by Although pumpkin is an unpretentious crop, it also needs fertile soil, shoot formation, regular watering and fertilizing, and sufficient lighting. In August and September, you need to try to help the pumpkin direct all its energy to the formation of fruits and provide the plants with adequate nutrition.
Pumpkin grows well in soil rich in organic matter. If you once grew it on a compost or manure heap, it was probably a strong and robust plant with large fruits. Sometimes gardeners specifically plant pumpkin in compost heaps to provide it with nutrition for the entire season.
In this case, the plant only needs to be watered regularly and fed several times per season with complex mineral fertilizer. But if the pumpkin grows on infertile or sandy soil, from which nutrients are quickly washed out, then the number of fertilizing increases to 7-10 times. This is especially true for long-vine large-fruited plants that need a larger volume of mineral and organic substances.
Organic fertilizing
Pumpkin responds well to organic fertilizing throughout the season. An excellent fertilizer is an infusion of chopped rotted grass – the so-called fermented tea. Chopped weeds or mown lawn grass are placed in a bag or pile and kept in the sun for several days until the grass darkens. Then a bucket is filled a quarter with rotted grass, filled with water, 100 g of ash is added and infused for 2-3 hours. Such “tea” in undiluted form can be used to feed pumpkin throughout the entire growing season.
Any liquid fertilizers should be applied only to damp soil, i.e. after watering the plants.
In August, you can feed the pumpkin with an infusion of nettle and dandelions. These plants are collected together with the roots, crushed, filled with water and infused for 10-14 days. For feeding, take 1 liter of infusion per bucket of settled water.
A valuable organic fertilizer is also biohumus (vermicompost) and its extract – vermichai, which contains all the main macro- and microelements, amino acids, humic substances and live beneficial bacteria. To prepare vermichai, you need to pour 1 liter of biohumus with 10 liters of warm water and leave for a day. Before use, the fertilizer should be diluted with water to the color of weakly brewed tea.
Ash can be added to herbal infusions or used as a separate fertilizer. It contains a lot of potassium and phosphorus, which are necessary for pumpkin at the end of the growing season. These macronutrients are responsible for the uniform ripening of fruits, taste and shelf life of pumpkin. Although the composition of ash depends on the raw materials burned, in any case it is a valuable organomineral fertilizer.
Mineral Fertilizers
Mineral fertilizers can and should be applied alternately with organic ones. At the stage of fruit ripening, it is necessary to feed the pumpkin with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers to slow down the aging of plants and extend the shelf life of the crop. For feeding, you can use superphosphate (1 tbsp. per 10 liters of water), potassium sulfate (1 tbsp. per 10 liters of water). These fertilizers can be mixed and applied to the pumpkin at the same time, or you can use ready-made compositions: Kristalon Orange, Agromaster 10:18:32 (in August) or 3:11:38 (in September), OMU Autumn, AVA for vegetables, as well as liquid complex organomineral fertilizers, which, in addition to the main macro- and microelements, contain humic substances.
Liquid fertilizers are poured around the area around the central stem, using small portions of the fertilizer, or solutions are poured into the grooves in the root area. When feeding the pumpkin, it is necessary to take into account that roots can also form on the stems that come into contact with moist soil, which provide the plant with additional nutrition. Therefore, those vines on which the fruits ripen should not be moved so as not to damage these roots.
Areas where the stems have taken root should not be left unattended. It is advisable to sprinkle additional roots with nutritious soil or compost and regularly apply liquid fertilizers to these areas.
Pinch shoots
In order to direct nutrients to the formation of fruits, it is necessary to regularly cut off young shoots appearing in the leaf axils. At the end of summer, when the fruits have already formed, it is necessary to pinch all the shoots, leaving 4-5 leaves after the pumpkin has set.
In addition, at the end of the season, you should remove damaged and yellowed leaves, especially if you see signs of any diseases on them. It is advisable to prune plants in sunny weather so that the cuts dry quickly in the sun. Leaves should be cut at the stem itself, without leaving petioles, using a knife or scissors. After removing diseased leaves, the tool should be treated with a disinfectant, and the plants should be sprayed with Fitosporin-M.
Approximately 20 days before harvesting the fruits, watering and fertilizing the pumpkin should be stopped. The fruits should be harvested in dry weather before the first frost.
To provide nutrition for the pumpkin that will grow on the plot next year, start preparing the bed in the fall: choose a sunny area, add humus, compost, superphosphate (20 g per 1 sq.m), potassium sulfate (15 g per 1 sq.m) under digging. Good preceding crops for pumpkin are potatoes, onions, cabbage, legumes. If you think about planting in advance and carefully prepare the beds, you can get a good harvest from year to year.
