Decorative pumpkin in the shape of a mushroom. Is it possible to eat decorative pumpkin?

Usually your country cottage area decorated with all kinds of flowers. Although unusual looking vegetables can cope with this task perfectly, causing the admiration of passers-by and neighbors. This interesting culture includes decorative pumpkin. It is capable of rising up along any vertical support, forming a green wall with large yellow flowers and small bright fancy fruits. Let’s find out what kind of it exists today.

"Country Hobbies"

Decorative pumpkin, varieties

The culture is not only original, but also useful for any summer resident.

Firstly, this worthy decoration plot: wide green leaves on long cuttings, strong vines, large bright flowers, and closer to autumn no less bright unusually shaped fruits - all this decorates and pleases the eye, delights friends and neighbors.

Decorative pumpkin grows quickly and is a champion in development among annual vines. By mid-summer it forms a gorgeous green screen. The lashes reach 4-6 m and are perfect for vertical gardening gazebos, verandas, trellises, mesh fences. The vine acquires its best decorative effect in August, when the green wall is decorated with bright original fruits.

Secondly, this arouses increased interest among children and they are happy to plant and grow this crop in their children’s garden and with great interest await the appearance of outlandish toy pumpkins.

Thirdly, we get amazing material for crafts. Well-ripened and properly dried pumpkins are a source of embodiment of various fantasies and ideas.

Varieties

Usually they sell mixtures of seeds, and therefore for the gardener the final result is always a pleasant and sometimes unexpected surprise. Rattles, Souvenir, Artist, Surprise. A gardener who has bought these varieties always waits with interest for the fruits to appear.

Selected varieties with the characteristic features of this crop are available for sale - this is for those who do not like surprises and want to get pumpkins of a certain shape.

Turkish tulip with bright orange and other colors of turban-shaped fruits.

Orange with small pumpkins weighing 200-300 g, resembles this fruit in shape and bright orange color. The fruits look impressive against the background of a green wall.

Baby BooWith unusual slightly ribbed white pumpkins up to 10 cm in circumference, with white flesh.

Stars with pumpkins in the form of multi-colored stars.

Kleine Bicolor has pear-shaped pumpkins with a contrasting color: the bottom of the fruit is dark green with bright light lines, and the top is rich yellow.

Sweet Dumpling They form round, flattened and ribbed pumpkins weighing up to 500 g, painted white or light yellow, with bright green stripes with white specks between the ribs.

Variety Cobra has pumpkins in the form of bottles of fancy shapes and spotted colors.

decorative pumpkins

Fruit shape

Decorative pumpkins, the types of which are divided according to the shape of the ovaries into:

bwarty, covered with various tubercles. Moreover, they can be of different shapes: round, pear-shaped with a rich orange, green, yellow and even two-color;
star-shaped with fruits similar to starfish, a crown and about 15 cm in size, flattened or elongated in shape and in color white, green, yellow or a combination thereof;
tangerine with a rich orange color, pumpkins up to 10 cm in size, slightly ribbed, round and similar to tangerines;
pear-shaped pumpkins are shaped like pears with different colors.

All types of cultural forms cannot be classified due to their diversity. There are single-color, spotted, striped, ribbed, smooth, elongated, curly.

stars

Growing an ornamental plant

Share with your friends on social networks!

The site is non-profit and is being developed using the personal funds of the author and your donations. You can help!

(Even a small amount, you can enter any)
(by card, from cell phone, Yandex money - select the one you need)

Thank you!

I invite you to the group on Subscribe.ru for summer residents and gardeners: “Country hobbies” Everything about country life: dacha, garden, vegetable garden, flowers, relaxation, fishing, hunting, tourism, nature

For lovers of beauty and grace in the home and garden, a decorative pumpkin will be an excellent “helper”. Its various shapes, colors and sizes will delight anyone who sees himself as an artist in his soul and heart. Pumpkins can climb like vines or “sit” in one place, serve as decoration for a plot, or festive table. In the hands of a true enthusiast, decorative vegetables are used to create magnificent crafts. And you can grow all this beauty yourself.

What is the beauty of a decorative pumpkin?

Growing a decorative pumpkin may seem useless to a rational person. But is everything really so “hopeless” without practical benefit? Or you should look a little more broadly at your household and paint your life with bright colors.

Pumpkins are beautiful. Bright flowers, unusual original fruits. An excellent option for vertical gardening of buildings on the site, decorating flowerpots and small “nooks” on the ground.

They are an excellent craft material. If you collect the fruits and dry them whole, you can use them to create almost anything – from an ordinary children’s craft to an original candle or handbag. A figured pumpkin will decorate any, most original composition.

Children are interested in fruits. You can create a children's garden, where the child can take care of a quickly growing beautiful plant and harvest it himself.

Varieties and features

Decorative pumpkin is a plant of one year of growth. The growing period is from July to October, with bushes or vines. The latter can climb a vertical support up to 6 meters (lagenaria up to 15 m) and “crawl” along the ground up to 10 m. Culture loves good lighting. Pumpkins surprise with their extraordinary diversity external features And color range. The fruits are red and green, milky white, orange and many other colors. The shapes of ornamental plants are even more surprising. You can find a pumpkin that looks like a mace or turkish turban, bottle or fungus, not to mention the usual ellipsoids, balls and ovals.

The peak of decorative brightness occurs in the second half of summer.

Popular varieties

Specialized decorative pumpkin seeds are often sold in the form of “assorted” - a mixture different varieties, for more decorative effect. Small fruit mixtures are made up of one-, two- and three-color varieties with small pumpkins of different shapes. IN large fruit mixtures Most often, club-shaped and bottle-shaped fruits of predominantly green or yellow color are included.

A gardener must certainly understand what he is acquiring. Therefore, it is necessary to know at least the most common types of varieties of decorative pumpkins.

Types	Distinctive features
Warty	Pear-shaped or round with many warty-type outgrowths. Combination color combinations almost inexhaustible - from green to fiery orange.
Vicofolia	Leaves are lobe-shaped. Pumpkins are green with a milky stripe or speckled, usually round or slightly elongated. Excellent for cross-pollination with other species.
Pear-shaped	The shape matches the name. The length of the pumpkin is up to 12 cm. One- and two-color with a clear division of the border of colors on each specimen.
Star (crown pumpkin)	Maximum diameter 15 cm. Flattened and elongated. With a wide range of colors, most often green, milky or yellow, multi-colored specimens are possible.
Lagenaria (bottle gourd, gourd)	Climbing pumpkin. Green marble color. Loves spacious growing. The inside is edible, soft green or light milky. Pumpkins are convenient to use for decoration.
Tangerine	Eye-catching orange “rounds” with a diameter of up to 10 cm, almost smooth.
Turban-shaped (mushrooms, torticollis). IN Catholic world- "bishop's miter."	Large-fruited, mostly edible. The predominant color is tangerine or marble green, with smooth skin. Typically bicolored, with hard bark and yellow-orange flesh. Crookneck squashes can be practically twins of zucchini in taste and shape, but often look like real swan geese in the garden.

Tangerine, pear-shaped and warty types are small-fruited decorative pumpkins.

Blends:

"Warzen". Multi-colored warty varieties.
"Krone". Elliptical pumpkins with orange, white and green spiky growths.

Varieties:

"Bischofsmutzen" . Pumpkin made of two hemispheres of different diameters. Half of the skin is white, the other half is red or green.
"Mandarin" Orange pumpkins with wrinkles.
« Baby Boo». White pumpkins with a girth of up to 10 cm. The peel is slightly ribbed, the flesh is white. The shape is squat-spherical.
"Sweet Dumpling". The weight of flat-round fruits is up to half a kilogram. The “ribs” are white or light yellow, the stripes between them are dark green with white specks.
"Kleine Bicolor". The fruit pear has a clear division of color: dark green below with light stripes, rich yellow above.
"Kleine Orange" Round pumpkins are bright orange with a diameter of up to 10 cm.
"Ten Comments" . A palette of shades of white, yellow, orange and green flowers. Maximum diameter 15 cm.
"Grossfruechtige Turbane". The pumpkin is smooth, red-orange on top, light green marbled underneath. Grows up to 30-50 cm in diameter. Sweet edible pulp with a nutty flavor
“Cou-Tors Hative.” A variety of torticollis, where the pumpkins resemble swans. Their length is up to 20 cm. Young fruits are edible. The shell is hard, bubbly, saturated with sunlight orange color.

When growing decorative pumpkins, the gardener sooner or later thinks: “Is it possible to eat this vegetable?” It turns out that it is possible, but not everything. Even seed producers approach this issue differently. Edible ornamental varieties: lagenaria and turban-shaped pumpkins. For other fruits, the question of whether they can be eaten when ripe or green is decided individually, taking into account the fact that decorative varieties are minimally suitable for eating.

Growing on site

Any varieties of decorative pumpkins can be grown on a plot from seedlings or seeds.

For seedlings, hatched seeds are planted at home in spacious pots made of peat substance in the last days of April or early May. Until germination, keep in a greenhouse or on a windowsill.

Sprouted seeds or “seedlings” are placed in open space in mid- or late May. The holes are not deepened too much; they are dug every meter. Two seeds in one hole are buried 2-3 cm, sprinkled with soil and watered. The soil between plantings is mulched with compost. When sprouts emerge from the seeds (or seedlings take root), the weaker specimen is removed.

Maintaining health and proper formation

It is important to cook correctly planting material, regularly water the pumpkin so that it does not wilt, loosen the soil near the roots, and feed it with organic matter.

Place andthe soil. Good lighting or partial shade. Soil “filled” with humus.

Feeding start 2 weeks after the first shoots. Then during the period of ovary formation.

Pinching. Carry out when the shoots grow to 1 m. To form lateral shoots.

Creationsupports. They provide a stable support of 2-3 m. You can plant crops next to buildings on the site to provide natural support.

Pest Control

Decorative pumpkins, like any plants, suffer from pests. Main signs of diseases and methods of control :

Signs	Problem	Means and methods of struggle
White or grayish powdery spots	There is not enough sunlight, the temperature changed sharply	Remedies from powdery mildew, destruction of affected pumpkins.
Wetness and cotton wool growths.	High air humidity	Cutting out the affected parts, dusting with chalk or charcoal.
Rot at the base of the stem and root	Soil mushrooms	Disinfection of seeds before planting. During growth - at the initial stage of the disease, adding clean soil with peat and humus will help.
Angular spots Brown, usually start from leaves	Combination of heat and high humidity	Bordeaux mixture of one percent concentration. Treatment of leaves and stems.
Slugs	Rainy periods	Sprinkle slaked lime and ash in a ratio of 1 to 1.

Cleaning times and use

Only fully formed fruits are well preserved. Their brightness does not dim only in rooms where there is no direct sunlight.

Similar articles
...

Thus, you can get your first harvest of summer pumpkins as early as the end of June – and until September. A couple of plants will be enough to provide vegetables for a family of 3 people.

There are also miniature varieties pumpkins. For example, pumpkins of the ‘Jack be Little’ variety weigh only 200-300 grams and are the size of a child’s fist. These “portioned” pumpkins are easy to use and easy to cook with. And you can grow them in a limited space - even on a balcony. Firstly, it has very large seeds, and even the smallest child can cope with planting them. The decorative pumpkin is not only an original plant, but also very unpretentious and, most importantly, extremely practical: with the help of its tendrils, this vine is capable of climbing up to a height of 4 m in just one summer, decorating an arch, gazebo, fence or wall of a house. Of the five luffa seeds sown, four sprouted. When I dug up the place where the fifth seed was planted, I saw that there was a piece of old slate in the ground under it - this destroyed the sprout.(Lagenaria siceraria),

Ten praises

Decorative pumpkins.

Part 4 - Wax pumpkin

The skin of the fruit should be smooth and shiny; rough or bruised summer pumpkins lose not only their taste, but also most vitamins In general, due to their delicate skin, zucchini and squash fruits are very poorly stored, but they cook instantly - 7-10 minutes are enough to get a delicious vegetable stew.

However, the most popular varieties of pumpkins are medium-sized ones. These pumpkins are quite easy to grow and store, which is why gardeners love them so much. In Europe, one of the most popular varieties is ‘Hokkaido’. These are classic pumpkins - their color is orange-red (both the peel and the pulp), and they weigh 2-3 kilograms. Our domestic midi varieties are more popular here, such as ‘Kroshka’, ‘Kustovaya orange’, ‘Ulybka’, ‘Michurinskaya’, ‘Lechebnaya’.

Secondly, a decorative pumpkin grows at a tremendous speed (especially if the summer is hot and there is sufficient watering), and the baby will be able to quickly see the results of his labor.

For some reason, the most popular question about decorative pumpkins is: “Is it edible?” It seems that times are by no means hungry now, but, apparently, the very word “pumpkin” evokes indispensable associations with cooking, and not at all with beauty!

Luffa grew quickly, and with it my interest in gardening grew. I had to look on the Internet and find out the rules for growing it, where they advised to actively use the “technique of chasing side shoots onto the ovary.”

also called bottle gourd. Its fruits can be an even green color or have a marbled green-white pattern, and the shape can range from the classic shape of a pot-bellied vessel with a 20 cm high neck, like the “Pumpkin-vessel” mixture, to a straight or curved club.

maxima Cucurbita Baby BooSmall fruit mixture Part 5 - Growing watermelons Many varieties of summer pumpkins have quite decorative flowers and fruits - so even if for some reason you don’t have a full-fledged garden, you can plant zucchini, for example... in a flower garden! It will look quite impressive - this is especially true for yellow-fruited varieties. Thirdly, small children love to tinker with water, and therefore love to water everything. And decorative pumpkins need frequent watering!So: while the fruits of the decorative pumpkin are still small, their skin is soft, you can eat them. But why? After all, even at such a young age, they are very much inferior in taste to their closest relatives from the same pumpkin family: zucchini, zucchini, squash and real large pumpkins. So, leave the decorative pumpkin for decoration, and eat something else instead! After some thought, I decided not to do this. Firstly, I didn’t know what “chasing” was and where to “tie” the shoots. And then, I really wanted my luffa to grow in absolutely “natural” conditions, without the intervention of human hands. For thousands of years, this ancient pumpkin crop has been used to make various containers. Greens with delicate skin are used all over the world in cooking, like cucumbers and zucchini, with which lagenaria is similar in taste, for which it is often called Vietnamese zucchini or Indian cucumber.var. pepo

Two more rare species are

When buying seeds of decorative pumpkins, many do not even imagine what variety lies under the name “Decorative pumpkin. Mixture". By planting these spectacular fast-growing vines, you will get a whole botanical community of all kinds and forms belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family. Let's try to understand this issue in more detail. Part 6 - Pumpkin - harvest in large format And, finally, absolutely all children like its miniature, very bright and unusual fruits: there is something toy-doll-like about them. In addition, the fruits can be dried and painted using special paints and varnish (adult help will be needed here). Your child will be happy to show them off to friends and relatives. By the way, even the most primitive children’s drawings look very unusual on small pumpkins! The ideal place to plant a decorative pumpkin is next to a vertical support (for example, a chain-link fence or the south wall of an outbuilding). That is, for a decorative pumpkin as a support in the garden, anything that you want to decorate with something is suitable.I watered the plants several times over the summer. Decorative pumpkins in the garden turbaniformis) var. Pumpkin The most common seeds on sale are

Part 7 - Smart melon. How easy it is to grow watermelons and melons.

‘Smile’

Until recently, only mixtures could be found in stores different varieties decorative pumpkin. Sometimes we came across a series of varieties selected according to a certain characteristic (for example, “Mosaic” and “Zvezdopad”, produced by the NK corporation).

However, a decorative pumpkin can also be used in the front part of the garden, spreading its vines along a gazebo, pergola or arch (for example, separating a vegetable garden from flower beds). The pumpkin looks very unusual on the trunk of an old, withered apple tree that you still can’t cut down. In general, pumpkins look especially good in gardens in the now fashionable rural style, where garden and flower bed plants often coexist. All my further participation in growing these vines came down to contemplating the blooming of huge yellow flowers and the development of fruits. I photographed the growth stages of the luffa and told numerous friends “what kind of washcloths I would have”…A. Tolokonnikova (Novocherkassk) causes different associations in people. As the name suggests, for some it resembles a turban, for others it resembles a mushroom, and in the Catholic world it has acquired the name “bishop’s miter.” This is a type of pumpkin ovifera) ( common figured or small-fruited pumpkin Part 8 - Watermelon "Ogonyok" personal growing experience

‘Medicinal’ Then the Poisk company pleased gardeners not with mixtures, but with individual varieties of decorative pumpkin. For example, in the “Shahrazade” series you can find varieties such as the bright orange “Turkish Turban”, multi-colored “Stars” and “Creamy White Baby”, and in the “Kaleidoscope” series - varieties “Two-color ball”, “Orange ball” and “Warty mixture.” But at the “Novorussian” dachas in classic style In a regular park, the pumpkin will look too primitive and rude, discordant with the obligatory roses and thujas in such cases. As a result, I harvested 32 fruits from four luffa vines. Two dozen of them turned out to be real washcloths. All of the pumpkin varieties mentioned are suitable for quick vertical gardening. These are tendril-bearing herbaceous vines that rise along the support to a height of 4-6 m, and lagenaria - even higher, up to 10-15 m. For it and the heaviest turban-shaped pumpkins, the support must be powerful, and the lashes must also be securely tied. How ground cover plants, pumpkin plants look good on slopes, in ornamental gardens, and are suitable for marking plantings, for decorating compost heaps and outbuildings.(Cucurbita maxima).. Pear-shaped or ovoid fruits are borne on very long stems. While she is an independent species, but there is an assumption that these are re-wilded figured pumpkins of Mexican origin, which are now more often classified as

(Cucurbita pepo var.

Part 9 - For exotic lovers. Watermelons ‘Baby’As far as various types garden flowers, I am a categorical opponent of purchasing all kinds of seed mixtures. As a rule, they grow into both quite interesting specimens and absolutely banal ones (and that’s the majority of them). That is, when planting seeds from a mixture into the ground, one cannot assume what will grow as a result. But in the case of decorative pumpkins, I am an active supporter of mixtures of varieties! The fruits that emerge from such mixtures are so unusual and varied that growing a decorative pumpkin also becomes a very exciting activity: it is always terribly interesting what will come out of such identical (at first glance) seeds!

The decorative pumpkin grows very quickly (not a single annual vine can compare with it), and by mid-July the screen from it grows quite tall and dense. The pumpkin reaches its maximum decorative effect in August, when it completely curls the support provided to it, creating a continuous green screen, decorated with large bright yellow flowers and elegant small fruits.

The rest of the fruits did not have time to ripen (probably, it was still necessary to “caulk” the plants in time).
To get good harvest, timely early planting (preferably through seedlings), humus-rich fertile soil, sufficient heat, moisture and sun, and timely pinching of shoots are important.

It happens both with small, no more than 15 cm, fruits, and with larger ones. For example, the variety “Large-fruited turban” (“Grossfruechtige Turbane”) grows to 30-50 cm in diameter, has smooth surface, a bright orange-red cap, and below - a white and green marbled color. All fruits are individual; on one plant you will not find even a pair of specimens identical in shape and color. Despite its size, it belongs to the group of small-fruited red pumpkins, which are usually bitter and not eaten. However, this and some other varieties have sweet flesh with a slight nutty aroma, and taste qualities superior to hard-boiled pumpkin and large-fruited pumpkin. Other varieties of turban pumpkin - small-turban and large-turban - also have sweet yellow-orange flesh and high taste.

ovifera),

greeninfo.ru

Variety of pumpkin - Luffa, Decorative pumpkin

Luffa in my garden

Part 10 - Growing melon in a greenhouse. Melon from a greenhouse

The same vegetables that we usually call pumpkins - winter pumpkins - are left in the beds for as long as possible, allowing them to ripen properly. After all, with every warm day the pumpkin pulp becomes sweeter and the skin becomes rougher - which gives these vegetables very good shelf life.

‘Bush orange’
Therefore, when the fruits on the vines of decorative pumpkins from a mixture of seeds begin to set, almost every day I check what kind of miracle is growing this time.

Sowing seeds and growing luffa

When choosing a place for a decorative pumpkin, two conditions should be observed.
After the luffa fruits dried, as a result of their cleaning I received not only washcloths, but also a large number of seeds I made a special calculation: 312 seeds were obtained from a medium-sized fruit. Multiply 32 by 312, it turns out fun...
Green trellises made from a variety of pumpkins look very fun and elegant. The only thing that needs to be taken into account is that the varieties pollinate well among themselves and pumpkins grown from their own seeds next year do not always repeat the external characteristics of the selected fruits. But something new may appear...

Very unusual shape The fruits of one of the most decorative varieties of hard-barked pumpkins - zucchini - are distinguished

unusually varied in fruit shape. The following varieties are available:
Quote:

When the time comes, the pumpkins are cut from the stems, leaving a stump of 4-5 cm. If autumn is dry, then the pumpkins can be left to lie in the beds for 4-7 days. But if there is a threat of rain or frost, you should remove the pumpkins dry room. At a temperature of 10-14°C, winter pumpkins are perfectly stored until the new year. Interestingly, the longer the pumpkin sits, the tastier it becomes - due to the fact that the starches it contains transform into sugars.
No special

Luffa harvest

Elena Chernysheva
Firstly, it is necessary to choose a fairly reliable support for it, since by the end of summer the stems and leaves of the vine form a large green mass.

I don’t know yet what to do with so many seeds. Will exchange for other seeds interesting plants ([email protected]).

We thank the company "Benary" (Germany) for providing photos of varieties of decorative pumpkins.

Interest in exotic plants

crookneck,

Cucurbita
Tangerine is a round orange spherical pumpkin with a smooth skin. For example, the variety “Little Orange” (“Kleine Orange”) with bright orange fruits up to 8-10 cm in diameter.

"Decorative pumpkins are edible only at an immature young age. Later, when
Most types of large-fruited (late-ripening) pumpkins in middle lane Russia does not have time to fully mature. Therefore, they are harvested in the fall before frost, slightly unripe, and then ripened indoors - usually 2-3 months. The fact that the pumpkin is fully ripe can be recognized by the dried and woody stalk.

pumpkin care

www.beautytime.ru

The second condition is that it is better to plant a decorative pumpkin in a sunny place (light partial shade is acceptable). That is, of course, you can plant it near the northern wall of the house, but then you should not count on an abundance of flowers and, especially, fruits.

Now I’m “fired up” with a new idea: to grow lagenaria in order to make natural maracas from its fruits (since we play a lot of music).

also called

Decorative pumpkin as a vine

melanosperma)
Warty - similar to it, but not with a smooth, but with a rough tuberous surface. The variety “Little Warty” (“Kleine Warzen”) has fruits 10-15 cm in diameter.

The crust will become coarse and the seeds will ripen; there is simply nothing to eat in these berries."

What does a decorative pumpkin need?

When cooking pumpkin, be careful when removing the hard, smooth skin - it is very slippery for a knife!

is not required - just provide a piece of fertile soil in the garden for this vegetable. Each plant requires a space of at least 50 square meters. see

All about pumpkin

What doesn't a decorative pumpkin like?

From annuals climbing plants decorative pumpkins are truly one of the most unpretentious. Even a novice gardener can grow them. Their only disadvantage is their absolute frost resistance: even with a light frost of -1 degree, the plant dies. That is why it is recommended to grow decorative pumpkins through seedlings. However, the least labor-intensive and easiest way is to sow their seeds directly into the ground in mid-May. If late spring frosts are expected, the emerging seedlings can be covered plastic bottles or film.

In addition, benincase, trichosanth and cyclanther are of interest.

I started growing luffa in the garden for an absolutely “unromantic” purpose. I wanted to get a natural washcloth from its fruits (my friends and I go to the steam room on Thursdays).

torticollis
.

and
Small orange

Decorative pumpkins and children

cut it and fry it for the hell of it!!! try it if it’s delicious, hamster it for the heck of it!!!

Nowadays, decorative mini-pumpkins are in fashion, with which summer residents are happy to decorate their backyards. In general, various crafts are made from these pumpkins, decorative ornaments for the home - after all, ripe fruits have a thick and durable rind, and there is almost no pulp. But these pumpkins are basically edible for very young people. True, their taste characteristics are significantly inferior to varieties specially bred for human consumption.

Fill the soil generously with compost. It is convenient to plant a pumpkin near the partition enclosing the compost heap - you can save space and provide additional nutrition for the plant. Just don't plant the pumpkin directly on compost heap– it can accumulate nitrates if there is too much nitrogen in the soil.

on the website Gardenia.ru

In addition to frost, decorative pumpkins really do not like lack of moisture and poor soil. The more often you water and fertilize it (especially organic fertilizers), the better it will grow.

About varieties of decorative pumpkin

For sowing in the future garden season I already have plant seeds: momordiki ( yellow cucumber), chufa (earth pistachio) and several “exotics” of other species.

I ask you to take my story about growing luffa ironically, because I am not a gardener at all. However, I managed to get a fruit harvest from several luffa seeds, and at the same time observe all the stages of development of this wonderful vine and capture it in a photo.
(Cucurbita pepo var. giraumon
All these pumpkins are purely for decorative purposes; they are not edible, but they are an excellent material for children’s crafts; you can use them to cut out lanterns, make candlesticks, and do artistic painting and pumpkin burning. They will complement still lifes and floral compositions and serve as a decorative element in kitchen design.

Texas pumpkin
Little warty

most likely - noSome varieties of decorative pumpkins - whose bark is red in color or has a ribbed or warty surface - cannot be eaten, they taste bitter.

Pumpkin – harvest in large format

Pumpkin plants love a lot of light. Young plants are heat-loving, and the growing season is quite long - so you definitely need to grow seedlings if you want to get a pumpkin harvest in your garden.
About your favorite pumpkin, say a word!!!
That's the whole secret!

The fruits are removed in a state of full ripeness, with hardened skin, cut off with the stalk, and dried. Unripe pumpkins with part of the tops are hung for ripening in a dry, ventilated area.

Small two-color pear

it tastes bad.

It is worth adding, however, that even decorative pumpkins, not to mention ordinary ones, usually have tasty seeds. In general, the seeds of all varieties of winter squash are very useful. Scoop out the seeds from the cut pumpkin with a spoon. They are dried, lightly fried and eaten as is, or as an addition to salads and muesli.

The seedlings are sown in early May, and the harvest can be harvested, depending on the variety, in 2-5 months.

There are many good varieties and all of them, regardless of size, are very useful! It’s a pity that some gardeners ignore it in their plots, citing the fact that the pumpkin takes up a lot of space. But, if you approach planting pumpkins wisely, you can place pumpkin beds near fences and vertical buildings. A pumpkin is essentially a vine, and it perfectly climbs to the height of a building without taking up useful space! Don't give up pumpkin, sow it for your health! Learn a little more about pumpkin in the post.

Now let's talk a little about the fruits of the pumpkin, because of which it is, in fact, called decorative. Their size rarely exceeds 10-15 cm, and their shape can be round, star-shaped, bottle-shaped, boletus-shaped, etc. There are pumpkin varieties with both smooth and bumpy skin, the shades of which vary from white to yellow, orange or green. Striped, spotted or two-colored decorative pumpkin fruits look the most fun.

Pumpkin care

Yuri Andreevich Kulbaka (Ukraine) I bought a bag of five luffa seeds at the Seeds store.Sometimes these are real twins of ordinary zucchini, both in shape and taste. And sometimes - fancy vessels with a swan neck, like the “Cou-Tors Hative” variety. The rind is rough, bubbly, and bright golden orange. The length of the fruits is up to 20 cm. For consumption, young fruits are used, 10-15 cm long, which are prepared like zucchini.

There are other types of small pumpkins that are not only decorative, but also edible.

Small two-color

Try to pickle like cucumbers, I once planted a decorative pumpkin and twisted it....

There is no point in leaving pumpkin seeds for sowing - this vegetable is cross-pollinated, so anything will grow from its own seed, but not the original type. So it’s better to buy seeds of your favorite pumpkin varieties in the store - especially since they store well, so you can even buy a few bags “in reserve.”

Summer pumpkins

Pumpkin - harvest in large format

These small fruits of cheerful colors look very cute on the plant itself, but very often decorative pumpkins are grown in order to collect ripe fruits in the fall, dry them and use them to create original compositions (for example, with dried flowers). In addition, these pumpkins can be used to create real works of art. To do this, any design is applied to dried pumpkins with special paint, and then varnish is applied to fix the paint.

Gardenia.ru "Floriculture: Pleasure and Benefit"

In early May, when the garden soil had warmed up enough, I planted the seeds directly into the ground at a distance of 1 meter from each other.

Kou-Tor Heitiv

Large-fruited turban

Pear-shaped - with smooth pear-shaped fruits 10-12 cm long. The fruits come in yellow and orange colors, but the most spectacular are bicolors, such as the variety “Small Bicolor Pear” (“Klein Birne Bicolor”), which has a clearly defined green part of the fruit, or the variety “Small Bicolor” (“Kleine Bicolor” ), where the lower part of the fruit is green, with white stripes.

Pumpkin harvest

Ornamental ones bloom and bear fruit best of all, it’s a pity that according to stories, no one will eat them in adulthood... Otherwise it would be great - just a couple of bushes and a whole carload of pumpkins!

Series of messages "Melons":

Is decorative pumpkin edible?

In order for pumpkins to be stored for a long time, two rules must be followed: they must be fully ripe, that is, with very rough and thick skin, and also picked before the first autumn frost.

Decorative pumpkins on special supports form beautiful screens, which consist not only of beautiful leaves, but also colorful fruits. They can be both eaten and used for making crafts.

Description and Application

The culture can be divided into 2 subspecies:

bush;
climbing pumpkin

They differ in the nature of the development of side shoots. For decoration and original design plot, it is preferable to use bush pumpkin. A climbing pumpkin is suitable for decorating balconies, gazebos and gazebos.

Different types of decorative pumpkins have fruits of various shapes and sizes: in the form of a star, a mushroom or a pear.

Decorative pumpkin

Decorative pumpkins are planted not only for landscaping. The fruits are also used for other purposes:

from them you can make original and unique crafts, souvenirs. This is facilitated by the bizarre shapes of the fruits and the variety of their colors.
Many ornamental varieties have excellent pulp taste. You can use it to make porridge, bake a pie, or make pumpkin jam.

Depending on how you intend to use the decorative pumpkin, you should choose its type.

Pumpkin crafts

Planting and caring for decorative climbing pumpkin

The conditions for cultivating decorative pumpkins are no different from cultivating regular ones. It can be planted either by sowing seed directly into the soil or through seedlings.

Note! If you grow seedlings, this will allow you to get a beautiful plant on your site much earlier than by sowing seeds in the ground.

To grow seedlings, you must first prepare the soil. To do this, sand, humus and wood ash are mixed in equal parts. The soil must be distributed into containers with a volume of at least 500 ml.

Important! Since decorative pumpkin seedlings cannot be transplanted, transferred or picked, no more than 1 seed or seedling can be planted in each container. Or plant 2-3, see how they take root and leave the strongest plant.

Before planting seeds, they need to be disinfected and germinated. To disinfect, pumpkin seeds are placed for 30 - 40 minutes in a warm solution of potassium permanganate of medium strength.

After this, the seeds should be wrapped in damp gauze or cloth and left for 2 to 3 days. This way you can germinate the seeds. This will speed up the process of the first shoots appearing.

Germinating pumpkin seeds

Note! To speed up the process, you can soak the seeds in a special growth stimulator.

After this time, you can begin planting the sprouted seeds in a container with soil. In this case, the seeds must be placed in the soil so that the sprout is on top.

After landing further care for a decorative climbing pumpkin consists of timely watering, fertilizing and maintaining the required temperature conditions.

The containers in which the seeds are sown must be in well-lit places, otherwise the seedlings will grow thin and become very elongated. It will be difficult to get a healthy and beautiful plant from them.

Decorative pumpkins love water. This means that under no circumstances should the soil in the container be allowed to dry out. If the room temperature fluctuates between 23 - 25 degrees, the seedlings must be watered every other day.

Important! Waterlogged soil can cause rotting of the root system of seedlings.

Approximately 14 - 16 days after sowing the seeds in the ground, the seedlings must begin to be hardened off. To do this, the containers are taken outside (at a temperature of 15 - 22 degrees). At first, the time the seedlings stay outside should not be more than 5 - 10 minutes. Every day this period increases and reaches 2.5 - 3 hours daily.

Decorative pumpkin grows very well on loose and fertile soils. It is desirable that the acidity of the soil is close to 0.

For good development and active growth The seedlings need to be watered every day. At the same time, try to do so that water does not get on the leaves. This can lead to their yellowing, which will spoil the appearance of the decorative pumpkin.

In mid-May you can start planting seedlings in open ground. To do this, it is better to choose a well-lit area that is free from drafts. You need to plant directly with the container without removing the plant. The distance between plants should be at least 1 - 1.5 m. This is necessary so that the plants do not shade each other and do not interfere with the development of the green part of the pumpkin.

To slow down the evaporation of moisture from the soil under plants and between rows, experienced gardeners It is recommended to mulch the soil.

Note! By the end of June the plants are already well developed. At this time, you can reduce the frequency of watering by 2 times.

To give plants an attractive appearance, it is necessary to form the bush correctly. Beautiful and ripe fruits will appear on the plant if you pinch the top after the appearance of 4 leaves. In addition, only 1 ovary should be left at the site of fruit formation, and the rest should be removed.

Decorative pumpkin

To prevent rotting of the fruits and green parts, the bushes must be tied up. For this you can use wooden supports, strong rope or metal supports.

In no case should you forget about feeding pumpkin. To do this, you can use a mullein solution (1 part of cow droppings is dissolved in 10 liters of water) or a solution prepared from chicken droppings (1 part of bird droppings are dissolved in 20 liters of water).

As a mineral fertilizer, you can use a solution prepared from ammonium nitrate, sodium sulfate and superphosphate.

If all conditions for cultivating decorative pumpkins are met, you can get beautiful plants and a good harvest.

Varieties of decorative pumpkins

Breeders have presented gardeners with a wide variety of varieties of decorative pumpkin. Each of them has characteristics of appearance and cultivation. Among the most popular varieties are the following:

Crown. The fruits of this variety have the appearance of a star and are bright green, yellow or orange in color. It is better to plant the plant at the end of April. Pumpkins begin to ripen at the end of July. Plants are used to decorate the exterior walls of rooms or gazebos.
Pumpkin Turkish turban. The plant has beautiful large leaves with a faceted border. Pumpkin flowers look like yellow bells. The fruit has the shape of a turban, hence the name of the variety. Up to 25 - 30 pumpkins can form on one bush. The length of the stems reaches 5 - 6.5 m. The plants performed well even in drought conditions. The variety is used to decorate gazebos or gazebos, and to form green hedges.
Pumpkin Baby. The variety is edible and early ripening. Its pulp has a pleasant taste. Each plant produces 5 - 10 small pear-shaped fruits. They have a hard skin. This variety is extremely popular for growing at home.
Pumpkin Fungus. Distinctive feature This variety is that its fruits consist of 2 parts that resemble a mushroom in appearance. This is a large-fruited pumpkin variety that grows very quickly. Used to complement the design of the garden plot. Since the fruit has a hard peel, after ripening the pulp is peeled out of it, dried and used for making souvenirs or various homemade crafts.
Orange. The fruits of this variety are light (up to 300 grams) in weight and bright orange in color. They are used to make decorations and souvenirs, and also serve as an excellent addition to a green hedge in a country house.

The variety of varieties allows everyone to choose a variety to suit their taste.

Variety of decorative pumpkin varieties

Is it possible to eat decorative pumpkin?

Most varieties of climbing pumpkin can hardly be called edible. This is due to the fact that they have a fairly hard peel and not very juicy, hard pulp.

But there are still varieties whose pulp is suitable for human consumption. Among the most famous are the following: edible varieties decorative pumpkin:

Smile. Small orange fruits ripen on the plants. They can be used not only for preparing casseroles and porridges, but also for stuffing.
Turkish turban. This pumpkin variety has dense flesh. This makes it possible to prepare delicious candied fruits from it. Not only are they quite easy to prepare, but they also contain a whole range of vitamins.
Warty. The fruits of this variety are recommended to be eaten when they are not yet fully ripe. Then their flesh is juicy and tasty, and the peel has not yet had time to harden. Pumpkins are used to make casseroles, porridges and healthy soups.

Is it possible to eat decorative pumpkin?

Decorative pumpkins can be used not only as decoration for a garden plot, but also as a material from which one-of-a-kind souvenirs can be made. In addition, decorative pumpkins can be used to make useful and delicious dishes. Their bright color and fancy shape will make pumpkin dishes a decoration for any table.

Decorative pumpkin is one of the most unpretentious plants, thanks to which it has become quite widespread in our country and abroad. Such pumpkin varieties were bred solely for the purpose of decorating a garden plot, and during the selection process standard taste characteristics were not taken into account, therefore the fruits of these species are not used for food purposes.

Growing from seeds

seed germination indicators should be checked by test soaking or sowing;
untreated seeds from manufacturers, as well as independently collected seed material, should be subject to mandatory disinfection in a solution of potassium permanganate;
good result allows soaking seeds in any growth stimulant or solution based on ordinary wood ash;
direct sowing is carried out exclusively with germinated seeds, so the seed material should be soaked on a damp cloth.

For sowing and growing ornamental crops, it is necessary to allocate well-lit and sun-warmed areas with fertile soil. Climbing pumpkin should not be grown in high lying areas. groundwater, as well as after harvesting melons. The site for planting should be prepared in advance by deep digging, removing weeds and improving the soil characteristics with humus and wood ash. Should be considered, that sowing seeds in open ground can only be done after the soil has warmed up. In the central zone of our country, it is recommended to carry out sowing work no earlier than the last ten days of May, and in the southern regions, sowing seeds can be done as early as April.

How to grow a decorative pumpkin (video)

Main types

If just recently the choice decorative species pumpkin supply was very limited, now gardeners and gardeners have something to please themselves with. There are several types of decorative vegetable crop, which can decorate even the most unusual landscape. Not only varietal mixtures such as “Uyut-decor”, “Artist” and “Souvenir” are popular, but also individual varieties of decorative pumpkin.

View	Characteristics and features	Names of popular varieties
Pear-shaped	The fruits are pear-shaped, with a relatively dense surface, which can be either single-colored or two-colored.	Kleine Bicolor and Kleine Birne Bicolor
Tangerine	A plant with very small, rounded fruits of a very characteristic and rich orange color.	"Orange"
Star-shaped	The fruits are characterized by an external similarity to starfish and can be either single-colored or multi-colored	"Kronen"
Warty	The fruits are pear-shaped or round in shape and have a surface covered with many tubercles of yellow, white, fiery orange or green color	Warty "Assorted"
Turban-shaped	The fruits have smooth skin, which can successfully combine bright orange or greenish-marble coloring	"Turkish turban"
Figolifolia	The plant is characterized by very decorative lobed leaves and variegated green-white, striped or speckled fruits	"In memory of Tarakanov"
Lagenaria	An annual creeping vine with characteristic faceted pubescent stems, the length of which reaches 15 m, and the leaves have a corrugated pentagonal appearance	"Flask", "Jug", "Intercept", "Bottles", "Speckled Goose", "Mace" and "Dinosaur"
Benincasa bristly-pilose	Young fruits have strong pubescence, and their surface acquires a strong waxy coating as they ripen.	"Sharkina", "Beijing Early", "Beijing ton-ngua-i-chuar-ling" and "Black-skinned ton-gua"

Cultivation technology

Annual climbing decorative pumpkins deservedly belong to the category of the most unpretentious plants, so they are often grown even by novice gardeners. The only disadvantage of most decorative species is the almost complete lack of frost resistance. This feature involves the use of seedling growing methods.

It should also be remembered that for decorative varieties Insufficient soil moisture and growing on too poor soils can be detrimental to pumpkins. For the cultivation of these types of pumpkins, it is recommended to allocate areas represented by loose, well-drained soils with high humus content. It is desirable that the soil has a neutral reaction.

Complete care ornamental plant requires mandatory daily irrigation and fertilizing every two weeks. Organic fertilizing of crops involves the use of mullein solution, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 or solution bird droppings, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. As mineral fertilizers It is recommended to add a solution based on 30 g of ammonium nitrate, 30 g of potassium sulfate and 50 g of superphosphate.

Decorative pumpkin needs fairly abundant irrigation, which should be carried out at the rate of three buckets of water for each square meter landing At the stage of mass flowering of the plant and the formation of ovaries, the frequency of watering should be increased. Watering must be carried out exclusively with warm and settled water, the temperature of which should not be lower than 20-21°C. The use of cold water for irrigation often becomes the main cause of root rot and death of ornamental crops.

To protect the above-ground part of the plant from damage by slugs, it is recommended to treat it with a mixture based on slaked lime and wood ash. For preventive purposes, the leaves and stems of the plant should be sprayed with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture. If there is too much thickening of the climbing pumpkin planting, it is recommended to remove several side shoots once, which will improve the lighting of the ornamental crop and give it a more attractive and finished appearance.

Use in landscape and design

A climbing pumpkin looks ideal on a vertical support, which can be a chain-link mesh or a south wall. Quite often, decorative pumpkins are used to decorate a gazebo, pergola or arch. The growth of decorative pumpkin is very active, so by mid-summer the plant is already quite tall and dense.

In addition to climbing or climbing species, there are also bush decorative pumpkins that are grown in conditions personal plot almost the same as zucchini, popular in our country. Such varieties and species most often serve as decoration for flower beds and edgings, and are also used in the design of borders and garden paths.

Such species acquire maximum decorative value in the last month of summer, when against the backdrop of a solid green screen bright accents Large bright yellow flowers and elegant small fruits stand out.

Fruits of ornamental species should be collected before the onset of sudden negative temperatures, after which they are dried at room temperature.

Pumpkin: choosing a variety (video)

Dried fruits of almost any variety of decorative pumpkin can be used for crafts such as salt shakers, snuff boxes and vases, and are also widely used in the design of phyto-compositions. Thanks to the rich variety and species diversity, climbing pumpkin can become a very successful alternative to any decorative garden vine.