Let's talk pumpkins.

[Sunshine]

I have a 40x 50 ft area I plan on planting about 35 pumpkin plants. I want a decent yield of large pumpkins. I'm assuming I can get 4 nice ones per plant . I know I'm stretching the space requirements a bit , but in the past with other gardens, I always seem to do best when they are a bit crowded. I'm a big fan of sq ft garden.

The area for the patch will be getting first morning- late afternoon sun and shade after about 4 pm.

I also planned on doing a soaker hose but not sure after watching some vids about how pumpkins grow, lay new roots and fruit.l. I might try a different , direct to soil, watering method that would be much more labor intensive. But alot more precise.

In another smaller patch (20x 20) I'm going to try some smaller pie pumpkins. It gets the same light.


I'm also trellising gourds and loufa.

Anyone with experience feel free to blow up this thread with knowledge!

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I like square foot and tight spacings as well. I figure I am SHTF to garden plants; if they survive me, they get to stay and hopefully turn themselves into weeds. The trick is plenty of fertilizer. The down side is access and total success. This last summer I was swamped in tomatoes. I let them go to seed the year before, thinking they wouldn't sprout after our cold winters but low and behold, there were tomato seedlings every where. I felt horrible pulling them out by the hand full to make room for my started seedlings and then regretted later that I didn't remove a few hundreds more. I couldn't get into the garden to pick any tomatoes. I never would have believed that I would be tromping all over tomatoes and not giving a darn.

 

[UncleJoe]

I felt horrible pulling them out by the hand full to make room for my started seedlings and then regretted later that I didn't remove a few hundreds more. I couldn't get into the garden to pick any tomatoes. I never would have believed that I would be tromping all over tomatoes and not giving a darn.

I had to do the same thing some years back. It about killed me to pull out all the seedlings I did. Before I knew what was happening I had a forest.

Never again.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Pumpkins are my favorite crop to grow...that and tomatoes.

Any way there are a few lesser known tricks to getting the maximum yield out of them.

These are HUNGRY plants.
I enrich the soil with pelleted chicken manure, rotted animal manure and I bury a fish under the seedlings.
Also pinching out the growing tip or leader on a pumpkin plant will divert energy and nutrients to the lateral growth or side branches. This stops the vine from sprawling and taking over your garden; it also encourages fruit formation. When the plant is about 4 metres long, pinch 2 cm off the very end. The growth tip or apical meristem is the site of growth hormone production; removing the tip stops suppression of the lateral branches' growth. This results in a less sprawling plant with more fruit.

Also if you have vine borers I suggest putting piles of soil over where the leaves meets the stem. Root nodes sprout from these places and helps to keep the plant healthy esp if it is getting nutrition from several places along the vine and not just from the original roots.

I give my pumpkins a deep, long water once a week and I place a tile under my developing pumpkins to protect them and keep them out of the mud.

I hand pollinate every morning while the dew is still on the blossoms with freshly opened male flowers. I pick and rip the petals off the male flowers and rub the pollen
laden stamen onto the the inner part of the female flower. I use the petals of the male flowers in my eggs.

 

[Sunshine]

Pumpkins are my favorite crop to grow...that and tomatoes.

Any way there are a few lesser known tricks to getting the maximum yield out of them.

These are HUNGRY plants.
I enrich the soil with pelleted chicken manure, rotted animal manure and I bury a fish under the seedlings.
Also pinching out the growing tip or leader on a pumpkin plant will divert energy and nutrients to the lateral growth or side branches. This stops the vine from sprawling and taking over your garden; it also encourages fruit formation. When the plant is about 4 metres long, pinch 2 cm off the very end. The growth tip or apical meristem is the site of growth hormone production; removing the tip stops suppression of the lateral branches' growth. This results in a less sprawling plant with more fruit.

Also if you have vine borers I suggest putting piles of soil over where the leaves meets the stem. Root nodes sprout from these places and helps to keep the plant healthy esp if it is getting nutrition from several places along the vine and not just from the original roots.

I give my pumpkins a deep, long water once a week and I place a tile under my developing pumpkins to protect them and keep them out of the mud.

I hand pollinate every morning while the dew is still on the blossoms with freshly opened male flowers. I pick and rip the petals off the male flowers and rub the pollen
laden stamen onto the the inner part of the female flower. I use the petals of the male flowers in my eggs.

I've read a lot of that same info and I'm so happy to have someone who's actually put those theories to the test!

Expect some brain picking! And thanks in advance for answering all the questions I will likely be asking you.

Here's some: So we were going to till the whole area and plant the seedling in tradional mounds every 8 ft with 8 ft rows. Can I go tighter? And am I niave in thinking I will be able to train the vines so I can have walking space? Do we need to till? Can I plant into the grass? I had some success doing that with watermelons. I just dug some 1 ft holes and made mounds If we did go that route is it still possible to cover the nodes with soil?
Suggestions for seeds for good jack-o'-lantern pumpkins. I know theres a variety actually called that , just unsure if they'd be the best all around pumpkin.

For watering I was planning on setting up these. I won't have any useable chicken manure till probably after pumpkins. ( How long does it take fresh chicken poo to "ripen"?)
Is there a commercial fertilizer I could use in the meantime?

Sorry to bombard! I'm getting passionate about pumpkins!

 

[Sunshine]

Forgot the pic for watering system.

 

[Weedygarden]

If you are growing anything else from this plant family, such as squash or cucumbers, be aware of cross pollination. You can end up with orange or yellow colored cukes.

 

[Sunshine]

That's really good to know!

 

[backlash]

One year my wife and her sisters went to a pumpkin farm and spent almost $100 on pumpkins.
BIL told my wife she needed to just grow them the next year so she did.
We lived in a development and had 3/4 of an acre so we had plenty of room.
Out water bill for the months she grew them was $600.
Really $600 to water pumpkins.
Water was metered and the more you use the more it cost per gallon.
That's why everyone's yard is brown.
We're on a well now so we don't pay for water and my wife can grow what ever she wants.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I've read a lot of that same info and I'm so happy to have someone who's actually put those theories to the test!

Expect some brain picking! And thanks in advance for answering all the questions I will likely be asking you.

Here's some: So we were going to till the whole area and plant the seedling in tradional mounds every 8 ft with 8 ft rows. Can I go tighter? And am I niave in thinking I will be able to train the vines so I can have walking space? Do we need to till? Can I plant into the grass? I had some success doing that with watermelons. I just dug some 1 ft holes and made mounds If we did go that route is it still possible to cover the nodes with soil?
Suggestions for seeds for good jack-o'-lantern pumpkins. I know theres a variety actually called that , just unsure if they'd be the best all around pumpkin.

For watering I was planning on setting up these. I won't have any useable chicken manure till probably after pumpkins. ( How long does it take fresh chicken poo to "ripen"?)
Is there a commercial fertilizer I could use in the meantime?

Sorry to bombard! I'm getting passionate about pumpkins!

I train my pumpkins in a circle and I don't do mounds BUT I do mulch my entire bed and leave walkways. If you're planting into grass I guess you could heap soil over the nodes but with weeds and grass you have to water more often.
I don't till where I haven't planted but I do mulch. I have a hybrid Back To Eden garden.
I don't do jack-o-lanterns or anything like that so I'm at a loss there.

 

[Bacpacker]

My grandpa used to grow large pumpkins. He always picked the fruit down to 1 per plant if he was going for really big ones. He grew one that was estimated at 400lbs.
I like the idea of putting a tile or something under the pumpkin to keep it off the ground. They can rot easily enough. For watering I would recommend using a drip irrigation method. I would make a loop around each plant with connector tubing in between plants. Keep the whole area dry and put water exactly where you need it. I would not water more than once a week, but do it deeply when you do.

 

[COSunflower]

The bigger your pumpkins are, the more water they take. BIG pumpkins take A LOT of water!!!! I'm on metered water now so don't grow anything but the smaller pie size pumpkins. I hope that you have irrigation water!!! Also, the more room you can spare between your pumpkin hills the larger your pumpkins will be. They are VERY heavy feeders. I always used whatever barnyard waste I had on my big pumpkin patch - chicken, goat, horse....one year I even used some llama poo that a friend gave me. LOL!!! I have a friend in Minnesota that plants pumpkins in their compost pile in their field. They add to the compost pile all year. They irrigate the field good once a week and get real nice pumpkins.

 

[Grimm]

If you wanted to do a soaker hose method I recommend using it under a layer of mulch/weed cloth. This is how my dad waters his garden and it works beautifully. He uses less water because it isn't evaporating off.

 

[Sunshine]

When I say big I mean like you know, a large jack o lantern. I don't want one of those monster pumpkins. When we lived here before , my parents still lived here and my mom had lots of flowers she watered every couple days. And we had our garden and chickens. In the hottest days when we watered most the bill was still right around $45 . It's metered but it always stays between $40-45. We are also going to be setting up rain water collecting off our barn and house roofs. And maybe the coop too lol

 

[Sunshine]

The bigger your pumpkins are, the more water they take. BIG pumpkins take A LOT of water!!!! I'm on metered water now so don't grow anything but the smaller pie size pumpkins. I hope that you have irrigation water!!! Also, the more room you can spare between your pumpkin hills the larger your pumpkins will be. They are VERY heavy feeders. I always used whatever barnyard waste I had on my big pumpkin patch - chicken, goat, horse....one year I even used some llama poo that a friend gave me. LOL!!! I have a friend in Minnesota that plants pumpkins in their compost pile in their field. They add to the compost pile all year. They irrigate the field good once a week and get real nice pumpkins.

I should as around for some free poo lol there are lots of people with horses and goats.