Saturday, February 5, 2011
a Pumpkin's Life
In the past few months I have been so captivated by pumpkins. Yes, my daily activity in the morning and night is to check my pumpkin garden :) Here, I'd like to share a pumpkin's life in my garden.
1. Choose good seeds. You can just insert the seeds in moist soil. But I am more kiasu, so I soaked the seeds in water for 24 hours, and it'll germinate in 2-3 days rather than a week
2. Soon, 2 tiny leaves will pop up and more true leaves will appear
3. It won't be long until pumpkin vines turn monstrous and invade your whole garden
5. This is what a male flower's butt look like when it blooms. No sexy butt.
6. Inside the male flower is a stamen. It's a long stick with sticky yellow powder, called pollen.
7. Here's a pic of sexy female flower, note the voluptuous hip
8. Inside the female flower is the stigma, and the orange part is called pistil-a receptive organ for the male pollen
9. Now, the making-love part. The technical term is "pollination". Again I'm very kiasu, so I am doing hand-pollination (Yes, I am Dr. Love)
So what I did is I pick a bloom male flower, remove its petals; then I rub it to female's pistil.
10. So, this is what a female stigma will look like after that tiring love-making session. Soon, her hip will become bigger and bigger, and that's what we call pumpkin :)
11. Here's a developing pumpkin, it still have a pale skin
12. A mature pumpkin will have a red-orange hue on its skin, ready to pick :)
13. This is a fruit fly. I took this picture in my garden, and look how pretty it looks. But they're nasty.
14. Look at this pumpkin :( It grew quite big, but it carried a scar from the fruit fly. When I cut the pumpkin, inside is fully of tiny maggots.
The fly will sting on young pumpkin when its outer skin is still soft (usually within 7 days of pollination), she'll leave her eggs inside. The eggs then grow into maggots and they'll feast on the pumpkin from inside :( Oh, my poor pumpkin
15. For pre-caution, this is what I did. I use old B5 or A4 envelope, turn it into a bag shape, and use it to cover the young pumpkin. Make sure the cut some tiny slit so rain won't stay in the bag.
Don't worry about the bag size will hasten pumpkin's size. It won't. The pumpkin will outburst the envelope, and by that time, the pumpkin is safe from fruit-fly anyway.
16. So, here's what a beautiful pumpkin look like. She's a bit plump, isn’t she?
17. Halved, see the seeds cavity :) full of tiny lil' seeds. I scoop the seeds out (18)
19. My mom cut it into few pieces, steamed it. I prefer it to be pan-fried with butter. Here's what it looks like.
It's yummy!!!! Happy pumpkinnnnnn, baby!!!
1. Choose good seeds. You can just insert the seeds in moist soil. But I am more kiasu, so I soaked the seeds in water for 24 hours, and it'll germinate in 2-3 days rather than a week
2. Soon, 2 tiny leaves will pop up and more true leaves will appear
3. It won't be long until pumpkin vines turn monstrous and invade your whole garden
6. Inside the male flower is a stamen. It's a long stick with sticky yellow powder, called pollen.
7. Here's a pic of sexy female flower, note the voluptuous hip
8. Inside the female flower is the stigma, and the orange part is called pistil-a receptive organ for the male pollen
9. Now, the making-love part. The technical term is "pollination". Again I'm very kiasu, so I am doing hand-pollination (Yes, I am Dr. Love)
So what I did is I pick a bloom male flower, remove its petals; then I rub it to female's pistil.
10. So, this is what a female stigma will look like after that tiring love-making session. Soon, her hip will become bigger and bigger, and that's what we call pumpkin :)
11. Here's a developing pumpkin, it still have a pale skin
12. A mature pumpkin will have a red-orange hue on its skin, ready to pick :)
14. Look at this pumpkin :( It grew quite big, but it carried a scar from the fruit fly. When I cut the pumpkin, inside is fully of tiny maggots.
The fly will sting on young pumpkin when its outer skin is still soft (usually within 7 days of pollination), she'll leave her eggs inside. The eggs then grow into maggots and they'll feast on the pumpkin from inside :( Oh, my poor pumpkin
15. For pre-caution, this is what I did. I use old B5 or A4 envelope, turn it into a bag shape, and use it to cover the young pumpkin. Make sure the cut some tiny slit so rain won't stay in the bag.
Don't worry about the bag size will hasten pumpkin's size. It won't. The pumpkin will outburst the envelope, and by that time, the pumpkin is safe from fruit-fly anyway.
17. Halved, see the seeds cavity :) full of tiny lil' seeds. I scoop the seeds out (18)
19. My mom cut it into few pieces, steamed it. I prefer it to be pan-fried with butter. Here's what it looks like.
It's yummy!!!! Happy pumpkinnnnnn, baby!!!
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