Pumpkin patch practices and gourd garden grooming.
User avatar
By S.A.M
#6994
Hello all :D
I thought I'd post some pictures and share some of my experiences as a first time grower in the U.K

I chose three different varieties one of which is Aspen F1 and the other two I can't remember because I've lost the packets! I remember they were labled as medium to large pumpkins.

The seeds were planted in a potting compost in a seed tray during late April. The tray was placed in an old fish tank to act as a propagator which would sit on a window sill to catch the sun, a thermometer was still in place on the side so the temp. could be regulated at around 22 °C
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By the 2nd of May the first seedlings had appeared.

I waited until a good set of true leaves had come through on each plant and they looked strong enough to survive outside. They were transplanted outside on the 22nd May. I kept an eye on the weather forecasts to make sure the last of the frosts had been.

Two locations were chosen for the plants, the front garden which catches the sun all day (pictures below) and in the back garden which gets a good dose of sun early in the morning and mid evening.

Instead of having bedding plants in the borders this year we have pumpkins!
This is how the patch is coming on, photos taken 9th July.
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The first female flower:
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The suntrap patch, growing strong;
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I'll post up some info of the different fertalizers I've used later on along with some growing tips I've picked up and a devestating report on a slug attack!! This could all be embarrassing if no decent fruit grows :oops:
User avatar
By Dans banana Loafcake
#7001
Dadja wrote:Don't worry too much. It's very easy... We've been growing pumpkins for years. Just plant the seeds, and wait... no trouble whatsoever :p
I had a go last year and found it hard to get any pumpkins of decent size, although I may have been the varient I was growing was just small?

Dan
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7004
Excellent it appears my other two varieties are Jack-O-Lantern so I am in fact growing two different types not three as I thought, oops :d

Slugs attack!
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One plant has perished in the back garden, it was planted in a border next to a privet hedge, little did I know that all the slugs and insects with a penchant for pumpkin lived there. The slugs munched through the vine at the base and all the stalks and leaves.

Defences installed on plant two:
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This was made using an old fizzy pop bottle. Beer traps were then deployed to take care of the slugs, don't plant pumpkins next to a hedge! The beer traps seem to be working in that I'm emptyng them of dead and drunk slugs everyday..yuk!
User avatar
By Dans banana Loafcake
#7006
Drunk slugs Lol! :lol: :lol:

Never heard of a beer trap before, interesting. I like the pop bottle idea as well, Maybe 2008 is another year for growing.

I really wanted to carve a white pumpkin you see and thats why I tried to grow lumina , it was just tiny thats all. Does anyone know of a larger variety of white pumpkin?

Dan
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7011
I saw the beer trap on a BBC gardening show, you can buy them or it's really simple to make your own as I did, you then fill it with about an inch or so of cheap bitter and the slugs party 'til they die :lol:

A mention of fertilisers, once the plants have been planted outside and early on in the season it's a good idea to feed them with a water soluble fertilizer which will promote a strong healthy root system, so you need one that stresses Phosphorus like 15-30-15. (15N - 30P - 15K)

Concentrate, here's the science bit
All plants require nutrients and the three main basic ones are:

Nitrogen (N) it will make your plants grow nice strong lush greens
Phosphorus (P) good for root development
Potassium (K) will help flowers bloom, increase fruit yield size and health.
N-P-K and these are represented on the box of fertilizers as numbers to show how much they have of a certain nutrient. e.g 15-30-15 contains 15 Nitrogen - 30 Phosphorus - 15 Potassium (aka Potash).

If you're still with me then by early /mid-season you may want to switch to a high Nitrogen feed e.g 25-15-15 and before fruit set a good all-round fertilizer like 15-15-15. As the fruits set and begin to grow around the end of July/ early Aug switch to a high potassium feed.

Be careful not to over-feed, you just want to help your pumpkins get what they need and not force them to grow, this will do more harm than good.

This is by no means the set way of growing pumpkins many people use different methods this is just one I picked up through research and talking to a local allotmenteer :D Hope it works :lol:
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7036
Hi all :D
Just a quick update I've lost two pumpkins to the slugs :x The fruit must smell more attractive than the beer now. I've had to resort to using slug pellets which I didn't want to do as my neighbours have cats and I have two dogs, so I had to be careful to only put it down very lightly around the dense areas of the vines. I also picked the pellets with a bittering agent so it won't taste too good to pets and dicourage them from eating 'em should they get close enough.

I used the Bio branded ones more info; http://www.slugawareness.co.uk/code
User avatar
By Dans banana Loafcake
#7038
:shock: My head is spinning S.A.M. You certainly know your stuff. As I've said in the past I'm not much of a pumpkin grower but your tips may just mean I try again ( now wised up with your know how) in the 2008 season.

Dan
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7039
Thanks Dan, most of what I know I looked up in books and from asking local allotment owners I know, this time last year I knew nowt about growing pumpkins and now it seems I'm a bit obsessive! :lol:

I've no idea if any of this advice is going to grow any decent pumpkins, we will find out in a couple of months time..oh exciting lol To be honest with all the wet weather we've had I'm starting to think that most of the fruit will spoil, I bet last year would have been a great year to grow them.

Plus all this rain makes perfect conditions for the snails and slugs to thrive, which by the way, the slug pellets are doing a grand job of controlling 'em. Every morning it looks like a snail/slug graveyard, gruesome :twisted:
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7076
Quite a few pumpkins have shriveled, rotted and fallen from the vine, now this could be down to a number of reasons; incorrect pollination, poor position on the vine or stress caused to the plants with all this rain we're having or indeed a bit of everything!

A handful of pumpkins do seem to be surviving though and this one is the biggest so far: (ruler for scale)
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It's grown since then and is now 19cm in circumference and looking very healthy. All the fruits that are touching the ground now have a bed of straw to rest on to help prevent them from rotting/bruising.

I'm feeling a little more optimistic now that a few seem to be growing well.
User avatar
By Dadja
#7119
S.A.M wrote:All the fruits that are touching the ground now have a bed of straw to rest on to help prevent them from rotting/bruising.
I actually think that that will enhance rotting of the pumpkins... Think about it: dirt can get wet, but it won't rot... straw however will.

It will keep water longer than the dirt. If you want to put something under the pumpkins, you would need something to get rid of the water as fast as possible, sand for example. make a hole of about 5cm deep and fill it will sand, it will dry up faster than dirt and certainly a lot faster than straw and so pervent rotting...
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7120
Dadja wrote:
S.A.M wrote:All the fruits that are touching the ground now have a bed of straw to rest on to help prevent them from rotting/bruising.
I actually think that that will enhance rotting of the pumpkins... Think about it: dirt can get wet, but it won't rot... straw however will.

It will keep water longer than the dirt. If you want to put something under the pumpkins, you would need something to get rid of the water as fast as possible, sand for example. make a hole of about 5cm deep and fill it will sand, it will dry up faster than dirt and certainly a lot faster than straw and so pervent rotting...
Thanks for the advice I've just blagged a bucket of sand from a neighbour, I will swap the straw for sand tomorrow.
I had my doubts about the straw and to be honest I was just carrying over what I'd done with strawberries years ago but I suppose that was more of a mulch really :lol:
thanks again for the advice.
User avatar
By Dadja
#7122
S.A.M wrote:
Dadja wrote:
S.A.M wrote:All the fruits that are touching the ground now have a bed of straw to rest on to help prevent them from rotting/bruising.
I actually think that that will enhance rotting of the pumpkins... Think about it: dirt can get wet, but it won't rot... straw however will.

It will keep water longer than the dirt. If you want to put something under the pumpkins, you would need something to get rid of the water as fast as possible, sand for example. make a hole of about 5cm deep and fill it will sand, it will dry up faster than dirt and certainly a lot faster than straw and so pervent rotting...
Thanks for the advice I've just blagged a bucket of sand from a neighbour, I will swap the straw for sand tomorrow.
I had my doubts about the straw and to be honest I was just carrying over what I'd done with strawberries years ago but I suppose that was more of a mulch really :lol:
thanks again for the advice.
Well with strawberries it's to keep away weeds :p Woaw, I sound like a real gardener-person-dude :lol: Anyway, glad to help... But to be honest, I never use anything to ut under pumpkins, but if teh ground 's really that wet, I think sand is your best bet... Good luck!
User avatar
By S.A.M
#7319
Well it's been over a month since I last posted about me little ol patch so I thought I'd give a quick update.
The leaves are starting to die off now and the pumpkins are starting to turn a nice burnt orange colour, there aren't any prize winners I'm sure.
They range from very small to top medium in size, up until a few days ago I'd have said a Aspen F1 was going to take the size prize but a Jack O' Lantern one looks to be over taking it.

I have some pictures but they need to be internetified and I'm affraid it's Friday night, the pub is calling and I'm going for a:
http://www.rathergood.com/beer/

:lol: :lol: I'll update with pics tomorrow...hopefully :wink: