Growing Pumpkins Are As Easy As Eating A Pie
Growing pumpkins is not a difficult task. It can be grown anywhere, where there is enough water supply, nitrogen rich soil and adequate sunshine. Growing pumpkin is fun for kids. They enjoy each and every task that is to be done to grow pumpkins. Many children love to grow their own pumpkins for Halloween.
However, a few tips should be followed while growing pumpkins. They are:
• Providing enough space for them to spread their vines.
• Prefer summer season, as they need more sunshine.
• Avoid snow or cold climate.
• The soil in which you are growing pumpkins should be rich in nitrogen.
• No other plant should be planted within 7 feet around the pumpkin plant.
• The plant should be supplied with fertilizers regularly.
By following these simple tips, you can easily grow your own pumpkins. Let us see the step by step procedure of growing pumpkins.
1. Preparation of Soil:
• For the plant to grow well, the soil where the plant is to be planted should be supplied with good manure.
• To do this, dig a pit of size 18 inches deep and 24 inches wide and fill the pit with a layer of natural, well rotten manure and fill the remaining pit with soil.
2. Sowing Seeds:
• The seeds need to be germinated before they are sown.
• Soak the seeds in water for 10 – 14 days.
• Once the seeds start germinating, remove the seeds from water.
• Sow the seeds at a depth of 1 inch in the soil.
• Ensure that there are no weeds near the plant.
3. Fertilizing the plant:
• Within few weeks, plantlets start appearing on the ground.
• Take care that the plantlet if provided with required water and sunshine.
• In order to provide the roots of the plant with adequate water, dig a hole of 5 inches deep to supply water to the roots.
• Provide the plant with required nutrients regularly.
• Once you found the fruit on the plant, cut down all the large, shaded leaves of the plant. This helps in strengthening the fruit.
• After the fruit is half grown, place it on a wooden plank at a height. This helps in protecting the fruit from pests and insects and prevents the fruit from getting wet because of the water supplied to the plant.
4. Harvesting the yield:
• Pumpkins usually take 15 -20 weeks to be ready to harvest.
• Pumpkins change their color when they are completely ripe.
• The other indications of the ripe pumpkins are; the skin becomes harder and the stalks get cracked.
• To harvest the yield, cut the stalk of the fruits about 3-4 inches above the fruit, without damaging the vine.
5. Curing:
• Curing is a process in which the harvested pumpkins are left in the sunlight for 5-7 days.
• These pumpkins can be stored, as their skin is now hardened.
If you are growing pumpkins in your back yard, place a stick or any thing to remember where the seed is sown to water it regularly.
Now,Growing Pie Will Be A Lot More Easier
Although growing pumpkins is an easy task, proper care should be taken to protect the yield from pests and insects.
