Want a high-yield pumpkin harvest? These growing techniques are essential

    To increase pumpkin yields, besides choosing excellent varieties, sowing at the right time, and fertilizing reasonably, you can take the following measures during the growing process. They can raise pumpkin yields by 30%.

Pumpkin

    When the vine grows to 2 m, remove the growing tip of the main vine, and three to four branch vines will grow.

    To create good light penetration and ventilation conditions, you need to set up a trellis. The specific method is: when the pumpkin branch vines grow to 2 m, guide the vines onto the trellis, but do not break the vines. Pumpkins grown on trellises have fewer pests and diseases, and the fruit-setting rate of pumpkins is greatly improved.

    Hand pollination can also be used to increase pumpkin yields. The method is: cover a female flower that is about to open and is ready for pollination with pumpkin leaves to prevent rain from getting in. At around 9 a.m. the next morning, pick a male flower from a different plant and place it over the female flower. After 2 to 3 days, remove the male flower used as a cover.

    On pumpkin vines that have already flowered and set fruit, promptly remove the basal leaves and old yellow leaves, and remove 30% of the male flowers. This not only improves ventilation and light penetration but also reduces nutrient consumption.

    In the later stage of pumpkin growth, that is, after 2 to 3 batches of pumpkins have set, when some waxy yellow leaves appear near the root area of the pumpkin, bury the adventitious roots growing from the pumpkin vine nodes. This can increase yields by 30% to 40%. The specific method is: choose fertile garden soil and mix it evenly with a small amount of organic fertilizer and quick-acting chemical fertilizer, then bury 4 to 6 stem nodes with a soil layer about 20 cm thick. Make sure there is enough stem length to bury. If it is too short, you can appropriately shorten the main pumpkin stem by combining this with tidying the pumpkin vines on the trellis, but never pull with force. When moving the stems and vines, the soil layer must be buried firmly to create conditions for the growth of pumpkin adventitious roots. At the same time, special attention must be paid to the timing of stem burial. If done too early, it easily causes excessive vegetative growth; if done too late, growth is slow.