When the Boer pumpkin was still the market leader in South Africa, the seed was very cheap. This is because it is an open-pollinated variety and all seed companies were selling it.
As price was not a limitation, most growers would plant at the higher recommended rates. A good yield of Boer pumpkins is 25t/ha. Given an average size of about 5kg, this would be 5 000 pumpkins. Many of the recommendations at the time suggested 2,5kg/ha, and this was far more seeds than pumpkins harvested.
I remember meeting a farmer from Limpopo who was delivering pumpkins to a processor. While he was offloading, I explained to him that the hotter the weather, the further apart the rows needed to be.
Esta historia es de la edición Farmer's Weekly 18 November 2022 de Farmer's Weekly.
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Esta historia es de la edición Farmer's Weekly 18 November 2022 de Farmer's Weekly.
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