Hi welcome to asiangarden2table.
This video is about growing pumpkin, precisely Chinese or Asian pumpkins.
For different varieties, pumpkin’s texture and flavor varies.
Generally speaking, Chinese pumpkin has fine and moist texture and nice sweetness
while western pumpkin tastes sandy and a bit dry.
Chinese pumpkin can grow well in big temperature range and has very good disease resistance.
The best growing temperature is 65~86 F. It grows fine at temperature higher than 95 degree,
while western pumpkin will start to suffer disease problem when temperature close to 86 F
In Florida, I can grow Chinese pumpkin from early spring to later autumn,
but only spring or autumn for western pumpkin.
The easy way to tell which pumpkin you are growing is the seed.
Chinese pumpkin seed looks like zucchini's, flat with rough surface;
western pumpkin is full with smooth and shining surface.
Pumpkin seed is easy to germinate so can be sowed directly.
At temperature higher than 68 F, emergence happens in 3~5 days.
From sowing to fruiting, there are early maturing varieties
which develop female flowers as soon as vines start to climb,
medium and late maturing varieties which grow vivid vines at the beginning
and grow female flowers later.
Early maturing varieties grow fruits early but bear less fruits per plant.
Medium or late maturing varieties grow vivid vines and bear more fruits per plant,
but may over grow and take up too much space.
Here is a frequent asked question.
Some gardeners find out their pumpkin grow female flowers first,
no male flower so pollination cannot be done.
This is normal and nothing to concern.
There will be more female flowers and male flowers grow out later
and will always be enough for fruiting.
In fact, pumpkin will grow many female flowers
and at the end only some of them will successfully set the fruits
,so no need to worry some female flowers are wasted.
Pumpkin flowers in the morning. Manual pollination will help to increase fruiting rate.
Personally I prefer Chinese pumpkin.
It is easier to grow.
Young pumpkin can be eaten like Zucchini, bigger one is great for braising
and old pumpkin develops great sweetness and fine texture.
To harvest old pumpkin for long time storage, keep the fruits on the vine
until the vines start to dry out.
The green skin will turn yellow or orange and become thick and hard.
The older the pumpkin, the longer it can be stored.
Younger pumpkin should be consumed as soon as possible.
Pumpkin is very easy to grow.
If you have enough space, you can let the vines crawl on ground to wherever it can go.
It will cover a big area and the produce may not be reliable.
The better way to grow pumpkin is to direct the vines on trellis and prune them properly.
It will have less disease and bugs problem and reliable produce,
at the same time your garden will look neat and nice.
This is all for today.
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