Having our own garden to eat the best vegetables and fruits is ideal to ensure that we are eating healthy and natural food, without any type of additives that could affect our health and that of our family.
We will teach you how and when to plant pumpkins, different varieties so that you can make the most of the land you have for your garden.
To obtain the best pumpkins, you have to know how to select the seeds, prepare the land for sowing, how and when to sow, water properly and also when to harvest the pumpkins, what is the optimal time.
Pumpkins usually have a fungus called powdery mildew on their leaves and stems that ruins the plant and therefore the fruits. To avoid this disease, watering should be done only at the root, avoiding wetting the leaves and, in case of doing so; the water from the leaves should dry during the day so it is ideal to water in the morning and not in the afternoon or at night.
What do you need for and when to plant pumpkins?
- Pumpkin seeds
- paper bag
- Land prepared for cultivation
- Natural fertilizer
- Water for irrigation and sun.
Instructions for and when to plant pumpkins
- Pumpkin seeds need some heat to germinate; they never do in very cold areas. That is why the ideal is to sow them in a time well away from frost, that is, late spring, late spring or early summer. Throughout the three to four months the plant will grow, bear fruit and be ready to harvest when fall begins. It all depends on the area where you live.
- The first thing you should do is select the pumpkin seeds that are inside the fruit. To do this, look for large, hard-shelled pumpkins that have the image of the ones you want to harvest in the future. The better the fruit, the better the seeds and the pumpkins you harvest even better or at least the same.
- You can also buy the seeds but you will not be sure what quality of fruit they were extracted from.
- Take a pumpkin, the best one or the best ones, cut them in half until you can extract the seeds, do not take out all of them but only those that are in the central part, these are the best.
Do it with all the pumpkins selected according to the plantation you want to do. Wash the seeds well in a colander with tap water, then dry them and place them in the sun for three days to dry. You should store them overnight so they don’t get soggy again. When they are dry, place them in a paper bag. Or wrap them in paper and store them in a dry place so they don’t get damp. In this way you can keep them until the time of sowing and even up to two years. - The place to sow the pumpkin seeds must have at least five hours of sun a day; the soil must be removed and fertilized with manure.
- Prepare the soil with a rake and other gardening supplies so that it is well ventilated. Do not forget some time before adding natural fertilizer that can be manure, then remove it, mix it and leave it for a couple of weeks. Before sowing you must stir again so that the soil is not compacted and the seeds germinate comfortably.
- To sow the seeds you will need to make holes 5 cm deep so that each one fits two separate seeds. Then cover the hole and continue with the next one. The holes should be spaced every 30 to 40cm because pumpkin plants are big and strong so they should have room to grow.
- These plants will be germinating in a week or ten days and you will begin to see the shoots. If the two seeds in one of the holes germinate, leave the strongest one and remove the other.
- Watering should be done daily, it is necessary to keep the soil moist while the seed germinates, then continue watering so that the water goes to the root, not on the leaves and stems.
- Irrigation must be maintained throughout the development of the plant and the fruit, the lack of water will dry the plant and if it has already formed the fruits, it could dry them and be totally useless or of poor quality. The only time to stop irrigation is a week before harvesting the pumpkins.
- When you see that the pumpkins are orange, it will be time to harvest, but remember to stop watering a week before doing so.
Tips for and when to plant pumpkins
- Remove all the remains of weeds that can affect the crop as well as the stones or roots of other crops.
- The ideal time to water is the morning.
