Ok, we will deviate a little from flowers to talk about a new hobby, or better said, maybe a new experiment. I’m raising (hopefully) giant pumpkins this year for the first time. My neighbor is a giant pumpkin enthusiast and one day asked if I wanted a couple plants. I love anything that grows and also enjoy making Fall displays with pumpkins and corn stalks in an antique wheelbarrow at the entrance of our driveway. So, let’s do it! At this point my husband and I are both innocent and definitely ignorant!

It starts as a casual interest, and then after reading some and watching a couple videos, it sort of sucks you in, a little at a time. You must keep the stalks trimmed properly (no tertiaries!), bury the stalks with a mixture of fir mulch, worm castings, Azos beneficial microbes, and mycorrhizal inoculant. Keep plenty of water on the plants. Rototill to soften the soil. After watching a video my husband announces that we need soil samples. The soil sample comes back with recommendations on certain nutrients needed, also to increase the soil pH. So, off to the garden store for lime, steer manure, super phosphate, and sulfur, oh my!

We have left one pumpkin growing on the main vine, pollinated carefully by hand to ensure no crossbreeding by those bees that love the flowers. It is actually growing pretty fast and as of the picture above on July 12, sports a circumference of 24 inches. We hope this will be our giant pumpkin.

For irrigation we started with an automatic Netafim in-line drip irrigation system, laying the lines along the stalks. Anybody that has seen these pumpkin plants will laugh at the concept. So we quickly shifted to a common overhead sprinkler. But we really need a better overhead irrigation system.

I won’t try to explain all the suggestions and recommendations here to grow pumpkins. There are many books, and videos. If you’re really interested, here is a link to one of the better comprehensive tutorials: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=giant+pumpkin+care&&view=detail&mid=A4CE6D0F110B3AF7CCB2A4CE6D0F110B3AF7CCB2&&FORM=VDRVRV

Below is a picture of the first big pumpkin seen above at a circumference of 24”. Also shown is the stalk staking, with two bamboo canes crisscrossed over the stalk, to hold the stalk close to the soil. We do this weekly as the stalk grows for two reasons: (1) to encourage rooting along the stalk thereby giving the pumpkin more nutrients, and (2) to prevent the large leaves from catching the wind and damaging the stalks.