The Pumpkin growing and carving challenge 2015

Coming on well Steve

 

Just finished packing for going away for a few days and taken a stroll to the plot with some cider to chill out, give everything a good soak and say goodbye to my plants for several days and noticed 2 of my 3 plants have got their first pumpkins coming. Oh dear, I hope they don't get off with some unsuitable male flowers whilst I'm away.

 

You should be ok Scrungee, pollination will just help with setting it, unsuitable male or not. However, controlled hand pollination from a suitable male is really for hybrid crosses and known parentage.

Congrats on getting the first 'kin of the season though! Must check mine today.

Steve...

 

Just come back from the plot and thought I would share this with you.

This is why it is important to make sure the soil is in contact with the underside of each node on the plant. This node was not in soil contact but its root has bridged the couple of inches to find the soil. I have now earthed up to just under the main vine so that the root does not dry out and die off. All of these node roots will pick up nutrients and water to help your pumpkin fruits grow a lot better/bigger.



First Male flower.



First Female flower, a few days from opening yet and at around 8ft on the main vine. I would prefer one much further along.


Steve...

 

I've had lots of male flowers come & gone but no females yet...?
Mine is just going on a growing frenzy now - but because I'm having to grow them up over instead of on the ground, am not sure how far they're going to go

 

Females will come, there is always a good flush of Males first, then the females start turning up. From then on you get a good mix of flowers.

Steve...

 

Female flowers on all 3 plants, none opened yet, longest main stem 3m, longest secondary 1.55m.

 

Metric...still confuses me...lol

Steve...

 

Put 3 galls on each plant this morning, called in to drop off some more water for tommorow and noticed 2 of the 3 plants were wilting. Gave them another 3 galls each.

Something has nibbled the unfertilized pumkin on the last plant to flower, so that's ruined and has been removed, time for some mice traps in home made timber tunnels around the plants.

 

Finally got my first female flower at around 12 foot out

 

Nice one Richard.

Here is the 1378 Companion plant on the back plot, it gets blown about by the wind quite a bit and is not in the best condition.



Its at 11ft long now with 4.5ft secondaries, I've just started turning the main vine.

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The 1674 Connoly is at 12.5ft with 6ft secondaries and has a female flower at around 8ft (will be removed). It's missing a couple of the early secondaries as they failed to grow as well as the others and when I started to turn the main vine the other day I heard a sickening "snap" so pushed it back to where it was, it may heal but I dont hold out much hope. I'll continue growing it as it will still provide male flowers to cross with the Boyce.



-----X-----

I think the 1188 Boyce holds my best chance of a decent fruit this year, currently the same size as the last one 12.5ftlong with 6ft secondaries, it is a much "fuller" plant.



It actually has females at 12 and at 12.5ft (very small at the very tip) but the photo can not see it. It will probably be the second female or even later that I polinate as there is a lack of male flowers presently.




Steve...

 

My best/biggest plant



And I suspect its female flower may be waiting until I'm in Manchester tomorrow morning before opening.



P.S. All those markers are my attempt at working out how much (primary and secondary) total stem growth it's putting on each day.

P.P.S. My big Marrows are looking more promising than my Pumpkins.

Is that soil as dry as it looks?

 

Nice one guys can not believe how slow they are growing this year