Pumpkin tips?

[Chickie2378]

I grow pumpkins and honestly they always come out lousey. Some good but most are 'warped' and more.


Any good tips I am missing on growing pumpkins? Is there a secret to that perfect one? just wondering if you have any suggestions.

edited to say...next year I want some great pumpkins.


thanks!

 

[lesa]

You mean they are not growing into the perfect Jack-o-lantern shape? I think you should choose different seeds. Once the catalogs start coming in, pick some seeds that are meant to be carving pumpkins. Mine have consistently come out pretty perfectly shaped. You might try padding the ground under the pumpkin with some straw. This keeps the skin looking a little nicer.

 

[digitS']

There may also be the issue of poor pollination. Most fruits are this way.

If seeds aren't developing normally within the fruit, the fruit itself will have an abnormal shape. I'm sure we have all seen this with an apple, for example. One side will be round and full but the other may even be indented because the normal structures within the fruit aren't developing.

Some folks hand pollinate pumpkins and squash with a small paint brush. I've never felt the need to do this in my own garden. Bumblebees are my friends !

Steve

 

[lighthawk]

The best and most productive pumpkin vine I ever grew was a volunteer that grew right out of the compost pile! This year I am thinking of actually planting them there.

 

[RustyDHart]

chickie.....I'd be willing to share some of my Blue Pumpkin seed with you for next Spring. Wonderful plants are produced with nice size blue/grey pumpkins...I made my pies with them for Thanksgiving. Maybe another variety would be helpful....(????) Let me know, Rusty

 

[April Manier]

Buy different seeds. Pumpkins are no fuss. Put them in, weed till they block the sun and maybe throw some poop on them half way through. I will check my logs and get back to you on the name of the variety we grew in 2010.

I know we grew sugar pies for eating and luminas. They are really fun and tasty.

 

[Kassaundra]

I grow pumpkins and honestly they always come out lousey. Some good but most are 'warped' and more.


Any good tips I am missing on growing pumpkins? Is there a secret to that perfect one? just wondering if you have any suggestions.

edited to say...next year I want some great pumpkins.


thanks!

Come out lousy how? Bad shape, bad taste, not ripen or productive?

 

[OldGuy43]

The only time I grew pumpkins was completely by accident. My girlfriend at the time wanted to carve a Halloween pumpkin so we bought one. She than lost interest and it got sat behind the house and forgotten. You guessed it, next spring vines and pumpkins galore. It is my theory that if you tend them, they die.

 

[Chickie2378]

Thanks for the tips everyone.


if you tend them, they die yea, I understand that one.



Bad shape mostly and stunted growth. Never seem to get 'the big one'. I seen nice ones grown around here by others but for some reason mine just are cruddy. More water thrown at them too. Will do that.

Throw them in poop. Good idea.

I guess I will have to get in there and turn them and set them up straight etc.


In other words, more hands on while growing I guess.


thanks all

 

[StupidBird]

The only time I grew pumpkins was completely by accident. My girlfriend at the time wanted to carve a Halloween pumpkin so we bought one. She than lost interest and it got sat behind the house and forgotten. You guessed it, next spring vines and pumpkins galore. It is my theory that if you tend them, they die.

How true! A friend of mine loves his plants, and struggled to grow nice gardenias. The guy next door, never home, stuck over a dozen bushes in the ground one weekend, and promptly ignored them. Guess whose was bigger?