Thursday, July 2, 2015

Troubles That Will Have to Be Worked Through

Don't tell my wife that the flowers aren't for her.

Giant pumpkin growing is all about mitigating risk.  You have to do everything you can to anticipate and avoid problems in the pumpkin patch.  Although some problems you can't do much about.  The 2nd female on my 282 plant's main vine didn't show up until 20 feet out but I was happy to finally be able to pollinate it today. Although I saw a problem about 4 days ago.  The flower petals where off to one side and not at the top of the pumpkin.  I knew this couldn't be good.

When I opened the flower to pollinate with pollen from my 1985 plant my fears were confirmed.  The segments of the flower aren't uniform which means the pumpkin won't be uniform.  An uniform pumpkin has a much greater risk of the pumpkin splitting. There is another female that won't be ready for about another 10 days so we will pollinate it as well and hope for something better.



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