Pumpkin is a real gift for all gardeners and gardeners. In this vegetable, everything will be to your taste - both large seeds and juicy sweet pulp. It stays well under the sofa until the spring months. Pumpkin is good in salads and vegetable stews, and can be an original filling for a pie.
Why is a steep-sided beauty rare enough in our gardens? Good summer residents plant their standard 6 acres to the eyeballs, and you won't always find a place for a pumpkin, because it needs a lot of space and sun. So a dilemma arises: if you want to get large ripe vegetables, allocate half of the garden for them. However, savvy vegetable growers have learned to get out of the situation in an original way - they successfully grow pumpkin in barrels, thereby saving their summer cottage land.
Features of growing pumpkin in a barrel
The technology of growing pumpkin in a barrel has more advantages than disadvantages. Since the stems of the plant do not spread over the area, but hang along the barrel, a considerable harvest is possible even from the smallest area. And the compost soil, which itself will be prepared in the summer in the planting tank, is perfect for future seedlings in the fall.
Barrel preparation
You will need one or more barrels that are not suitable for water. If they are leaky or have no bottom at all, this would be ideal. If the barrels are new, it will be necessary to punch holes in the bottom and on the sides to drain excess moisture. To prevent creases on the hanging stems of the pumpkin, the sharp edges of the container should be secured with an old rubber hose cut in half, making a kind of edge out of it. If you have a shortage of conventional barrels, you can make impromptu ones by placing cut tires from a car on top of each other.
It is important that the planting site is located where there is a lot of sun - without it, the pumpkin in the barrel will grow poorly and will not bear fruit. It is better to paint iron barrels in a dark color - and the rays will attract and rust less.
The biomass can be placed in the container in autumn or spring, using the principle of a warm bed. Organic matter is placed on the bottom, which decomposes more slowly (twigs, thick stems, large weeds with rhizomes, paper), then easily compostable (fallen leaves, tops). At the beginning of the season, you can use semi-rotten compost, freshly cut grass or sod, humus. The contents of the container must be tamped well.
Somewhere at the end of April, the filled barrel is thoroughly spilled with water, and then - with an EM preparation to "warm up" the microorganisms inside. They are activated and start processing organic matter. After a month, the soil is ready. Vegetable growers usually use this monthly period to obtain seedlings.
Growing pumpkin seedlings
In order to achieve better germination of pumpkin seeds, to intensify the development of young stock and to raise the yield of adult plants, the seeds are advised to be warmed up, soaked and hardened without fail. Pumpkin, like its relatives - cucumbers and squash, gives more fruit if planted from last year's seeds. Warming up helps to artificially "age" the seeds, which increases their "fertility".
Warming up is easier in the sun, spreading the seeds on a dark cloth for five to six hours. Or you can use an oven with a thermostat. Start with a temperature of 15-20 degrees, slowly raising it to 50 degrees. The seed is kept in this mode for 3 to 5 hours, stirring from time to time. This procedure, moreover, is an excellent prevention of fungal diseases.
Next, the seeds, wrapped in a cloth, are soaked in warm water (25 degrees) to swell. Time - 12 hours, and the water will need to be changed several times. For hardening, the swollen seeds are placed in the refrigerator for 2 days. During this time, nurseries are being prepared. Young plants thrive best in individual containers (100-200 ml). They do not tolerate a pick, therefore it is optimal to plant them with an earthen clod - transshipment.
Containers for seedlings are filled with a composition that includes garden soil, coconut substrate and vermicompost. All in equal proportions. The seed is laid to a depth of 3 cm, sprinkled with soil, put a film on top and put where it is warm and dark. The first sprouts will appear after 6-9 days. When the cotyledon leaves open, the young are brought into the light. If it is warm enough outside (15 degrees), the seedlings are placed in fresh air for hardening. After the seedlings have formed several true leaves, the plants are ready to be transplanted into a barrel.
Caring for a pumpkin in a barrel
The contents of the barrel are likely to settle within a month. You can add humus or soil mixed with compost there, you can make a sand layer (about 10 cm), and then add the earth to the top. At the end of May, one or two seedlings are planted in one container and the soil is deeply shed. If possible temperature drops are expected, the seedlings are hidden under five-liter plastic bottles with a cut bottom. For good rooting, pumpkin sprouts need abundant watering.
Since a large volume of plant residues is actively decomposed inside the barrel, the roots are provided with a constant thermal regime and a lot of nutrients. The main thing is not to forget about moisture - the soil in the barrel should not dry out. Therefore, a bucket or two of water is poured inside at a time. To make the decomposition of biomass more active, the EM preparation can be diluted several times in water during the season, based on the recommended rate of 50 drops per ten-liter bucket.
Plant residues in the process of overheating will systematically supply the pumpkin with all the substances necessary for development. But in order for your soul to be calmer, you can feed young seedlings with herbal infusion in the initial period. Actively growing lashes of pumpkin are let down on the sides of the barrel. Usually, three ovaries are left on each stem, after which it must be pinched. If the fruits are large, you need to stock up on supports for each pumpkin, otherwise the lashes cannot withstand such a weight.
Harvested when it is dry and sunny. It is advisable to cut the fruits from a long, up to 7 cm, pedicel - this will ensure longer storage. After harvesting, nutritious barrel soil can be used for other purposes: as compost for seedlings or indoor greenhouse, to saturate ordinary beds with the necessary elements. And the barrel will need to be filled again in the fall, so that next year you will again admire the steep beauties-pumpkins. Using the same technology, you can grow not only a pumpkin crop in a barrel, but also get excellent squash, strong cucumbers and zucchini.
