[Nightwatchman]

I love the beer video!!

[S.A.M]

I love the beer video!!

Me too, it's rather good isn't it

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats with anticipation to see the pics and here they are lol







There is a bigger pumpkin out there but I didn't take a pic for some reason. Overall I'm quite pleased for a first attempt at growing them, I think I planted too many though, I underestimated just how much space they take. If I plant any next year I'll only do three or four plants.

[mesmark]

Those look great! I really like the pattern with the green.

I also planted too many vines. I was too adventurous and planted 9 plants and in the end, I think they snuffed each other out. They only yeilded 5 pumpkins and of them really only 3 will be worth carving up.

Luckily my farmer friend didn't trust me and planted one vine on his land for me. He ended up with 3 great pumpkins. One huge pumpkin (70-80lbs) and two more bigger than any of mine.

[S.A.M]

Hello guys well the pumpkins are turning a nice shade of orange and I'm starting to think about the best time to harvest them, with this being my first year I don't have a clue when best to do it. Does anyone have any general advice on when best to harvest them?
Anyone with previous experience, any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks

[Dadja]

I've been growing my own pumpkins for ten years now, so I may have some advice

Well, I just took a look in my patch, and it looked better than I'd expected. I've harvested some of the pumpkins, because the vines (escpecialy the stem) were getting 'mushy'. You have to carve them then, even if they're not quite orange then, or they'll rot... As long as the stem is fine, don't worry. If they're still completely green, leave them on the vines as long as possible. Best time to harvest is when they are completely orange. If they are not, but you have to harvest them, don't worry, they should still turn orange over time...

Keep them somewhere cool, out of direct sunlight and they should be ok!

[Tkaraoke]

I've been growing my own pumpkins for ten years now

Speaking of which how many of those bad boys have you got on the vine? Big ones? Little ones? Plan on posting any pics yet?

[Dadja]

I've been growing my own pumpkins for ten years now

Speaking of which how many of those bad boys have you got on the vine? Big ones? Little ones? Plan on posting any pics yet?

I'll see when I can post some pics, but as I said I've harvested quite a lot of them now. Sill two big ones on the vines. Then two medium ones I already had to harvest, and 5 of my own special breed (pumpkin zucchini crossover, more or less like this one: http://www.zombiepumpkins.com/img/winne ... best16.jpg ). But I had a lot less space to work with in comparrison to last year, so patch turned out a little small this year, probably will buy some more pumpkins...

[Tkaraoke]

It's the "wiener dog" of pumpkins! ROFL!

[S.A.M]

I've been growing my own pumpkins for ten years now, so I may have some advice

Well, I just took a look in my patch...

Thank you for the advice Dadja I still have a couple of green ones on the vines and some still have a little way to go before they turn completely orange, in fact a couple look bright yellow right now.

What would you do if the the weather forecasts a chance of overnight frost? Would you try cover them or take them off the vine and store them?

Thanks.

[Dadja]

I've been growing my own pumpkins for ten years now, so I may have some advice

Well, I just took a look in my patch...

Thank you for the advice Dadja I still have a couple of green ones on the vines and some still have a little way to go before they turn completely orange, in fact a couple look bright yellow right now.

What would you do if the the weather forecasts a chance of overnight frost? Would you try cover them or take them off the vine and store them?

Thanks.

Frost is pretty deadly for pumpkins. So if yoy're 100% sure it's going to freeze, it's best to take them of the vines and keep them somewhere warmer. Best temperature to keep pumpkins is 5 - 20° celcius

[Dadja]

It's the "wiener dog" of pumpkins! ROFL!

I have something special planned for tehse babies... Wait and see

[S.A.M]

Thanks again for the advice Dadja and you're going to think I'm a right pain in the bottom as I have another Q for you, when you take the 'kins off the vine do you cut where the stalk from the pumpkin meets the vine or do you leave a few inches of the vine on if you are storing them?

And here are some pics I just took:







The top two pics were also posted above so you can see how they've come on.

[Dadja]

Just cut them at the stalk, and they'll be fine.

[S.A.M]

Just cut them at the stalk, and they'll be fine.

Thats great Dadja BUT...


Just one more thing...

nah I'm joking... for now Thanks matey.

[S.A.M]

This could all be embarrassing if no decent fruit grows

Well here we are months later and my first growing season is over, it's done and dusted no more watering and no more worrying, but how did I do?

I don't think I did too bad at all;




The front two in the middle are by far the biggest I've grown this year, the one on the left weighs in at 14 pounds and the one on the right 12 pounds, the smallest one is 3.3 pounds. Most of them weight between 7-9 pounds.

All in all not a bad haul, the majority of them won't take a very big or intricate pattern so I'll have to keep things simple