Massive Pumpkins

Hi everyone, i want to grow pumpkins for my little girl to carve when it gets to halloween.I have already sown them inside and they have started to shoot over the past couple of days, i just wondered if anyone had any tips to get them up to size and when to go about it?

Thanks for ANY tips or advice!

Happy Gardening :-)

 

I wish you luck, but I think you are 4 - 6 weeks too early :(

 

i did start mine 4-6 weeks later last year but as they started to fruit all vegetation in the garden started to die off, i thought last year i maybe started too late so wasnt prepared to make the same mistake.

plenty of room until they are ready to plant outside though so hopefully all should go well.

And what do you mean by stop the plant? how do you do this exactly?

Sorry im a novice

Thanks again, Gary

 

I think JWK was referring to the practice of only letting two fruits develop on the plant which will mean that the plant will put more energy into the two remaining pumpkins which will produce two whoppers instead of many little ones.

You can do this by allowing the flowers to be produced and then wait until you can see for definite that the flowers have set (fruits are just starting to develop) and then just remove any of the other flowers and any new flower buds which develop

 

I go along with the late May early June planting out, it depends a bit on the weather and a bit on your location.

They take up lots of space as has been said and need lots of compost or feeding and water if you want big ones.

 

Steve sent me some seed from one the size of a supernova, but i'm buggered if i can remember where i've put them:DOH::DOH::DOH:

 

I tried growing them 2 years ago for my daughters, and tried watering them with a horse manure tea on the soil trying to avoid the leaves. I was quite pleased with their size though I feel they may very well habe been bigger again if I had reduced the number per plant!

Try the manure tea!

 

My dad grew one massive pumpkin once. It was truly a beast. He kept in the greenhouse though. It was just in the door way, and he left the door open so it got fresh air but still got the heat and shelter. He told me that he was giving it two gallons of water per day, along with regular feeding, and the soil it was in was full of rotted manure.

It was no prize winner, but it was impressive considering my dad is the old school type who grows stuff to eat, rather than growing stuff to win prizes. He only gave it so much attention he told me, 'because it was already way bigger than it should have been by the time I realised, so it seemed a shame to just eat it'.