sebloc
Chirping
Hello
I've always wanted to grow pumpkins. 2 years ago, we bought some pumpkins from a well known farm in Connecticut. We decided to compost the rotted pumpkins after halloween, not thinking much would happen. To our surprise, pumpkins actually started growing!
The vines traveled all over the garden. We ended up harvesting 2/3 small orange pumpkins, (TINY! The size of a golf ball, maybe a little bigger) and a couple medium sized pumpkins.
We did the same this year, composting the pumpkins and waiting. Around the end of June, pumpkins appeared. Some grew in giant clumps, while others grew in single plants. We even managed to have some grow in our yard some how.
The pumpkins are growing well at the moment, though we have not noticed any significant pumpkins start growing yet. They are vining all over the corners of our garden.
Anyways, to the point.
Does anyone have any tips to growing pumpkins well? I don't quite know the type of pumpkins we have growing this year, but they seem to be doing well.
Here's some tips of our own:
-Growing with mulch around the plant helps keeps the weeds out
-Putting hay around the plant before a frost somewhat helps, as you would expect. If a pumpkin is not yet mature, we usually put hay around that too and cover it with a pot (one that fits around it)
-Prop up the pumpkins (fruit) with plastic, stone, etc. This will prevent the bottom of the pumpkin from rotting.
-Putting compost around the plant seems to help it's growth. Putting too much hurts the fragile roots of the pumpkin.
-When we do have a couple pumpkins, we cut off the ends of the stems and any other parts so the pumpkins can grow better.
That's all we really know. Any other tips would be appreciated. Our pumpkins are growing in half shade, we have a ton of bees, and we don't have a lot of problems with pests.
Thanks for any tips/ideas you can provide!
I've always wanted to grow pumpkins. 2 years ago, we bought some pumpkins from a well known farm in Connecticut. We decided to compost the rotted pumpkins after halloween, not thinking much would happen. To our surprise, pumpkins actually started growing!
The vines traveled all over the garden. We ended up harvesting 2/3 small orange pumpkins, (TINY! The size of a golf ball, maybe a little bigger) and a couple medium sized pumpkins.
We did the same this year, composting the pumpkins and waiting. Around the end of June, pumpkins appeared. Some grew in giant clumps, while others grew in single plants. We even managed to have some grow in our yard some how.
The pumpkins are growing well at the moment, though we have not noticed any significant pumpkins start growing yet. They are vining all over the corners of our garden.
Anyways, to the point.
Does anyone have any tips to growing pumpkins well? I don't quite know the type of pumpkins we have growing this year, but they seem to be doing well.
Here's some tips of our own:
-Growing with mulch around the plant helps keeps the weeds out
-Putting hay around the plant before a frost somewhat helps, as you would expect. If a pumpkin is not yet mature, we usually put hay around that too and cover it with a pot (one that fits around it)
-Prop up the pumpkins (fruit) with plastic, stone, etc. This will prevent the bottom of the pumpkin from rotting.
-Putting compost around the plant seems to help it's growth. Putting too much hurts the fragile roots of the pumpkin.
-When we do have a couple pumpkins, we cut off the ends of the stems and any other parts so the pumpkins can grow better.
That's all we really know. Any other tips would be appreciated. Our pumpkins are growing in half shade, we have a ton of bees, and we don't have a lot of problems with pests.
Thanks for any tips/ideas you can provide!
