Pumpkin growing tutorial
Step 1
Select good quality seeds from the pumpkin you cut at home. I generally pick medium-sized pumpkins or get 1 kg large-sized pieces with seeds, I insist on good matured seeds.
Step 2
Dry the seeds before planting. This step is crucial.
Step 3
Patience, pumpkin seeds take time to germinate, maybe weeks. Take good care of the tiny sapling which emerge, the chances of a plant from 10 seeds is one will germinate and become a good plant!
Step 4
Look for a large container to repot the sampling. I have a large rectangular pot in which the pumpkin grow. As the plant started growing, I have kept it near the corner of my garden where the vines are growing on top of the parapet.
It requires direct sunlight and best suited to grow where the plant can get good amount of sunlight. I water them once in a day.
If you are growing the plant directly on soil, make sure the plant has enough space to spread.
Step 5
The full-grown plant will take about 2 to 3 months to produce flowers. Sometimes the initial flowers may not bear fruit as pollination may not happen. Thus flowers may fall.
How to identify the male and female flowers? As a new Gardner you will be surprised that pumpkin has the ability to produce both male and female flowers in the same plant. The male flower is small in size, while female has a miniature version of the fruit.
You may have to sometimes do hand pollination. Also with pumpkin/cucumbers/ ridge gourd you may experience that there are lots of male flowers and no female or vice versa. You can store the stamens and use that to hand pollinate the female flowers.
In cucúrbita family most of the time male flowers are first produced because they have rich pollen and it attracts bees. After you see the first male flower you will see the female flower typically in 10 to 12 days.
Excess male flowers and less female flowers or vice versa is environmental effect. When plant is too dense there is competition from with in for water and nutrition. That triggers stress and because of that you see way too less female flowers and more of male flowers. Other reasons are, too harsh sun or too less sun, inconsistent watering, not enough nutrition also aids to inconsistent flowering.
If the temperature are too high that is 30 degrees C and above it promotes the growth of only male flowers. If the temperature is lower like 18 degrees C and below you will see only female flowers. So places with harsh winter and harsh summer it’s very important to plan when to plant.
I faced it initially and then the birds, butterflies did their share of pollination.
Step 6
The full-grown plant needs good quantity manure; I add homemade compost and neem pellets. You can start adding mamure on every 15 days, as the young plant needs maximum manure during the first 2 to 3 months.
Step 7
The small dark greenish pumpkin takes about two weeks to become medium-sized pumpkins.
Step 8
I cover them with white nets which protects them from birds, plus they are heavy and need support.
Step 9
Regularly water the plants, or the flowers may fall, small pumpkins start ripening and fall. To avoid it I have left a bottle filled with water near the roots and layered the pot with cocopeat, holding the moisture.
Step 10
A plant may yield about 10 to 15 pumpkins on a container, the number increases on the soil depends on the care, sunlight and rains it receives.
This pumpkin has a peach colour skin, while the one I grow at my garden is dark green. Both taste good.
This tutorial is written by all three of us, Shabana Surguro, Ashwini Lobo and I.
I wish to thank them both for the invaluable inputs and suggestions.
