Cultivation Of Pumpkin

Pumpkin is an easily carried crop and pretty much famous for culinary, agricultural and decorative purposes. It is estimated that in America alone nearly 1.4 billion pounds of pumpkins are produced per annum. Production wise the highest populated country China holds the top place followed by India. It is termed as farmer friendly crop, as it grows both in summer and rainy season. Its cultivation is very easy, this is the reason why most of the houses use it as one of the garden growing plants. So lets see what are the different stages of farming this crop that give high production and more profits.

Climate and Soil

• As we said pumpkin can grow both in summer and rainy season. But in warm weather conditions the production will be high.
• Moreover the areas falling in the temperature range 24 to 26 C are said to be ideal for getting good profits.
• All variety of soils allow its healthy growth but mainly organic loamy soils are ideal according to farming experts.
• Also the soils which have pH range of 5 to 6 are also well suitable.

Land Preparation

• As usual land should be thoroughly ploughed to make the farm even. Any weeds and previous wastes should be removed.
• Pumpkin is a vine plant, so necessary canopy must be ensured other than leaving it on the ground.
• For seeding, Pits of 60x45 cm are dug by maintaining a distance of 4x2 m.
• The pits are then mixed with well decayed manure along with the top soil.

Sowing the seeds

• According to farming experts approximately 5 kilograms of seeds are required per hectare.
• Usually this process takes place at the end of January to the starting of March. Some farmers even do it in the months of June to July.
• It is advised to plant two to three seeds in one pit to ensure at least one grows if the other two fails.

Fertilizers

• Apart from adding natural manure at the time of soil preparation, experts suggest to include 25 kg of nitrogen with the same amount of phosphorous at the time of sowing the seeds.
• Again after one month the same mixture is given to the entire crop.

Irrigation

• Experience farmers say no to irrigation during rainy seasons but for summer, they advice to irrigate the entire crop once in five days.
• It is better to go for weeding before you start the process as there may be chance of its increase after irrigation.

Plant Protection

• Fruit flies, cucumber beetles, Aphids, Powdery Mildew Anthracnose etc affect the growth very much.
• Consult the farming experts and take necessary preventive steps to eradicate them completely.

Harvesting and yield

• If the stem of the plant shrinks, understand that it is the time for harvesting. But do remember the harvesting stage differs according to the cultivars.
• At an average the crop yields nearly 25 to 30 tons of pumpkin per hectare.