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It is difficult to imagine garden beds of Russian household farms without such a crop as pumpkins. And in the Moscow suburbs in the autumn, among the withered foliage, bright spots of these fruits of very different shapes and colors are clearly visible.
Read also the article about when to plant squash!
It would seem that growing a pumpkin in the open field in the Moscow region is not difficult, and many gardeners after planting are limited to minimal attention and care for the vegetable. Indeed, early ripening, but not the sweetest and long-stored pumpkins can be removed already in the last days of August and in September. But orange large-fruited beauties and fragrant nutmeg pumpkins with a dismissive attitude to agricultural technology do not always ripen.
In order not to remain without the desired harvest, it is important to know how to bring the harvest time closer, properly care for the pumpkin in the open field and determine the ripeness of the fruit.
How and when to plant a pumpkin for seedlings?
For a friendly and maximum early harvest, which is very important when growing pumpkins of middle-ripening and late varieties in the Moscow countryside, it is better to plant the seedlings. To do this, large filled seeds are dipped in warm water for a couple of days before sowing and kept at about 45–50 ° C for about three hours. Then the seed is removed and, at room temperature, waiting for the seeds to be sown between the layers of wet tissue. It is important to ensure that the moisture has not evaporated, because the dried bud of the germ can quickly die.
Once the flaps are opened, the seed can be planted in the soil.
But for pumpkins of late ripening varieties and seedlings that risk to fall under the spring frosts, it would be better to stratify the seeds beforehand. Why naklyunuvshisya seeds, in the same moist environment, placed in the refrigerator. Here, at a temperature of 2 to 5 ° C, the planting material is hardened and spends 3-4 days.
Optimally plant a pumpkin for seedlings for three weeks before the moment when young plants fall into the ground. That is, the use of this method of growing for at least 10–15 days approximates the time of pumpkin harvest in the Moscow region.
But at the same time it must be taken into account that the vegetable seedlings are difficult to tolerate the transplant and the entire gain in time can evaporate due to the long acclimatization of the plants. Therefore, sowing is carried out in peat 10-centimeter pots filled with peat-humus mixture with the addition of sand and garden soil.
This will be enough for the development of the root system of seedlings. If the seeds are buried in large seed tanks, it is better to make a 3-centimeter layer of mature sawdust at their bottom:
- While the shoots have not appeared, the pots are covered with film and kept at day temperature 18-25 ° C.At night, the air can be 5–7 ° C cooler.
- When sprouts are shown above the ground, pumpkin seedlings for additional hardening and preventing stretching further lower the temperature of the content, now to 15–18 ° C during the day and 12–13 ° C at night. In such conditions, the plants are about a week.
- With the beginning of the development of true leaves, the temperature rises by 3-5 ° C in the daytime, and at night the air can warm up to 15 ° C.
Pumpkin seedlings for cultivation in the Moscow region open ground need moderate but regular watering and good lighting. If natural lighting is not enough, arrange additional lighting, which also will not give the sprouts excessively stretch and weaken.
At the age of one week, seedlings receive the first top dressing with nitrogen, for which 250–300 ml of mullein solution or nitrophosphate in the concentration specified by the manufacturer is used per plant.
By the time the seedlings of pumpkins grown for open ground in the Moscow region, fall into the soil, it has several true leaves of a saturated green color and a strong, upright stem. It's time when pumpkin seedlings are planted in the open ground, comes with the departure of spring frosts from the Moscow region.
Between plants of bush varieties, gaps of 70–100 cm are left, to ensure the nutrition of large plants forming powerful whips, it is better to leave 1.5 meters each.
Care for pumpkins in open ground
If you want to get an early harvest, as well as when there is a danger of flooding the site for pumpkins, you use high ridges.
The simplest method is to plant a pumpkin on an embankment about 10–15 cm high. In this case, the soil warms better and faster, and the plant that has appeared in new conditions is easier to tolerate transplanting. The soil should be wet, nutritious and loose, and the pumpkin seedlings planted must be watered and covered with film or nonwoven material.
Care for pumpkins in the open field begins from the moment of planting and does not stop until harvest. So that the moisture from the soil surface evaporated more slowly, the weeds did not grow, and the soil was warm, the beds around the sprouts were mulched with straw. In the summer months, if the weather turns out to be rainy, such protection will not allow the ovaries and already ripening fruits to rot.
Equally important for obtaining early harvest is the choice of the site for planting. Not only does the culture require nutritious, rich organic soil and loose soil, the ridges should be well lit and protected from the cold wind. For varieties that form a powerful scourge, fences and walls of buildings become such protection and a kind of trellis.
For active and rapid growth of a pumpkin grown in the open field of the Moscow region, one cannot do without regular dressings. Moreover, fertilizer is better not under the root, and at some distance from the plant, in the annular gutter. Its depth increases from 8 to 12 cm, as the bush develops. When the plant is still small, for the first feeding at the stage of several true leaves, such a recess is made at a distance of 15–20 cm from the stem. Then the well is made at a distance of 40 cm. This is how all subsequent feeding is carried out with an interval of 7-10 days.
When you apply fertilizer, you should try to keep the solution from falling on the flowers, leaves and other green parts of the plant, as this threatens to burns. At the end of the procedure, the gutter is sprinkled with soil. At the initial stages of pumpkin development in the open ground, fertilizing with organic matter, provoking rapid growth of greenery, is included in the care. A week after planting, the seedlings are watered with a solution:
- chicken manure at the rate of 1:16;
- diluted manure in a ratio of 1: 6;
- 1:10 of herbal infusion, for example, on nettle;
- nitrogen-containing synthetic fertilizer in the proportion indicated on the tool.
With the growth of mineral additives are introduced, and to harvest almost eliminate nitrogen supplements and increase the proportion of potassium in fertilizers. Such a measure will not allow fruits to accumulate nitrates, but it will give an opportunity to form well and bring the moment closer when pumpkins are ripe in the Moscow region. Pumpkin responds well to foliar feeding, for which you can take ready means of universal action.
Care for pumpkin in the open field can not be effective if the plant is limited in obtaining moisture. Watering, especially at first, until the pumpkin has increased its green mass, is extremely important. They may be rare, but not superficial. Roots located at a depth of 40 cm should receive enough moisture to ensure the development of a large and abundantly fruiting plant. In this case, the water for irrigation is taken to stand and warm.
A month before the pumpkins in the open ground ripen or are cut due to the onset of cold weather, watering is gradually reduced, and then stopped altogether.
Being in conditions of artificial drought, the plant will determine that it is time for pumpkins to ripen. And to harvest, the bark of the fruit will be harder, the fruit stem will wither and lignify, the flesh will become dense, with a high sugar content.
Formation of pumpkins in open ground
When growing pumpkins in the open field of the Moscow region, it is difficult to get a decent, early harvest, if you do not form and restrict the plants in growth. If the bush varieties can be limited to the removal of female flowers in the period when a sufficient number of ovaries have already formed on the plant, then you will have to do otherwise with the pumpkin, which gives long powerful lashes.
At the moment when 5–6 true leaves are uncovered on the main pumpkin sprout, the stem is squeezed, which stimulates:
- the development of the lateral axils from the sinuses;
- increase in the number of flowers, ovaries and ripe fruits.
This does not end plant formation. When the number of ovaries with a diameter of about 12–15 cm reaches 3–5, depending on the variety, remove the growing point of this whip, leaving 3 to 5 leaves above the ovary. So that all the forces of the plant go to the already formed fruits, from this moment remove all lateral shoots and flowers. At the end of the article in the detailed video about the formation of pumpkins in the open field the whole sequence of actions is considered.
Along with the formation of pumpkins in the open field, you can provide additional nutrition to the plant with a simple technique. As the lashes grow, they are evenly laid out on the site designated for pumpkins, and the stems are sprinkled with soil and watered at a distance of 50–60 cm from the root. As a result, the formation of additional roots at these places helps feed the ripening pumpkins.
The number of fruits on pumpkins grown in the open ground of the Moscow Region is determined by:
- with the maximum permissible load for the variety:
- time remaining until the end of the growing season;
- level of maturity already pumped pumpkins.
Therefore, it is not recommended to leave more than 2-3 fruits on large-fruited varieties.
When the pumpkin ripens in the suburbs?
With proper care for pumpkins in the open field, in the middle lane, early and mid-ripening varieties, yielding not very large fruits, ripen well.
Horticulturists, who make every effort to grow large-fruited varieties and nutmeg pumpkins, famous for their delicious taste and aroma, it is important not to miss the moment of harvest and know exactly how to determine that the pumpkin is ripe.
There are several signs of fetal readiness:
- By the time of ripening, the pumpkins become coarse and become like a dry cork stem.
- Scourge and leaves begin to turn yellow and dry.
- The bark changes shade, the pattern characteristic of the variety appears on it. Although there are plants that produce gray, green, and cream pumpkins, most varieties produce orange or yellow colored fruits.
- Changing not only the color of the skin, but also its hardness. If the bark of the ovary can be easily damaged with a fingernail or coarse lash, then the bark that has matured in the suburbs of the gourd becomes extremely durable.
And although the most delicious fruits are those that ripened in the sun, it is important to remove the harvest before the onset of cold weather.
Do not forget that autumn in the Moscow region is treacherous because the sun is shining during the daytime, and the temperature is quite comfortable for pumpkins, and at night on the ground September air is cooled to very low levels.
Therefore, no matter how the summer resident looked after the pumpkin in the open ground, the fruit that did not ripen in time in the first doubt is better to remove from the garden. Frost can cause serious damage even to mature fruits, reducing their quality and ability to be stored.
Pumpkins intended for storage are cut off, leaving the stem at least 4–6 cm long, sorted and left to dry. For 8–10 days of stay in a dry warm room or on the street, under a shed, if the weather permits, the fruits ripen, the bark hardens, the cut on the handle dries out. If the nights are cold, as is the case when a pumpkin ripens in the Moscow region in September or early October, the fruits are covered with hay or nonwoven material. Unmerged pumpkins are re-used in room conditions, which can take from 10 days to 1.5 months.
