16 Thursday, June 26, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
ll
"You should see the beautiful orange flowers on my
pumpkin plant." My friend is excited about her first
garden. She w wise to plant sun loving Curcurbitaceae.
The vegetable family sometimes called curcurbits in-
cludes squash, pumpkins, melons, gourds and cucumbers.
Curcurbits, especially watermelons and cantaloupes,
love basking in the warmth of our sunny desert skies. The
seeds need w ground to germinate and plenty of heat at
ripening time. Heat we have. Months of heat. Enough heat
to ripen even the large, slow maturing varieties.
It takes more than sun to satisfy the curcurbits' lusty
appetites. Heavy feeders and hearty drinkers, family mem-
bers need rich, fertile soil and a steady supply of water.
The secret to success is to add generous amounts of
organic material to the soil. If you benefited from "Manure
Madness" or raise animals that provide a steady source,
adhere to the old adage of a bushel of manure per plant or
at let a bucket or two. Iadd meal or super phosphate
to encourage a strong root base, about a cup or a handful
I also add sulphur, about a half cup for each plant, both to
help break up the soil and to lower the pH to the 6.0 to 6.5
curcurbits like.
Water, preferably administered slowly and deeply, is
essential for the development of their large leaves and
succulent fruits. Avoid overhead and too frequent, shallow
watering. Cover the soil with several inches of mulch to
retain moisture between waterings and to protect the roots
from the sun.
Curcurbits also like plenty of space. If you don't want
the vines to wander at will, gently turn the tips back in the
direction they came, and they'll return using half the space.
You can also limit the wandering by sniping off the fuzzy
tips after the vines have produced a few fruits.
Sniping the fuzzy ends and limiting the number of
melons, pumpkins or winter squash you leave on each
plant allows the plant to concentrate its energies on the
fruit rather than vine growth. The fruits will be larger and
mature more quickly. When thinning, naturally you select
the best fruits, if several are nearly equal always retain the
one closest to the plant.
Three to five fruits are about the maximum a plant can
support. With watermelons and pumpkins one to three
fruits is better especially if you want large fruits.
If your goal is to raise a big pumpkin for Halloween,
eliminate all but the three best fruits. When they are about
the size of a soft ball, select the best one and remove the
other two. During the grow-
ing season, gently turn the
pumpkin to keep it from be-
coming flat or discolored
on one side, and place
mulch, a flat piece of wood
or some protection between
the fruit and the soil to pre-
vent yellowing.
Once you havc the de-
sired number of fruits, pick
the new blossoms. You can
pick squash and pumpkin
blossoms even before fruit
sets. The plant will produce
more. My friend can pick
some of her "beautiful orange flowers" to add a new
delicacy to her menu. Squash and pumpkin blossoms are
attractive and tasty in salads. They are good sauteed, deep
fried as fritters and even sugar coated for dessert.
The first pretty yellow or orange flowers that appear
are male. Eat these. You only need a few male flowers for
pollination. The female flowers follow in about a week.
You'll know the female by the small bump, a squash/
pumpkin to be, just behind the flower on the stalk. When
you have plenty of fruit or with summer squash when
you're richly blessed with coritinual production, use the
female blossoms to grace the table and enliven the menu. x
Now you've produced the perfect curcurbit. How do
you know when it's ripe. Easy with squash, just don't let
the summer squash get too big. Cantaloupe let you know
by their scent, a strong, "musky" aroma around the stem.
In some varieties, the skin changes from green to yellow or
tan and the netting becomes quite distinct.
The tried and true "thump test" still works on water-
melon. If the sound is sharp, it isn't ripe. When ripe, the
sound is a little muffled, and the melon is overripe when
Con6nuedon nextpage
In-Depth Factual
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ge of the
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and your
In Nye
County.
Serving all of Pahrump,
,Ida F_. Deat
4
EDIBLE FLOWER-The squash blossom is a colorful treaL
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