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

Pumpkin is a melon-type vegetable with fairly high edible value, and it is grown in many regions of China. 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, sweet, and high-yielding. Today, let us follow Qinnong Web to see how others achieve high yield and high quality.

1. Site Selection and Land Preparation

Pumpkin has fairly strong drought tolerance, but its water requirements are quite strict; there must not be too much water. So when choosing a site, pay attention to selecting land with relatively high terrain and good drainage and irrigation, and do not plant in soil that easily accumulates water or does not drain readily. 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 certain intervals (generally 2 m to 3 m between rows and 50 cm to 70 cm between plants), place 3 to 5 seeds in each hole, then cover the seeds with soil. The second method is transplanting: first raise the seedlings in one plot until the seedlings grow to 10 cm, then we can transplant them; after transplanting, be sure to water until they grow new roots.

3. Sowing Techniques

The high-yield technique for pumpkin generally uses the method of joining multiple plants. That is, when the pumpkin seedlings grow to about 50 to 60 cm, use a knife to cut off the tips of the main seedlings of two adjacent plants, then tie the two seedlings whose tips have been cut tightly together. Generally after two or three days, new shoots will grow from the joint. 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 promptly.

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 this time, we can also build some trellises and guide the seedlings onto the trellises to grow along them, which can also prevent the vines from being damaged by rain and reduce pests and diseases, increasing the probability of fruit set. Several important points in field management: the first is fertilizing; the fertilizing time is generally after planting is completed and when the vines grow to about 20 cm. The second is pollination; to increase the fruit-setting rate, we use artificial pollination. The third is vine pressing; vine pressing is generally done after the first batch of pumpkins has set fruit, when some vines turn yellow, so that new vines will grow and continue life, thereby increasing 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 directly affects the growth of pumpkin and leads to poor quality, so it should be treated promptly. We generally use spraying with 2000-fold fenarimol EC, 200-fold agricultural antibiotic 120 aqueous solution, or 1500-fold thiram.

The above is the high-yield pumpkin growing method brought to you by Qinnong Web. If you want to learn more about agriculture, remember to follow us.