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Many pumpkin varieties allow you to grow this healthy vegetable from Arkhangelsk to Crimea and from the Far East to the western borders of the country. The unpretentiousness of agrotechnology and the size of the obtained nutrient mass make the pumpkin desirable on any garden patch of land. But how to determine the maturity of the pumpkin in the garden, not late with cleaning inexperienced vegetable grower?
How to care for a pumpkin before cleaning?
Regardless of the size of the fruit and the timing of harvesting, there are rules that will help protect the fruit on the bed from rotting and pests. Lying constantly on its side, touching the ground, in wet weather, a huge berry can rot and become unusable. Wrong doing those who are trying to process a pumpkin with a rotten side. Before the fetus received visible damage, changes have already occurred in the core, and it is not worth eating as food.
A pumpkin should be placed on a hill or a specially arranged knoll, a wooden or plywood board should be laid down, and covered with top foil during autumn rains. In the last month, when the pumpkin picks up the sweetness of watering should be stopped. The length of the roots, which go down to three meters, is enough to provide the necessary amount of water.
Indicates that the pumpkin harvest time has come, the first cold snap, since even a small frost makes the fruit unfit for storage. You can still hold the fruit on the garden in dry weather, covering from cool nights.
When can I pick a pumpkin?
You can get a fully ripe pumpkin from the field only in hot regions, when the fruit ripens naturally on the field for more than 4 months. But the pumpkin is good because in addition to a long shelf life of several months, it still continues to keep up.
Therefore, find out whether the pumpkin is ripe and how long it can lie on the ridge, knowing the main signs of readiness of the vegetable for harvesting:
- The leaves of the bush have dried, changed their color to yellow,dried up. If before this there were no signs of anthracosis, then the natural die-off of healthy foliage is a sure sign of the end of the growing season.
- The peduncle becomes stiff, the top layer is pierced, it becomes wood at the same time as the stem feeding power. It is already impossible to shift a pumpkin in a different way, without violating the integrity of the liner.
- The color of the pumpkin, whatever it may be, becomes brighter from gray to yellow, the pattern is more noticeable.
- On the peel should not leave marks from scratching her fingernail. The cover hardens and doesn’t spring up from pressing with fingers. Ripe pumpkin ringing cotton. Ripe pumpkin is covered with a matte coating, the peduncle is easily separated.
When cleaning a pumpkin you need to treat it carefully, trying not to scratch it. If a nuisance has occurred, seal the place of damage with a bactericidal plaster or not leave the damaged vegetable in storage.
A pumpkin taken off in a dark, cool and dry place can mature for about a month. You can store the fruit in such conditions for a long time, allowing you to use a fresh, healthy product during the winter.
It is very important in different regions to use zoned varieties of different time to achieve biological ripeness. But even the earliest ripening varieties ripen in about 4 months. Therefore, in regions with a temperate climate, a seedling growing method is used. In a new way in the northern regions began to use mini-table with biological heating, leaving the root system constantly warm, and whip in a short summer, letting it into the fresh air.
Early maturing varieties are harvested in late August, growing seedlings. Such varieties include the common Gribovskaya bush, Freckle, Golosemyannaya. The crust is thin, the shelf life is up to a month.
The varieties of medium pumpkin ripening - Smile, Curative, Russian women are sown after 4 months. Harvest in September, but before the first frost. Frozen fruit storage is not suitable. Varieties of these pumpkins are saved up to two months after the onset of ripeness.
The most valuable fruits are late-ripening varieties grown under the southern sun. These include Vitamin A, Muscat, Pearl. These pumpkins have a thick hard crust and sweet pulp, which is added raw to salads. Late varieties are stored in a cool room for up to six months. They are removed late, but even in the south ripeness occurs in a month or two.
The ripening dates indicated on the seed package are given for ideal conditions. The weather makes its own adjustments. Therefore, to navigate when to harvest pumpkin need to weather, plant condition and biological maturation of the variety.
When storing any pumpkin for storage it is important that the integrity of the fit of the tail to the fold is not compromised. If there is a gap in this place, the infection will fall and the fetus will rot.
Harvesting rules
Harvesting is carried out in dry weather, after the lash dries well from the morning moisture. If bad weather caused it, you will have to harvest in wet weather, such fruits should be dried well. At the same time separate damaged copies. In dry, warm weather, the roots cut off from the main stem can still be held on a melon blossom, under the rays of the sun.
Everything that is said concerns pumpkin, as a food product. In the culture of many other varieties of pumpkin loofah provides us with excellent washcloths and serves as a filler in the furniture industry. This type of pumpkin is left to grow after frost, until it becomes thin peel.
Decorative pumpkins are used for crafts in folk art. Therefore, light freezing does not affect the state of the crust, and the pulp from these fruits is almost never used. Therefore, ornamental fruits lie on the garden or hang longer than food varieties.
There are certain deadlines for gardeners to focus on when harvesting. For the southern regions, Crimea, the pumpkin harvest time is the end of September and the beginning of October, with the possible ripening of late varieties indoors. Basically it is nutmeg, very tasty pumpkin.
In the suburbs, the harvest should end until mid-September. In this case, one should take into account the weather forecast and avoid delay in removing pumpkin during a cold snap.
Siberia is big and here, as in the Far East, the time when you can pluck a pumpkin depends on regional climatic conditions.
