu, plus 20 kg of phosphate fertilizer. After sowing, drench thoroughly with decomposed manure water or biogas slurry water. Cover the seeds with previously prepared fully fermented and decomposed ash fertilizer or nutrient soil, then lay plastic film flat over the bed surface and press the edges down with soil to keep warm. After emergence, let the young seedlings grow under the film. For topdressing, generally use decomposed human and livestock manure water, and apply it frequently to ensure an adequate supply of manure water, so as to promote rapid growth of the pumpkin shoots. After each harvest, promptly apply a heavy dose of quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer to the pumpkin hills to promote early development of axillary buds.

Harvest in time. When the pumpkin shoots grow to 40 cm tall and have 5--6 true leaves, they can be harvested in batches, cutting off the upper tender shoots while leaving 1--2 true leaves at the base. When the axillary buds grow to 40 cm, they can be harvested again, and this can be repeated many times. Spraying an 80 mg/kg "920" solution 5--7 days before each harvest can increase yield by more than 30%, and can also reduce the formation of coarse fiber at the base nodes, making the pumpkin shoots appear very tender and soft and improving quality.