Growing Pumpkins and Bottle gourd :
Growing Pumpkins is not easy nor difficult. Mainly patience is needed. It took me Three and half to get my first Pumpkin.
* There were Ridges with small canals at the ends of the farm.
* Noticed it to grow some veggies which i would market in the Local Farmer Markets nearby.
* Searched online to know what type of veggies to grow on the ridges mainly concentrated on easy to grow and easy maintenance type.
* Grandmother suggested Pumpkin and she gave seeds also.
* I thought to grow Bottle gourd (Long edible) with Pumpkin as Bottle Gourd had a good demand in the Local Farmer Markets.
* Hence, I sown Bottle gourd seeds and Pumpkin seeds in the same Row. I didn't tilled up the land. I lined up the drip line for irrigation and sown both seeds.
Bottle gourd and Pumpkin
* After 9 days both sprouted as shown in the figure above.
* I applied little cow dung near by the plants.
* The Plant Growth was good.
* But after 45 days I noticed grey ash spots which was powdery on the leaves of the Bottle gourd.
* I grinded Vitex leaves to make a paste. After that I diluted it with water and left for 2 days in a shady place.
* I filtered the solution and sprayed with electric sprayer.
* After one week it grey spots on the bottle gourd completely went.
Bottle Gourd and pumpkin
Bottle Gourd and Pumpkin
* In the above figure you can see both Bottle gourd and Pumpkin growing well.
* As I didn't tilled by land weeds came up.
* Day by day, the vines of both Bottle gourd and Pumpkin suppressed the weeds. As the sunlight doesn't go to the land the weeds have been suppressed.
* Finally, Bottle gourd plants first started to yield. My first Harvest was after 52 days from Planting.
* Nearly 300 kgs from 25 Bottle gourd Plants I sold to Local farmer Markets. when the Bottle gourd Plants crossed 150 days I stopped selling to Local farmer Markets. As the Fruits were not uniform. Offered those Bottle gourds to neighbors and farmers nearby.
First Harvest of Bottle Gourd
* The First Harvest of Bottle gourd, I sold for Rs . 60. Four Bottle gourds were rejected. Reasons : Long in size, Crossed Maturity, white in color, scratches while transporting.
* I waited Three and Half months to get my first Pumpkin.
Pumpkin
Pumpkin Female Flower
* Bees will pollinate pollen from male flower to female flower. In some cases we, manually need to pollinate the pollen.
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