Pumpkin planting seeds in the open ground - simple recommendations for beginners

To plant pumpkin seeds in the open ground was successful and your garden by the end of the season was studded with large orange fruits, you need to know the basic principles of care for this melon culture. This popular and common plant can not be called capricious, but errors during sowing can significantly affect its yield.

How to plant a pumpkin seeds in the open ground?

Pumpkin appeared in the Old World thanks to enthusiasts and sailors who dreamed of growing on the home garden the wonderful fruits of the exotic plants they liked. For this reason, the popular herbaceous culture is different from the European flora growing in temperate climates, a more thermophilic temper. To obtain good harvests, the rules for planting pumpkins with seeds are developed, which allow to avoid mistakes related to the freezing of crops, the death of sprouts from pests, drought and diseases.

Several species of pumpkin have been identified - muscat, large-fruited and hard-faced. Muscat variety has an excellent taste, it is used in the cooking of culinary dishes. She is very fond of warmth and in cold regions is grown mainly by seedling method. Large-fruited variety in the open ground is very fruitful, famous for its delicious sunflower seeds, its fruits are stored for a long time after harvesting. The hard-boiled pumpkins have a table purpose, they are appreciated for quick maturation and delicious pulp.

Harvested Muscat Pumpkin Varieties:

Perspective varieties of solid-grained pumpkin:

Large-fruited pumpkin for open ground:

Pumpkin precursors in the open ground

The planned planting of pumpkin seeds in the open ground will not give a good result, if the beds with this culture are located in places where in the past season were grown cucumbers or courgettes with squash. The reason lies in common diseases and pests that infect the earth and even after a qualitative digging they do not perish in the winter. Without a good crop rotation, they, with the arrival of heat, greedily attacked the fruit plants, significantly reducing the yield.

The best predecessors for pumpkin in the open field:

When to plant a pumpkin in the open ground in the spring?

If you do not comply with the timing of planting pumpkin seeds into the open ground, then in our climate, weak shoots can easily suffer even from a weak spring frost. It should be accurately calculated when the threat of late frost disappears in its region. Work on the beds begins with the arrival of a stable heat, depending on the region, the planting of pumpkin plants is carried out from May to mid-June. The yield crop grows well at 25 ° C, when the temperature drops to 14 ° C and below, the development of green mass in the melon stops.

How to select pumpkin seeds for planting?

The seeds obtained do not always have acceptable germination. Often, unscrupulous traders sell in packaging with a beautiful photo overdue material that does not correspond to the claimed varietal characteristics. The best option is to plant a pumpkin with your own seeds in the open ground, which allows you to save a lot of money in a large garden. It is necessary to know the rules of their collection and ways of storage, so that the spring work on the bed was successful and gave an acceptable result.

Procurement of pumpkin seed:

  1. For our purpose, we should select the largest, absolutely ripe, in appearance appearance corresponding to its variety of pumpkin.
  2. It is desirable to plant pumpkin seeds separately from the rest of the mass, in order to exclude the sorting during pollination.
  3. It is undesirable under the bushes, which you plan to use for breeding, to make extra doses of fertilizers.
  4. Cut the pumpkin before the arrival of frost and lay it neatly for storage.
  5. After a month, you can choose the seeds, they should not be kept inside, they will sprout with prolonged storage.
  6. Cut the pumpkin should be slightly to the side of the center, so as not to damage the seeds.
  7. After extraction, the inoculum is washed with water, laid out one layer on a dense fabric and dried under room conditions. Drying in ovens occurs faster, but can adversely affect the germination of pumpkin seeds.
  8. Store seeds before planting in open ground in paper envelopes or canvas bags.
  9. Optimum storage temperature is approximately 14-16 ° C.

How to germinate pumpkin seeds for planting?

In order to have fewer problems in the open ground under unfavorable conditions and to increase the germination capacity, it is advisable to produce sprouts of pumpkin seeds independently before planting. After this procedure, they come together, strong sprouts less perish from pests. The germination process occurs in several stages:

  1. Empty, light and substandard seeds are rejected when sorting.
  2. For a couple of days before working in the open ground, the inoculum is aged 2-3 hours in water heated to 50 ° C.
  3. Next, put the seeds in a damp cloth or napkins.
  4. That the seeds do not dry out, you can cover them with a plastic bag, which is periodically removed for ventilation.
  5. Further germination is carried out at room temperature.
  6. When the seeds form a sprout up to 3 mm long, we start without delay landing in the open ground.

Planting a pumpkin into the open ground with seeds in the spring

Ogorodniki often use a wide-row seeding method. The depth of the pumpkin seed laying in the open ground depends on the composition of the soil and humidity. In light soil it is up to 8 cm, in heavy ground - no more than 5-6 cm. The scheme and rules of planting a pumpkin depend on the average size of the weaves:

  1. Species sorts - 70x70 cm.
  2. For varieties with an average size of lashes - 140x70 cm or 140x140 cm.
  3. Planting of varieties with long stems is carried out according to the scheme - 180-210x100-180 cm.

Fertilizer for pumpkin when planting

Because of the large distance between the bushes, it is rational to apply fertilizer to the pumpkin in the open ground under each bush, without scattering useful substances throughout the site. You can use the following recipe for refilling wells:

  1. Compost - up to 1 bucket.
  2. Superphosphate - up to 20 g.
  3. Potassium fertilizer - up to 10 g.
  4. Saltpeter - up to 10 g.
  5. Wood ash - up to 1 cup.

What can you put next to the pumpkin?

Traditionally in private farms near the pumpkin, corn is grown , for this purpose, shade-tolerant varieties with long stems are suitable for outdoor use. Well neighbors it with beans, peas or beans. Try to divide the beds with different kinds of melons. For example, zucchini, or squash are capable of dusting with pumpkins, losing taste.