Proper harvest methods of pumpkin leaves, Learning how to do this the right way

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Hello Hive.

I miss working on pumpkin farm with my mum. She taught me alot about pumpkin, most especially the proper way to harvest the leaves. If you are not an expert in this I promise you that after a first harvest the only thing you will meet in the farm on your next visit are dead plant and leaves.

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For instance the one in this picture cannot be harvested yet, it has only one or two branches but the next one below is ready for harvest.

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Can you see how it has spread so well on the ground and with more than 3 branches. The main root of the pumpkin leaves is a thicker one underneath from where all these other ones have germinated from.

To harvest this you pick either of these marked areas, (those are the branch's coming from the main root) and cut them off.

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Remember that you cannot cut out too many branches from the same pumpkin plant especially the ones we have planted in this method.

For instance if I cut off all the 4 branches I have seen from the one above, the entire plant will die

There is another method of planting pumpkin where we guide the leaves to grow above the ground.
That one is usually for household use where we use very small space to grow pumpkin.

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Pumpkin grown in this method is usually for commercial purpose
And you can see the large space in which these have been planted.

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Today I was invited to help out with some pumpkin harvest since the farm owner is aware of my experience in such work, but on getting to the farm we had to delay harvest because there were not much of the branches yet and taking this to the market wouldn't bring in the amount of financial output desired.
I have advised the farm owner to give it two more weeks let's observe some more growth.

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Moving on I went ahead to pull of some of the grasses bothering the plants.

Alot of people grow pumpkin for commercial purpose here, it is one of the most expensive vegetables here because of its nutrient values, and blood boosting ability.

To get enough quantity for your meals you sometimes spend $0.5 cents.
I miss having a pumpkin farm of my own due to numerous engagements but am glad that I could still help other pumpkin farmers to both harvest and take care of their fields. And I believe that you can see why they need an expert to harvest their pumpkin unless they want to risk losing the whole farm.

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Waoh, this is great to know.
I have some questions though,

  1. Instead of the owner planting like this, can't we have a small space and have them staked?
  2. Does staking affect the fruiting/leaf production of Ugwu
  3. If I have a lot of manure to spare, can I use a small space, like the size of a bathroom, plant many seeds there and save space then have them staked? Is that possible?
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Ugwu is also planted with that staking method.
We do that on smaller land space for family consumption.
Very few number of seed is planted with this method, 4-5 at most

  1. Staking does not affect the leaves in anyway, I did that for a friend here and will get you pictures coming Sunday when I visit her again. I will like us to compare both.

  2. Fluted pumpkins do not need lots of manure, in fact we did not add any manure to the one in my friends garden.
    The soil is fertile enough and you will be surprised at the pictures I will show you.

Commercial fluted pumpkins are planted this way, most times above hundred seeds are planted.
And harvest can be continuous for months.
Harvest is done at every two weeks interval

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Wow! I never knew there is a method of harvesting pumpkin leaves, thanks so much @monica-ene for sharing this.

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This is a really nice idea I got now on how to harvest my pumpkin

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For some time now, I've been battling with the right way to harvest pumpkin leaves, glad I came across this post.

Pumpkin leaves are very essiential vegetables and people that have the time to plant and tend to it are very lucky.

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It's great to read you are able to help the farmer on what's best for his plants. This is my first time seeing this kind of pumpkin. I only saw those with really large leaves but these ones are different.

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Oh wow.
Am sure you haven't tasted these yet.
Thanks dear

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