Pumpkin patch practices and gourd garden grooming.
#76682
Great looking patch Chewy! It's always nice seeing how other's patches are doing. I like the description you gave for the plants to give me some kind of idea of what to plant next year. I'd like to plant some that are bushier instead of having such long vines.

I have a very limited space, and planted my own for the first time this year. I also went with a wide variety of plants such as an First Prize Hybrid, some Howdens, Lumina's, Baby Boos, Gourds, a blueish variety which I forget the name, and 2 other miniature varieties.

Unfortunately most of my patch is starting to die off already, but I've got 6 Howdens, 4 of which are carvable, 9 gourds, 6 minis, 2 white Luminas, and a First Prize hybrid that I'm estimating is about 40 lbs or so. A few weeks ago I threw some more seeds in the ground just to see if I can get some late bloomers.

Best of luck the rest of the way, and I can't wait to see the final results!
#80757
OK, here's a way overdue update. Things have been *busy* around here (Fastpitch season, soccer season, Fastpitch tryouts for travel ball, fall softball, salmon season started here and oh yeah, I'm just getting over catching one of the many bugs going around - which means on top of everything else, we're pushing back thanksgiving an extra week; hope the family likes a Halloween themed thanksgiving dinner! LOL). Crazy.

The upside of spending a week in bed this time of year, I think I watched my entire "Halloween" movie library culminating with zombieland last night. Priceless. But, I digress.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement!

Despite the "challenges" this years' crop has faced; I did get a few that have evolved into what will become zombies shortly...

I had two of the Kakai's survive - this one, and a smaller one that I gave to my sister to take to her school to show off (they have a contest to guess the number of seeds in the pumpkin... this one will baffle them for sure). Crazy colouring eh? *must* plant more of these next year!

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A couple of good sized kins, I think the larger one is a Howden, but, they all got mixed up, so, I have no idea. The picture doesn't do it justice, that puppy is a good 22" tall or so and weighs in just under 5o pounds. The little one beside it is at the bottom range of what id try to carve - about a foot or so.

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Here's the smaller of the two Kakai's alongside a nondescript future zombie.

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Gratuitous pumpkin shots. Notice the texture on the closer of the two? No idea about how that happened. Likely cross pollination. Is going to make carving (I use self adhesive paper) a challenge.

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This one shows what happens when your family steps in to save Halloween. LOL. I say that with all well meaning of intentions. It IS really hare to tell a pumpkin seedling from a squash seedling.... (the white one on the right - spaghetti squash... LOL - I may try to carve it anyway)

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This one shows one of the Atlantic Giants that my sister grew on her side of the fence. There's not really any perspective in this shot - aside from the leaves... those leaves are about 18" across. That kin is a full 40" tall - and, based on it taking five strong guys to get it onto a pallet so it could be loaded onto the truck to go to my sisters school, we figure it's at least 300 pounds. My dad has always been confused about why Ive never shown any interest in growing any of these ones. I keep telling him that my saws are teensy and I'd rather not have to borrow a chainsaw to carve!

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And just for fun, because it's that time of year, a "zombie" of a different ilk - a Pink Salmon from the Squamish River a few weeks ago. When the fish get to be this "ready" for spawning - the males get the hook jaw & the giant hump (hence the nickname "humpy") - they also are called "zombies" when they're this far along. For a Squamish Pink, this is as big as I've seen the last few runs, the Fraser ones are a bigger, but, Pinks don't get large, they make up for their lack of size with numbers - and are a blast to fight on lightweight gear. And no, he definitely didn't end up on the dinner table (I caught a nice jack spring a little while later that did...)

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#80799
This has been a fabulous post on many fronts - #1, loved seeing your pumpkin patch update! The odd textured ones are the most fun to carve, they make for a super neat carved pumpkin:
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Secondly, love the salmon run pic and description! That has been one of my and my dad's dream for years -to be present for the salmon run. Very neat.
#80842
wow! those are some nice gourds! I like the kakai. While beautiful orange is what we expect, having other pumpkins in the display makes it great for daytime viewing. Like Amanda said, those knotty pumpkins, while a pain to transfer and carve, can turn out awesome.

Good luck with the display and don't break your back moving those pumpkins around.