Pumpkin Healing is one of the most useful and delicious varieties of melons and gourds. Its healing properties help cleanse and rejuvenate the body. Even a novice gardener can grow a Healing Pumpkin, the variety does not need special conditions and, with high-quality care, brings a rich harvest.
Healing pumpkin
Healing pumpkin undemanding in care
Healing pumpkin tastes good
Pumpkin Healing: description and characteristics
The pumpkin got its name due to the high content of vitamins E, B1 and B2. It also contains carotene and fiber, sugar.
The main characteristics of Healing pumpkin:
- The scourge of the plant is not very long, but thick. Bushes of small height, stems are round, not ribbed. The leaves are green in color, large, without cuts. The stalk is cylindrical.
- Pumpkin flowers are yellow with 5 petals. Ovaries are formed only on female inflorescences, the fruits of the plant are large, the weight of one is about 5 kg, sometimes it reaches 8 kg.
- The fruits are slightly flattened on both sides. Color - light green or light gray, there is a pronounced pattern in the form of a dark grid.
- The pulp is bright orange in color, the taste is tender and juicy. The aroma is characteristically pumpkin. Each fruit has 3 cavities with white seeds for planting.
- The Healing pumpkin belongs to an early ripening variety. The first fruits can be harvested as early as 100 days after sowing the seeds.
- The variety is distinguished by its high yield - about 18 kg of harvest can be harvested from 1 plant. About 3-4 pumpkins ripen on 1 bush.
Distinctive features
The main feature of this pumpkin variety is its fruit. They are famous for their rich green rind, covered with a thick bloom of white. This feature makes the fruit feel slippery. Another distinctive feature is its resistance to sudden changes in air temperatures, so the pumpkin can be grown outdoors even in the northern regions of the country.
Pest and disease resistance
Medium immunity, the plant is not resistant to fungal diseases. Reviews of many summer residents show that the Healing pumpkin variety suffers from rot. Powdery mildew and anthracnose are also enemies of the variety.
Advantages and disadvantages
Pumpkin Healing, like other varieties, has pros and cons, they must be taken into account when growing this plant.
Pumpkin benefits:
- frost resistance;
- resistance to sudden changes in temperature;
- undemanding care;
- high productivity;
- excellent taste and maximum usefulness of the pulp;
- a medium-sized bush, respectively, more plants can be grown on the site;
- long shelf life.
Disadvantages of Pumpkin Healing:
- average immunity;
- exactingness to the composition of the soil.
Features of growing pumpkin Healing
The main features of growing this variety:
- Despite its frost resistance, the pumpkin loves the sun and warmth, so plant it in lighted areas. In autumn, dig up the soil and clear it of various debris, including the roots of weeds and plants.
- For 1 sq. m, add 5-7 kg of rotted manure. In the case of high acidity of the soil, add dry lime or ash. Heavy soil needs sand.
- In the spring season, level the soil with a rake and clear of grass. For 1 sq. m, add 30 g of superphosphate and 25 g of urea, pour the beds with a hot solution of copper sulfate (0.5 tablespoons per 5 liters of water).
- The minimum soil temperature for growing pumpkin is +12 degrees. With this indicator, the Healing pumpkin can be planted, but it is better that the air temperature reaches +24 degrees, then the soil will warm up enough.
- With the onset of cold weather, the pumpkin stops growing and resumes growth on the first sunny and warm day.
- To speed up the growth of plants, you should make a small greenhouse.
- You can use the seedling method of growing, then the sowing time is shifted by 3 weeks (around the beginning of April).
Germinating seeds
It is impossible to immediately plant a seed in the ground, you need to process and harden it first. Germination of seed takes about 2-3 days, after all procedures, the plant will rise much faster.
Algorithm for preparing seeds for planting:
- Soak the seed in warm water for 2 hours.
- Place the seeds in a damp gauze and place in a warm place.
- Store the grains in this state until they begin to hatch.
- Make sure that the gauze does not dry out.
Sowing seeds in open ground
Be sure to plant seeds in the soil at a temperature not lower than + 12 ... + 15 degrees, otherwise the seeds will not start to sprout.
Seed sowing algorithm:
- Dig holes 0.3 m deep.Place humus 10 cm or rotted manure on the bottom. Fill the rest of the space with soil.
- Planting scheme: 60 * 80 cm.
- Sow 3 seeds into the hole, but away from each other. Deepen the first seed by 5 cm, the second by 7 cm and the third by 9 cm.
- Water the wells.
- Cover the beds with foil, remove it a week after seed germination.
- Pinch the weak shoots, leave one plant in each depression.
Growing seedlings
It is necessary to sow pumpkin seeds for seedlings on April 20-30, it is possible even earlier. It all depends on the climatic conditions of your region. The seedlings are transferred to open soil after 2 weeks.
The melon crop does not tolerate picking, so it must be sown immediately in separate pots. Various containers can be used, such as juice, plastic bottles, cups or peat tablets.
Algorithm for growing seedlings:
- Healing pumpkin is very demanding on the composition of the soil, it loves fertile, but loose soil. You can use a store-bought mixture for melons and gourds.
- If you have the opportunity, then prepare the earth yourself: 1 part of garden soil + 1 part of humus + 0.5 part of sand. For 1 bucket of this mixture, add a glass of ash and a little superphosphate (1 tbsp. L.).
- There must be drainage in the pots, they are coarse sand, the rest is filled with prepared earth. Treat seedling pots, soil and drainage with a saturated solution of potassium permanganate. Deepen the grains by 3-5 cm.
- For the seeds to germinate better and faster, spray them with warm water 2-3 times a week.
- Do not over-air the seedlings.
- As soon as the seeds in the pot germinate, pinch the weak plant and leave one strong plant.
- For speedy germination, the air temperature should not fall below +27 degrees. A week after the emergence of shoots, it is lowered to +18 degrees.
Seedlings are fed only 1 time. Use Nitrophoska or chicken manure diluted 1:10 with water.
Transplanting seedlings into open ground
At the time of plant transplantation, 3 true leaves should appear on the shoots. Small internodes speak about the quality of the plant. 7 days before transplanting sprouts into open ground, the seedlings are tempered, for this they are taken out every day to fresh air.
For transplanting seedlings:
- Dig holes in a checkerboard pattern (60 * 80 cm). Place 1 L of poultry manure solution in each well.
- Plant 1 plant in the hole.
- Do not deepen the root collar.
- Water with warm water using the rain method.
- Cover the sprouts with foil for a week after transplanting.
How to care for a pumpkin?
Pumpkin Healing refers to plants that are undemanding to care for. To get a large harvest, you should adhere to the standard, but important rules for growing this melon crop.
Watering and feeding
The main activity for caring for a pumpkin is regular and proper watering. The pumpkin, like a pump, pumps out all the moisture from the soil and waits for the next "portion". Water evaporates through the leaves, so the roots and stems are not getting enough water.
Expose the water to the sun in advance, its temperature should not be lower than +20 degrees. Watering with cold water is death for a pumpkin. After adding moisture, it is necessary to loosen the soil and, as weeds appear, pull them out.
If the summer season is too dry, then the plant is watered more often before flowering.
The melon culture will not do without fertilizers, otherwise you will not get large fruits. The first feeding of pumpkin - after the appearance of the 5th leaf, the second - after the formation of wattle fences, then add useful trace elements to the soil every 2 weeks.
Nitrophoska is used as fertilizer (10 g per 1 plant), with each subsequent feeding, the amount of nitrophoska increases by 5 g. You can use dry granules or dilute the product. During the fruiting period, add an additional 1 glass of ash. Use mullein solution throughout the growing season.
Weeding and loosening
Until lateral shoots appear, the soil should be loosened regularly and all weeds should be removed. As soon as the plants begin to creep along the ground, you should not disturb them, otherwise the stems will break very quickly. Weed at the same time as watering. Loosening helps oxygen to flow freely to the root system.
Harvesting
Harvested in late August or early September, everything directly depends on the climatic conditions in the region. Cleaning is carried out manually. It is necessary to prepare a knife or secateurs, cut the fruit closer to the petiole, leave the tail about 10 cm.
Diseases and pests
Pumpkin Healing has a weak immunity to fungal diseases, in order to reduce the risk of their occurrence, it is necessary to spray the plants with a weak solution of potassium permanganate once a week.
The most dangerous ailments are: root rot, white rot, and powdery mildew. If the pumpkin is infected, then use Bordeaux liquid or special chemicals as a control. A plant in a neglected state - immediately dig up and burn, and treat the neighboring plantings.
Possible growing difficulties
It is not very easy to grow a pumpkin, and some inexperienced summer residents make a number of mistakes, which are difficult to fix later.
The main problems that arise when growing Healing pumpkin:
- Seeds and weak seedlings have not sprouted... The reason is watering with cold water or placing pots with seedlings (seeds) in a draft.
- Delayed growth and development. The reason is too poor poor soil. The solution is to apply fertilizer to the ground.
- A small number of ovaries are formed. The reason is poor pollination or its complete absence. The solution is spraying the bushes with sweet water or self-pollination of female inflorescences with male flowers.
- Fruit ripening too long. The reason is that the fruits are located in the shade of their own leaves. The solution is to remove the greens from the pumpkins.
- The plant produces a lot of greenery and few fruits. The reason is a large number of dressings. The solution is to stop fertilizing.
Tips from experienced gardeners
The main recommendations for growing Healing pumpkin from experienced summer residents:
- Apply humus or straw as mulch. A layer of these materials protects the root system of plants from bad weather conditions and prevents weeds from growing. Also, plus mulch - the appearance of earthworms in the nutrient substrate, they naturally loosen the soil.
- Before the formation of inflorescences, water the plants with the rain method, then add moisture only at the root. As soon as the fruits appear, stop watering.
- Wood substrates help from fruit rotting.
- The main stem is sprinkled with soil in one place. This helps new roots to emerge and gain ground faster.
Farmers reviews
Olga, 62 years old, librarian, Valuyki. I have been growing medicinal pumpkin in my country house for over 8 years. An excellent variety - unpretentious in care and is famous for its high yield. I noticed one drawback - it needs a lot of fertilizers. But in order not to suffer with the introduction of fertilizing, I plant the plants directly on the compost pit. Pumpkins grow tasty and juicy, they are stored for a very long time. The harvest from two plants is enough for the whole family.
Oleg, 39 years old, manager, Moscow. Healing pumpkin is the most favorite variety. I love its fruits, they are the same as shown in many photos. The pulp is juicy, there are relatively few seeds, but they are very tasty.
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Healing pumpkin is not afraid of sharp frosts and many viral diseases. All that a summer resident needs to do is to apply fertilizers on time and observe preventive measures against fungal diseases.