Hello Hive

There are some basic things you may never get to learn about farming until you are in the system. Alot of experiences to be learnt and things to know that the internet may not have such information.

Normally I grow fluted pumpkins for commercial purpose and in such systems we plant them in rolls in the farm just like this one here.

After series of harvest for sale we them move to allow a bunch or two to grow the the seed for next year harvest. And of course the seed is usually on the ground not like this hanging one you see here.

For the seed growing on the ground, you may not need to protect it much since the leaves will most times hide the plant under the leaves and during the raining season the seed is not exposed to too much heat and sunlight.

But the case is a bit different from when we chose to grow pumpkin over bridges like this. This method is done in family like garden when you grow pumpkin in your garden especially when the land space is small.

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Like I said before, there are a peculiar style for harvesting pumpkin leaves if we do not want to loss the seed or the entire plant.
If we cut it carelessly the entire plant dries up.

When pumpkin is at fruiting stage like this, it is best to avoid harvesting the leaves and allow the seed develop well.

Look at this dried up seed, it started developing and dried up just because grandma made a mistake and harvested some stem close to the seed.

To take care of the seed you may want to protect it from severe heat and wind.

Heat from sunlight causes this to get rot even before it becomes developed.

Heavy wind can cut this off its stem and the seed is lost.

The seed can be hence lifted gently and placed on the bridge for support and when the weather is too harsh, you may decide to cover these with pieces of clothes.
And it is best not to harvest any more of the leaves at the stage to keep the seed alive.

The seed case may grow to contain 20-50 seeds or even more and that will be used for next planting.