Often a decorative pumpkin is used to plant the site. It can serve as a cover for unsightly old fences or sheds, braiding them with a powerful vine. Already in the middle of summer, the plant produces huge orange-yellow flowers, which are pollinated, and give us a variety of pumpkins that serve as decorations for the yard, at home and for handicrafts .
Decorative Pumpkin Cultivation
Planting and caring for the decorative pumpkin is no different from her edible relative. This plant likes sunny places with a rich nutrient elements in the soil. It's good to bring in manure from the fall before planting, and in spring, humus.
In warm regions seeds are sown in the ground somewhere in the middle of May, and where it's cold, it is desirable to grow a pumpkin through seedlings, which are planted in early June. For the plant it is important to loosen the soil and the absence of weeds first, and water will be enough once a week.
Basically the decorative pumpkin is weaving, the bush form is very rare, and therefore the support will need a powerful one, because the plant reaches four meters in length and the fruits in the total amount have a fairly large weight.
In autumn, before the onset of frosts, the pumpkins are removed, because after the freezing frost these fruits are not stored. Until this time, bright and very diverse in color and shape, the fruit is decorated with gardens and arbors of private farmsteads.
Is it possible to eat a decorative pumpkin?
In various sources one can come across conflicting information. Someone argues that there are certain varieties that you can eat, but not old fruits, others with accuracy, to the contrary. The conclusion is simple - there are numerous varieties for food, so if the package does not indicate that the variety is suitable for consumption, then let the decorative pumpkin remain so.
Grades of decorative pumpkin
There are a lot of varieties for today - orange, green, yellow, multicolor pumpkins:
- sort "Orange" - bright orange fruits of 200-300 grams on a background of emerald greenery look very exotic, and after collection become an excellent decor for the premises;
- lagenariya or pumpkin-bottle is an interesting plant,
which can be grown of any kind, placing young unformed fruits with a vessel, the shape of which will take a pumpkin in the aftermath; - "Cronen" - a decorative squash of a flattened shape with sharp tips resembles a star or crown and can be two-color, yellow or green;
- "Baby's Boo" - small white picks 10 cm in diameter;
- "Klein bicolor" - very beautiful two-color fruit.
After the collection, the decorative pumpkin is dried without access to the sun's rays, so that it does not darken and retains its juicy shade. Large fruit must have succeeded in the middle, and small it is not required.