A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 New and in search of pumpkin advice (MEG?)

Hi, all. I am an accidental gardener who accidentally found your web site I was reading a 2004 post by Meg about pumpkins during a search about whether or not to re-seed. I was very much wondering how that turned out. Did the pumpkins grow? Did the plant come back? I have a very small area and am not sure exactly how to prune the large plant (I think I've already made mistakes--hopefully not irreparable). Any pruning, insecticide, random advice welcome. I am so grateful to have found this site!
Thanks for being here,
Sheri K.

I'll offer some randon advice Sheri. You can do nothing and you'll still get a feed of pumpkin, or you can spoil them rotten and get a bunch of pumpkin. They like rich soil, mulching, regular deep watering,(like once a week give them enough to soak the soil thoroughly. Water the soil, not the leaves and do it in the mornings) and if you prune them by picking out the main growth tips you'll get more female flowers. Therefore more fruit. Also it won't ramble all over the place so much. They will die back as the weather cools, don't worry about it. The fruit are vulnerable to sunscald on extreme days. You can eat the flowers. let's see, what else?? Don't carry them by the stalk or it'll break then they won't keep as long. Store on their sides in a cool area of low light. If you like them, keep some seeds, dry them and store in the fridge. Have fun. (That's the most important bit)

Hi Sheri.

So, you read about my punkipansies, eh? (I really was supposed to get PANSIES, but ended up with pumpkins!)

Well, let's see.. yes, I got about 20 of those small, paintable pumpkins, but since I didn't know about bugs & diseases, etc.. I lost them all to some stuff. I mean, yea, they sat on my porch for a couple of weeks, but I wouldn't "use" them for anything, because they got borers (wormy things) in them. Really gross. Also, I was watering them wrong, too much, wrong time of day, not enough air ciruclation since they grew so much, that I got powdery mildew. And cucumber beetles, they spread bacterial wilt. All in all, it started out so wonderful, and ended kinda tragically. However! My friend's kid's had taken a couple of the seeds home with them that we accidently planted. They planted them on purpose at their house.. and they ended up with a really nice BIG pumpkin out of it. It was pretty much neglected, other than having been planted really close to the drainage ditch, so it was adequately watered from beneath, as it should be. So, I killed mine with kindness, ya know?

Important info-
Water thier toes & not thier nose (Weezie says this all the time!).

Water as early in the day as possible, so they can use thier drink while it's hot, and not let it sit overnight, inviting things to the damp cold area that would love to make a home there (bugs, bacteria..)

A little mulch is good to have too.

If you have more than one plant/vine there, make sure they aren't crowded. They need air to be able to move thru there, or again, inviting molds, etc.. So, pluck the vines so they are spread out & not too close together.

If you find you have a lot of pumpkins on a vine, and you want a bigger pumpkin, pull off all but one or 2 from that vine, to allow the plant to focus it's energy on the 1 pumpkin and not 5 or 6..

That should be a good start. If you have any other questions, just ask, and if I can answer, I will.. or someone else may have a lot more help as well.

Welcome to the forum!
Meg

Wow, thanks you guys! What quick and terrific advice! I am going to pick up my daughter from camp now, but I wanted to make sure to write a quick, yet very sincere thank you! I'll let you both know how things turn out.
Thanks again,
Sheri