Pumpkin patch practices and gourd garden grooming.
#85694
So here's the deal... I decided early this year that I wanted to TRY to grow some pumpkins on my own just to see if I could... I've always had great success with tomatoes, squash, cucumber, zucchini, watermelon, etc... But I have never ever tried to grow pumpkins. Mainly because I never thought I had enough room to allow for growth. This year, I bit the bullet, and bought some seeds with a determination to make my first attempt a positive experience. I printed off a planting guide from the agricultural department at NC State University, and made a big blueprint of my intended garden to include all of my plants and seeds, with detailed descriptions on date of planting, and distance between... My squash and tomatoes are doing ridiculously well! Those veggies were transplants that I bought from a nursery. Everything else that I planted were seeds. NOTHING germinated... NOTHING! Except for the pumpkins, but there is one problem. The blooms are showing no signs of producing. the large orange flowers are there, and have been for some time, but nothing has given any inclination of doing anything other than that. It's like my vines are teasing me... So I have a few questions...

1- What could cause all of my seeds to fail except for the pumpkins?

2- What could cause the transplants to do so well (thrive actually), and pretty much no luck anywhere else.

3- Am I just being paranoid, and overambitious? According to the planting chart, I have a window from April 15th-July 1st to plant seeds. I planted the pumpkins in late April... I have exact dates written down in my notebook somewhere...And the length of time from seed to harvest is 115-120 days, which I know is still about a month-ish away, but I would have THOUGHT I'd have been seeing evidence of little pumpkins by now. Habing never planted real 'kins myself, I'm kinda clueless, and I originally just did this as an "eh well, we'll see what happens" project, but it's become more of an interest since I have such great looking vines now.

4- I have noticed a LOT of insects... the leaves on the pumpkin vines seem to be just fine, but I have lost pretty much two whole spuash plants. I'm always afraid of using pesticides because i'm paranoid my dog getting into anything and making her sick, but I would be more than willing to try something that's proven to be not harmful to pets... Thought about "Seven" but not sure.
#85695
I know that you'll normally notice the male flowers before the female flowers. Once the females bloom, they only stay open for a few hours, and during that time you'll need a bee to go into a male before going into the female. Have you noticed and bees in the area?

If my memory serves me correctly, it took me about 6 weeks last year before I noticed any flowers bloom.

I did use Seven last year, and will do so again this year.

Did you try any Miracle Gro? I'm a big fan of that as well.
#85697
I haven't really used MiracleGro much.. I think once from my leftover supply last year toward the start of it all... Didn't even think about bees! Come to think of it, though, I haven't seen many. That's gonna be problematic. For some reason, the thought of pollination never crossed my mind... However, that's not to say the bees aren't there... I do have quite a few flowers growing around the property, mostly roses, but a few hydrangeas. Definitely gonna get some of the Seven brand stuff though now that you mentioned using it. I had my reservations only because I've had no real experience.
#85699
If there aren't any bees around, you can pollinate by hand. Wait for a female to open, then brush the inside of a male flower with something like a paint brush to get pollen on it, then brush the pollen on the inside of the female. It can't hurt, especially if there's a lack of bees. This will need to be done early in the morning when the flowers are open, say around 8:00.
#85905
Well, not sure if the manual pollination caused this result, or if it occurred naturally, but I finally have my first little baby punkin!! This image was sent to me just a little while ago, and I am being told that we have what looks like about a dozen other blooms!! So excited! Now I can't wait to fly home from work and see this for myself!!

Image
#85907
Congratulations Chuckwagon. Once one starts blooming, you'll notice the rest seem to take off.

I just started seeing a few males bloom the last few days, and expect my first female to blossom tomorrow. It makes Halloween that much more exciting knowing you can potentially grow some of the pumpkins you may carve.

Keep us up to date. :thumbsup:
#87506
How did it turn out I'm curious if you got them to grow past the picture you sent, I had no luck with them. I tried growing them in my garden in a huge pot and i maybe got two pumpkins a little bigger than your picture. Im wondering what am i doing wrong, they just stop growing at a certain point.
#87530
Looking good, watch out for heavy rains when the kins are close to harvest. Toss a tarp over them. I had a bumper crop when I lived in Austin...18 inches of rain in 24 hours and they popped and rotted. Good luck, fun to grow your own. Just need so much space!