My son has mostly convinced me to skip the pumpkins this season. I did start some ornamental gourds on a trellis, so that may be as close as I get. The pumpkin patch is waiting to be tilled, and thinking it may be filled with flowers this year… and the bees really need it. Also with the problems with the Squash Vine Borers(SVB), it may be better to let them run their life cycle and give the pumpkins a better chance next year.
I’ve seen the SVB moths around the garden, so not very happy about that… and I have several summer squash, so the season my be shortened. I’ll keep you posted on that.
That said, the gourds are looking good, lots of new ones coming up and I feel good about the bees doing the pollination this year, so I’m going to stand back and let them do their thing.
Category: Pumpkins and Gourds
First baby pumpkin
It is almost Oct 1, and we finally have a baby pumpkin… first step… now we need to get that flower pollinated and keep puppies, squirrels and bugs off of it. It has a long way to go, but the first step is getting that first pumpkin flower!
Should be ready in time for Christmas… lol!
Pumpkins’ first flower
Finally we have a flower that opened up!
Still looking for that elusive female flower, but we gotta see a lot of males first.
New bed coverings
Today the pumpkin vines have a new bed covering!
We weeded the patch, fertilized it, added wood ash to irritate possible vine borers, watered a bunch, once dried sprayed with TBT and then added some matter for keeping out the dogs, and then added the pine straw. They are happy now, just need a little more rain (no thunder, lightening or rain… always be careful what you wish for…)
Pumpkin Update
Getting bigger… no flowers.
Currently just piling on the dirt as the vine gets longer.
Each node where a leave is produced is also an opportunity for the vine to send roots, so piling dirt allows those roots to be produced, more roots mean a vine that is big and healthy because the vine will get more nutrition. According to the pumpkin growing videos on YouTube, it seems to be a good thing to do to grow a larger pumpkin… by getting the largest and healthiest vine.
Ideally we will also be clipping off early flowers, but until we see them, we won’t make that decision.
Pumpkin Update
Last day of the month… pumpkins look good… need to figure out the best way to weed the Patch.
Starting Pumpkins
Having never grown a pumpkin before, but always wanting to… I saw these Big Max pumpkin seeds and I was inspired!
Not sure why or how, just decided it was time. When the kids were younger it seemed like a fun thing to do, but having young kids, working full time, wasn’t allowing a lot of time to dig up the back yard. And given our yard was mostly overgrown invasive plants (like Chinese tallow, camphor, sweet gum, poison ivy and oak, wisteria, ivy and potato vines), it was a lot of work to try to control 2 acres of ‘mess’).
That said, we had a guy come in and help us out with the mess — twice, now it is mostly cleared, but with the vines and tallow still springing up. That said, we have some clearing to put in the pumpkins, and eventually a much larger vegetable garden, but that is for another post.
Since July 4th is the best day to start seeds for Halloween pumpkins, and I wanted mine to have plenty of time before the carving, I decided to start in June… mid June. While it seemed a bit early, Max stated they’d need 120 days… to grow a huge pumpkin, often weighing 100 lbs or more! I thought, “OK, let’s do this!”.
Hydrated a few peat pots and those little guys sprouted within the week. And boy were they cute.
Soon I moved them to larger pots, as we hadn’t picked out the area for “the Patch” yet, much less tilled it up and decided how we would keep the water from running right through during a heavy rain, or hurricane season, which had just started in June.
Sitting in their larger pots, waiting. Then, the day finally came when the Patch was ready and off they went (July 16), to get settled in and ready to grow, with lots of room. Or at least we hope there’s lots of room… time will tell.
