Growing Turban Pumpkin

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

From year to year, every gardener grows pumpkins in their private plots. Our ancestors also raised pumpkins, and it seems that this issue should be studied as an alphabet, but this is not always the case. First, pumpkins come in many different types. In our country, mainly three species are grown: large-fruited, hard-barked and nutmeg. And, secondly, and this is the most important thing, you need to find among the many varieties of each type your own variety that you just like.

When choosing a variety, they usually put taste in the first place, then large-fruited and decorative. At the same time, the resistance of the variety to powdery mildew, cold resistance, early maturity is beyond competition. By the way, you can grow pumpkins all your life, but you never find your own variety, and all your life you think that pumpkin is practically a fodder crop, although it is very useful, and it is pleasant to eat it, especially if you add sugar to the porridge.

My variety is a turban pumpkin. Do you know when the red cap of a ripening pumpkin resembling a fungus turns red? This is it. I think that you have seen these fabulous fruits more than once in photographs. They are often referred to as decorative pumpkins, but this is not entirely true. The hat of this pumpkin really resembles a turban (headdress of the East). But in fact, this variety belongs to the type of large-fruited pumpkins and has all the signs of the structure of a plant (leaves, seeds, stems) of large-fruited pumpkins. A small paradox: the fruits are medium-sized, but the species is large-fruited. But the most valuable thing is a remarkably sweet, melon aroma, taste of fruits with bright orange pulp, very rich in carotene, delicate, crumbly, sugary, like a honey apple.

For about a twenty-year period of growing such pumpkins, I came across different lines of turban: there were plants with fruits weighing 300-500 g, with fruits of 1.5-2 kg, and, finally, with fruits weighing 4-5 kg. In fact, these are different lines of the once obtained variety. But more on that later, because I want to say that, in my opinion, the most optimal and effective line is with a fruit weight of 4-5 kg. In these fruits, the wall thickness reaches 10 cm, while one pumpkin can be used only once or twice, avoiding the storage difficulties that arise with large fruits.

The great advantage of the fruits of this variety is the pleasant possibility of using the fruits in their raw form as salads and snacks. If you try, for example, to compare the taste of Chalmoidnaya with such varieties of large-fruited pumpkins as Hundred-Pound, Goliath, Titan, then you will not find anything in common. But you will find a very great similarity in taste with the best varieties of butternut pumpkins, including the most delicious gourds, such as, for example, the Spanish guitar. Chalmovidny is also favored by its high cold resistance, non-infestation by powdery mildew and early maturity (90-100 days).

Functionally, in terms of consumer qualities, Chalmoidnaya belongs to the so-called small-sized portioned pumpkins. From this series, portioned pumpkins of Japanese and Chinese selection are also very good: Golden Pear and Orange Pear, by the way, also related to the large-fruited species.

So, when planting a Turbid pumpkin, if you want to get full-fledged seeds for posterity, try not to grow it next to large-fruited, or, most reliable, grow it in complete isolation with manual pollination. Seeds remain viable for 7-8 years or more. Seeds are glossy, large, yellow-orange with a barely noticeable rim. This pumpkin can be eaten raw like a carrot, grated or cut into slices for salads, fried, boiled, stewed, salted. It does not have the tart taste of large pumpkins. I like a pumpkin salad with sour cream, butter or mayonnaise, you can add an apple, a nut, a lemon, a carrot, and if you fry it in slices in oil or breadcrumbs, as is done in Bulgaria, then sticks softened on fire just melt in your mouth.

I tried to find information about turban gourds in modern literature, especially about the history of their origin. It was very difficult. I could not find descriptions of the turban pumpkins weighing 4-5 kg, which I grow. They are not in the official registers.

But the history of the turban is as follows. In the late nineteenth century, American breeder Luther Burbank (1849-1926) got pumpkin seeds sent from Chile. The fruits of this pumpkin looked like an oak acorn enlarged a hundredfold, and the pulp of the fruit was distinguished by an unusual sweetness. In addition, the Chilean guest grew up in dry lands, where pumpkins usually do not work well. Burbank sowed the seeds of the Chilean miracle, but he had such a motley company that at first they lost heart. However, we still managed to collect several necessary individuals. The seeds from them again gave a lot of descendants, not like their parents. Pumpkin persisted, and the scientist did not back down. As a result of long-term selection, a resistant acorn variety was obtained. In the future, the acorn gourd was renamed the Turtle gourd.

So, this pumpkin is cold-hardy, powdery mildew resistant, drought-resistant. It is early ripe, sweet, fruitful. From one plant, I collect up to thirty fruits weighing 3-5 kg, while the plants are quite compact, and the length of the lashes does not exceed 3 m. Having reached a certain weight on the lash, the fruits then ripen safely in maturation. Most of the fruits ripen in December-January with normal storage on the floor in the room. It was during this period that their taste is irresistible. The first fruits ripen much earlier.

Why don't you try this variety too? Moreover, during about twenty years of growing, I also selected the best specimens to continue offspring. I will send the seeds.