Many adults and children
associate pumpkins with falling leaves and long-sleeve weather. seasonal
interior decorationating moves aloof from spring and summer flowers to
Halloween and Thanksgiving harvest decor that features the pumpkin. It doesn't
occur to non-gardeners that frost and cold temperatures will kill this
vine-growing fruit. Pumpkins take ninety to one hundred twenty days to grow to
maturity, requiring full sunshine and a heat season. hold on properly at
temperatures between forty five and fifty five degrees Fahrenheit, pumpkins
will last up to 3 months once harvest.
Seeds and Seedlings
Long before turning into a
pumpkin, the seeds ar vulnerable to the cold. once planting seeds directly into
the garden, the suggested soil temperature is a minimum of seventy degrees
Fahrenheit. If the soil is just too cold, seeds can rot within the ground. Some
gardeners plant seeds inside and transplant the seedlings to the garden once
the last spring frost. Most seed packets have color-coded planting zones and
suggested planting times on the rear of the package.
Pollination
Pumpkin vines grow male and
feminine flowers. The male flower grows on a protracted slender stem. the
feminine flower could be a short, ovary formed stem. Honeybees fertilize the
flowers through pollenation, that causes the vines to provide pumpkins. Cool
weather, below fifty degrees Fahrenheit, diminishes bee activity that may lead
to smaller, badly formed fruit and a coffee yield.
Harvest and Storage
As pumpkins ripen, their rind
turns orange in color and hardens. Gardeners cut the vines concerning three to
six inches higher than the pumpkin and carry them by hand from the sphere,
holding the body of the pumpkin solely. exploit a stem offers side protection
against rot-causing microorganisms from getting into the pumpkin throughout
storage. hold on pumpkins do best in dry cool areas between forty five and
fifty five degrees Fahrenheit. Place cardboard between the lowest of the fruit
and also the floor or shelving space to forestall staining.
History
Pumpkins belong to the Cucurbits genus and originate
within the recent World. Native Americans baked whole pumpkins in hot ashes.
due to the shortage of food, European settlers adopted the pumpkin as a food
staple and learned to cultivate the fruit from the Indians.