Too Many Flowers but Few Fruits on Pumpkin? Learn How to Grow High-Yield Pumpkins
In recent years, pumpkins have sold very well, but during cultivation, pumpkins often produce many flowers and few fruits, so the yield is not high. The reasons for pumpkins producing many flowers and few fruits are roughly these: insufficient light, excessive nitrogen fertilizer, poor pollination, etc. So when growing pumpkins, focus on the following points:
Pumpkin
1. Apply sufficient base fertilizer.Pumpkins need plenty of water and fertilizer to grow, so when planting pumpkins, the base fertilizer must be applied sufficiently, and you must ensure that the growing pumpkins receive adequate fertilizer and water.
2. Top the vines at the right time.When the main vine of the pumpkin grows to 2 m, remove the growing point on the main vine so that the main vine produces 3--4 branch vines, which then flower and bear fruit.
3. Set up a trellis.After the branch vines of the pumpkin grow to 2 m, guide the vines onto the trellis to improve light penetration and ventilation, thereby increasing the fruit-setting rate of pumpkins by more than 40%.
4. Prevent excessive vine growth.Excessive growth of pumpkin vines can cause fewer fruits. Methods to prevent excessive vine growth include cutting a slit in the vine 30 cm from the root and inserting a piece of black charcoal, which can inhibit excessive growth.
5. Assist pollination.First cover the female pumpkin flowers that are about to open and can be pollinated with pumpkin leaves to prevent rain from entering. At 9 o'clock the next morning, pick male flowers from a different plant and place them over the female flowers, then remove them after 2--3 days.
6. Bury the stems in the later stage.In the later stage of growth, pumpkins will use the vine nodes to grow adventitious roots. Burying the stems can increase the yield by 20%--40%. The time for burying the stems is after the pumpkins have borne fruit 2--3 times, when some waxy yellow leaves appear at the root area of the pumpkin. Generally, bury the 4--6 stem nodes closest to the pumpkin root, using fertile, moist soil mixed with a small amount of organic fertilizer as the stem-burying soil. The burial depth is about 15--25 cm.