We did, many long years ago, plant pumpkins in the backyard
garden. Well, that’s not totally true –
the pumpkins were planted accidently.
And the fact that they grew, still, amazes me.
As it turns out, that year when I cleaned out the annual
Halloween pumpkin, I put a handful of seeds and pulp in a small bowl with the
idea of maybe roasting the seeds. That
never happened because I put the bowl on one of the corner shelves beside the
window and promptly forgot about it. Then, some months later, I noticed the
bowl, took it down and looked inside to find an icky mess of mildew covered
seeds and pulp. Yuck. Took it outside and dumped it in a back
corner of the garden and again, forgot about it. Come spring (like late February or early
March – I live in south Texas, you know), Michael called me outside – “What is
this”, sez he, pointing to a small green plant growing. Well, that’s about where I dumped the pumpkin
seeds, so maybe pumpkins? Actually, this is
not the way to plant pumpkins …..
Pumpkin plants are
either indeterminate (that is creeping vines) or determinant (shorter more
compact vines). They prefer a
well-drained, loamy soil, but they will grow in heavier clay soils. They are deep-rooted and like deep watering
along with balanced fertilizer.
(Interested in making your own fertilizer? 1⁄2 cup blood meal (for
nitrogen), 1 cup bone meal (phosphorus), 3⁄4 cup greensand plus 1⁄4 cup
hardwood ashes (potassium), 2 tablespoons agricultural lime (calcium), 2
tablespoons pelleted sulfur, and 1⁄3 cup Norwegian kelp powder.) Pumpkins need
ample space to grow and if they are indeterminate, they need a large space. They are sensitive and will need shelter from
wind and frost. Try to protect pumpkins from the worst of the elements by
covering them during heavy rains, or putting up some kind of barrier to protect
the vines from high winds or using shade tents during summer’s hottest days.
And so the accidental pumpkins began to grow and grow. We had a couple of vines and as the months
went by, one began to produce flowers.
The others were pulled up and all attention was placed on the one
remaining. The flowers would bloom and
drop off, no pumpkins. Michael called
his father as asked about the “no pumpkin” situation. Lack of pollinators.
Pumpkins produce both
male and female flowers that need to be pollinated. The female flowers are open
for only one day. A standard method in
the horticultural world to ensure good pollination is to use a small paint
brush or Q-tip and brush pollen from the male stamen onto the female
stigma. A good female flower candidate
(for a large pumpkin) should have a stem angle which is almost perpendicular to
the vine. (I don’t know why – I am not the farmer.)
And so, Michael became a bee. Every morning he would go outside and buzz
around his pumpkin vine pollinating flowers.
OMG – it worked! Several small
pumpkins were born. MHN did, of course,
want to have a mega giant pumpkin. Because
I had a new computer at work, I did a little research on “growing a
pumpkin”. Now, back in the dark ages of
computer searches, there was not nearly as much information as is available
today. But, the general consensus was to
give it lots of water and/or milk. Which
he did (well, not the milk so much but the water certainly) and his baby
pumpkin began to grow.
Since vines put out
roots at every leaf, carefully tear out the roots of the vine where it is close to the
pumpkin. This will give it free room to grow without damage to the vine. Gently
train vines away from the pumpkin to prevent it from crushing them, try giving
them a nudge in the right direction every day.
To ensure a rounded pumpkin, every day give it a gentle turn to the left
and the next, a turn to the right. Allow
at least 4 months for your pumpkin to grow, longer for a larger fruit. Remember that there are 100 or more leaves to
each vine and if you are trying to grow a 300-pound pumpkin, each leaf is
responsible for up to four pounds of weight in your pumpkin. Keep your vine healthy and as weed free as
possible.
Every day he went out and turned it one way and the
next day, the other. Then, tragedy
struck. He came in one evening dragging
his feet with a very sad face. “I turned
the pumpkin the wrong way.” Stem cracked
and now we had a pumpkin sitting on my kitchen counter. It was September then, too early for
Halloween. Oh what to do!
Next – Decisions
Take care
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