Anyone Growing Your Own Pkins?

[jadewik]

Finally got someone to send a pic-- posted up at my DA account:
http://jadewik.deviantart.com/#/d5jnk3v

I DID have 2 digital cameras. They were both stolen this summer. I don't have the money to replace 'em yet. My husband did save some seeds... so we'll see about planting the hybrids next year. I was a little disappointed with the amount of effort put into growing pumpkins in relation to what we got out of it... lol. I think next year we'll just buy 'em.

Cool werewolf, Nevermore! I like how you combined the two pumpkins to make it look like he's holdin' the sign.

[NeverMore]

https://app.gosprout.it/

Webapp tells you when the best time to start growing your plants, based on your location. Glaring oversight, pumpkins not listed.

I'm still debating on whether to grow any this year. Got plenty of space now but little time. Maybe only one plant if I do. Maybe some corn to go with it.

[SIEFKA]

I am growing pumpkins for the first time here in Michigan as well. I have always wanted to since buying pumpkins they can be a little costly. I had pretty good success this year and some suprises as well. So far the pumpkins are doing quite well. They are not as big as I would have like but I will still be able to carve them for sure. The only issue I had with the pumpkins were just insects. They got to one of my smaller ones and I remember reading somewhere that you are suppossed to turn pumpkins to help their color move throughout. Well I almost broke one of the stems. A suprise to me was my dad threw out our pumpkins from last year and had been putting grass clippings and yard stuff on them without knowing. Well now have more pumpkins growing over in this empty lot. So far i have 18 of them. My plan is to carve them all. I want to become very successful at carving. I absolutley love the smell of an inside of a pumpkin! I was thinking about getting power tools to help with carving has anyone ever used any of these:


http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/ ... 38,00.html

[NeverMore]

I remember buying one of those power tools but I never got around to trying them out. With all those pumpkins you should try doing some kind of totem carving, like I did with my werewolf in the post above. Unfortunately, this year I've been too busy working on the house to grow any. Sort of ironic now that I have a huge yard. Wouldn't have to do the trellis again, though that was really cool.

[SIEFKA]

Here is a picture of my pumpkin patch in the empty lot:



Here is some of them close up:



As for the white dots that is because I put Seven's dust on them which helped get rid of the bugs. The deer have not even touched them but I am wondering when I should pull the pumpkins off the vine. There are 19 total pumpkins. I have 1 big size pumpkin the rest are either medium or smaller. I have many that are still growing. Some of them are turning while others are still dark green. I was wondering when do you Nevermore take the pumpkins off the vine. I have one that is bright orange and I was not sure if I should take him in yet. If so how did you store your pumpkins to make sure they lasted until the big day?

[NeverMore]

I left them on the vine until the leaves started dying because the only place i had to store them was in the house. You want a place that's cool and dry. I think I finally removed them mid-August. I did have a few that went moldy on me before the big day. I just kept spraying the rest with bleach and they were fine. Keep in mind, the sooner you pick the ripe ones the more resources are returned to the vines and the pumpkins that are still developing. I ended up getting a few more pumpkins after I picked the first round. Also, the sooner you put them in storage the less likely some critter will get to them.

[SIEFKA]

So are you saying that I should pick that orange one? That is the only one I see that is that bright of color. The rest are still smaller and dark green. I am staring to find more and more pumpkins each time I look. Did you spray them with bleach daily? The only issue I have with the orange one is that I tried turning it instead of just leaving it and some of the stem cracked so I'm wondering if I should take them in soon. I most likely will keep them in my basement. I am wondering if I should just cut away the vine as soon as I pull that pumpkin off what do you think?

[NeverMore]

If you have a basement that should be a great place to store them. I only sprayed mine when I noticed a little bit of mildew, usually around the stems. The reason the other two got so bad was because I wasn't keeping an eye on them at first and when i went to move them the bottoms were all mushy. Good thing I had a tarp under them because they were sitting on my brand new oak floor.

If the vine still looks healthy it might not hurt to see if it develops more flowers. If not you could probably cut it back to the first offshoot that is still producing. I seem to remember reading something that if you pinch off a vine right after the developing pumpkin it will send more nutrients to the pumpkin and not on to the remaining vine, resulting in larger pumpkins.

[adrian]

Not sure if you've ever tried this or have heard of it. but if you ever feel like trying to grow a LARGE pumpkin, find the the healthiest bulb, snip off all the neighboring bulbs leaving the vines in tact, all the nutrients from those vines will re route and target the healthy bulb.
my brother and I grew an 84 pounder one year! a toddler could easily sit comfortably inside

[SIEFKA]

That sounds awesome! I may end up doing that with my dads. He has some pumpkins that are growing by accidnet. He threw away our old pumpkins in the same lot and they have giant green leaves and are growing. On the ends of them they are almost yellowish type and look almost like light bulbs. I wonder if I cut all of his light bulb ones off except maybe 2 if they would get bigger?

I still have little pumpkins on mine as well. At first I thought I would take them off the vine all at once I never knew you could come back for seconds! I have a few that are just starting off, I may take off that one that is already bright orange, its not dark but its close enough. Now do I only need to cut off the pumpkin leaving some stem? What do I do about the vine connected to that pumpkin? Then as with spraying with bleach should I mix it with water and just rub it around the top of the pumpkin near the stem or around the whole pumpkin?

[adrian]

I've never heard of wiping them down with bleach. why is that?

[NeverMore]

The bleach kills the mold. I didn't have a cool dry place for storage once I picked them. They sat for a couple of months, though the hottest part of summer, so mold kept trying to attack them. It seems to start around the stem and around the bottom where the flower fell off. If you have concentrated bleach you may want to mix it one part water/one part bleach.

[adrian]

ah ok that makes sense

[SIEFKA]

Sounds good! I should not have turned the pumpkin in the first place but I learned my lesson. As a result bugs were able to get in the vine where it broke from turning the pumpkin and they got in the back part of the pumpkin. I just picked the pumpkin off the vine yesterday it looks pretty good so I am just going to keep an eye on it for mold. It’s my first pumpkin so I want to watch over it and hopefully carve it. But if not I will have spares! I have 17 more growing over there ranging in a variety of sizes. There is some white stuff on the leaves but I believe that is just from the sevens dust since it is not in lines it is more of just spots. The pumpkins are turning over some are still dark green I have one big one that has to be close to 20 lbs. that is dark green and I cannot wait to carve him. He looks a little rough but he should be fine for October. I also have great news a co-worker of mine works at a farm and they grow massive pumpkins. She said one of her record pumpkins was close to 800 lbs. So they grow so many pumpkins that they are willing to just give them away. So she said any pumpkins that I want I could have so it looks like I will be very busy this year!

[NeverMore]

That white stuff might be the mildew that pumpkins are famous for. You have to get on it early or it will get out of control and start killing the leaves. You can buy a fungicide or check my earlier post in this thread for a link to the recipe for making it yourself. I sprayed the leaves daily when I could. At one point I couldn't get to it for a few days and the fungus spread like crazy.