Count me in!
I've got a handful of carving pumpkins (I forgot the type Id have to check my notes but they are supposed to make good Jack-O-Lanterns) I think 6, and I've one of Atlantic pumpkins so hopefully I'll get a
BIG ONE!! The started 2 but one was VERY slow to germinate and I culled it. It never looked right, so I didn't want to take a chance with it given how much room pumpkins want. I replaced it with another carving pumpkin that was extra from my starts.
I've got the first blooms on my pumpkins 2 days ago and they are doing good. This is my first year trying to grow a big one, with the goal of having a pumpkin big enough for my 3 y.o. daughter to climb into and be able to close the lid with her inside. That's always been my goal when I ordered them. I normally just grow Jack-O-Lantern types for my daughter and the nieces and nephews to come pick in the fall to carve for Halloween but this year my daughter was old enough to understand the size difference and be able to appreciate a big pumpkin so I figured why not give it a go. It always as amazes me when I stop and look back on what my daughter inspires me to do.
This is a new garden that I put my pumpkins in. Before that it was just grass/clover mix. Ground was first turned over last fall. Then returned over this spring with a bunch of compost added and ran the disc through it a few times to help work it in. That's all I did for garden prep. Guess well see how it all plays out.
Few things I did this year specifically to try to get a big pumpkin:
1) I started both my carving and big pumpkins in peat pots about a month early. I figured Id try it since I had extra seeds so if they failed Id start over and direct sow them. I used a solid bottomed tray and watered anytime the pot itself was dry. I used a 3" peat pot for each plant to give it room since I read that pumpkins have shallow root systems that spread out like their vines. The solid bottom tray worked wonders to help wick water up the peat pot and was absorbed into the seed starter keeping the seeds moist. My pumpkins came roaring up out of them when they germinated. When I planted them I tore off the pot down to the soil line inside the pot and planted it. When I dug the hole to plant it, I dug it about extra 1/2" down and planted the whole thing. I tore the excess off the pot and planted it just a touch deeper to help make sure the pot would be fully covered when it was all said and done to help to keep it moist and not dry out. So far its so good. When they got into the ground they all had had at least 3 or 4 leaves and one had 6. When I do it again next year Ill do the same thing, but start the big ones even earlier since I had such good luck transplanting these ones. I do think that the steps I took with the peat pots have helped with the transition into the garden no doubt about it.
2) I placed an inverted 2L bottle with the bottom cut off and the spout down into the ground like a funnel at my big pumpkin. When I water, I only pour into the funnel or outside the leaves of the plant. The idea here was to keep the water off the leaves and the stems, so they'd stay dry but the plant would be well watered/fed. I've also thought to add another bottle as close to the pumpkin itself where the vine roots at to help get nutrients to the pumpkin. I don't know for sure yet, its just an idea I'm kicking around.
3) I feed them weekly with a water soluble fertilizer, sometimes I forget and feed 2x a week. Otherwise its just rain.
4) I plan to measure each big pumpkin that starts and track the fastest growing one for a week or 2 and that will be the one that I keep. The rest will be removed so the plant can focus all its energy on growing that one. (That's a trick I learned on a big pumpkin growing website. Its not about the biggest one for the day, its about the rate of growth over time which makes sense but I hadn't really thought about)
I don't know if my efforts will make a difference or not. I figured it can't hurt. I'm a bit of a mad scientist when it comes to ideas. I'm not afraid to tinker or fail because to me the only failure is when you stop trying. I'm not overly serious about this I'm not going to compete with it, I just want to impress my family and friends with a big pumpkin. If I impress a few folks on TEG then that's just icing on the cake
As far as the rules go, how about the person in the most northern zone set the date for the competition to end? I think SCG you being in Maine might be it too. If its August 1, or Oct 1 etc. whenever your season's done is ok to call the end of the competition. That way we all have the same time in the ground and have a pretty good measuring stick to compare against. Even if the rest of us still have time left, we'll measure and declare a winner then. Anybody who's still growing one past that date Id love to see how they do and keep the thread going but the competition would be over.
I'm not in it for prizes, to me its just like the weekly weigh along. Its just for fun and I really like seeing how other folks do as well.
also good luck to all competitors
