After about some good period of harvesting, it is finally time to replace these fluted pumpkins veggies. If you take a look at these vegetables, the leaves are no longer soft like they used to be soft, tender and much edible. Whenever fluted pumpkins becomes tired of producing fresh leaves for food, it should be noted that at that time it is either we replace them and plant newer species or allow them to grow for a little while undisturbed wether they can produce some seeds for planting.
Fluted pumpkins are meant to grow and last for at least 2year circle before they finally die off, that is for the type of specie we have on ground currently, their life cycle is two years, but one thing I have noticed is that for the fluted pumpkins that is planted for commercial purpose they may not last that long before they finally die off. The consistent harvesting often hardens the leaves and once there are no more fresher leaves being produced, the ones on the stems becomes very tough and not edible.
The fluted pumpkins I have at home currently is about 3years old. Every year it produces leaves which we eat out of it, then it dies off towards the end of the year and gets revived again at the coming year. Whenever it comes alive, it does so with fresher and newer edible leaves. This has been on for 3years now
But these particular commercially planted ones have only been around for a year now. The leaves have become tough and hardened. After a good while or harvesting, the leaves are turning burnt and no longer edible. And then finally they have now caught some diseases.
Even after applying Pesticides to the veggies they still remain like this. Whenever this happens, it is a good sign to understand that we have to let go of these veggies and plant newer ones. Diseased plants should be uprooted and burnt in order to stop the spread of the disease to other veggies around.
Then again these unedible veggies can be left to produce seeds rather than discarding them right away. If they are left without further disturbance or harvesting of the leaves, they can start producing seeds that will be useful for next session planting.
With farming we learn everyday and every little detail is important, sometimes what you think is a normal for a plant might not end up being that way and what we learn by experience sometimes holds more value than what has been documented about these crops.
