Plants Are Out of their Hoop Houses

I ended up waiting one more day, but I couldn't wait any longer and got the plants out of their hoop houses today.   The 747 was almost 2 feet beyond the hoop house and a side vine was hitting the side of the hoop house.

I buried vines on both plants today and then sprayed the entire patch with beneficial bacteria and myco.  After that I put up wind fences (a little windy this afternoon but nice temperatures) and watered the plants.  

I had a hard time deciding between the two 1685 plants.  In the end it was a 50/50 coin toss, because they were pretty similar, so I hope I chose the right one.

I really like the looks of the 747 plant.  It reminds me of the clone plant in a lot of ways.   Fairly aggressive grower, skinnier vines, but larger leaves like the 1985 plant had.   After that nitrogen, the main vine grew almost a foot yesterday.   A lot of vine burying to do in the next few weeks for that plant.

Both the 747 and the 1685 plant have a female flower that just showed up in the vine tip today.   I'll pollinate both, but I'd prefer not to keep that one on the 1685 plant.  It hasn't filled out much yet and I'd like to see it bigger.  The 747 plant has that female at almost 10 feet.    If something else shows up in the next four feet I'll pollinate it too, but very well might just keep this one at 10 feet.   That plant is growing fast enough right now that it should be in pretty good shape when that female opens up in 10-14 days.

Vine Burying for Giant Pumpkins

I took off the hoop house on my 747 Johnson pumpkin plant because I needed to re-position it to give the plant as much space as possible.  I'm getting near to the end of the hoop house but I really need to keep that plant in the hoop house until Monday.  Not sure if that is going to work our or not.   Lows in Midway will be in the high 30s over the next 4 days, so I don't want the plant to be outdoors.  

Pictured here is the 747 plant.  The plants always look big in the hoop house and small when you take them out.  I buried the main vine while it was out of the hoop house and put down some myco and beneficial bacteria at each leaf node.  By burying the fines, you'll get roots to come out of the top and bottom of the vine at the leaf nodes and by the end of the season you'll have a root system that is probably twice as large.   Those extra roots translate to a lot of extra pounds on the pumpkin by the end of the year.

I did a mixture of soil from the yard and old compost for burying the vines.   This compost is probably 1-2 years old and it looks more like dirt than compost.  I know it is same to put on the vines because the compost pile has no heat and there are weeds growing on it.   If the compost wasn't completely broken down the heat from the compost could burn the roots.

Some Foliar Nutrients for the Pumpkin Plants

Tonight I did a foliar application of Lithovit, humic acid, fulvic acid, multi-mineral and RAW Yucca on the pumpkin plants.  Tomorrow is going to be a hot one so I wanted to get a little Lithovit on the leaves.

The 282 Scherber pumpkin plant has a female on it that will be opening Wednesday morning at about 20 feet out on the main vine.  Never would have thought that my first pollination would be the first week of July, but you have to work with what you get sometimes.

The 1985 Miller I'm guessing will be pollinated on the 4th or 5th at about 16 feet out on the "new" main vine.  I cracked the original main vine when trying to put an S curve in the vine where the female I was going to pollinate was located.  Nearly brought me to tears.  Things with that plant had gone perfectly to that point in the season.  I bent the vine very little.  Maybe 4-5 inches, but the vine was thick and although it was nearly 11:00 it was still kind of cool that morning so it cracked.

My fix was to find a vine about 3 vines back that had a female on the tip.  I terminated all of the vines after that vine and I'll treat this vine like it was the main vine.  The plant won't know the difference but this will definitely set me back on what has been a great plant to this point of the season.

Seems like forever since I had a pumpkin on the vine.  Pulled the plants in August last year so it is coming up on a year.  Excited to finally get something going.

Both plants are good sized right now and growing well.  Buried and terminated a mess of vines today.  Also pulled a ton of weeks in the patch.  You have to get those weeds when they are relatively small or they will cause you big headaches later.

Females on the Main Vine on Both Pumpkin Plants & Vine Maintainance Strategies

I've got females flowers on both plants now on the main vine.  It looks like I'll be pollinating on both plants between the 27th and 30th.  About a week later than I would prefer to pollinate but, these will be the biggest plants with pumpkins farthest out on the main vine that I will have ever pollinated. That isn't necessarily a bad thing because if there is more plant to power the pumpkin then in theory a pumpkin pollinated later should make up for lost time. 

There was a fascinating thread on bigpumpkins.com in regards to cell division, when to terminate the pumpkin plant, how big a plant should be to increase pumpkin size by making it the main sink early after pollination.  The ideas shared by a number of growers very interesting.  I personally don't believe that a pumpkin should be terminated (i.e. all of the vine tips taken off) at the time of termination to the extent of what was shared in the articles.  I think there are some other factors that should be looked at that are specific to pumpkin plants, but I think the basic premiss is correct.

The thread is kind of technical, but the idea, based on a study done with tomato plants, is that basically cell division in tomatoes only goes on for about 10 days.  After that the growth of the tomatoes is basically cell elongation.  The study cited is pretty solid and says that you can increase the size of your tomatoes by about 80% by terminating growth at the time of pollination so that the tomato fruit becomes the main sink (or place that the energy in the plant flows to) on the plant.

I think pumpkin plants are a bit different than tomato plants however.  For one the growth cycle is much longer than a tomato.  You are talking about 90 to 100 days of growth.  I think that vines after the fruit also feed the fruit, so although cell division may have stopped, it might be that elongation may be increased with more plant.  Also, there is hormonal signaling that is coming from the vine tips that is telling the plant that it is still growing which may allow the fruit to grow longer.

I think also that the idea that kelp should be refrained from being used early in the season is probably also not correct.  There are numerous good studies that show the increased in root mass from soil applied help.  It probably is a good idea to not apply kelp around pollination time however since the Cytokine's in kelp may be inhibitory of auxins which will promote fruit growth.  Although as Russ said in the thread, we may not be using enough kelp that it would have much of an effect in that way.

My 1985 plant will probably be 60% terminated before the fruit at the time of pollination.  I have some vines that I'll be terminating in the next couple of days and in the next week, with the current rate of growth, the majority of the vines will be terminated or near termination at pollination time.

Bury Your Pumpkin Vines & Oops

If you bury your pumpkin vines a root will grow out of the top and bottom of the vine at each leaf node.  You can easily add hundreds of pounds to your pumpkins by covering the vines with dirt.  It will also help the plan in the wind and help protect the vines on hot days.

Today I was burying the vines on my 1985 and 1415 plants.  Found something bad on the 1415 plant however.  The main vine is kinked a little.  I worried about that in the cool weather we had last week.  The vine was dangling in the air because it hadn't laid down yet.  I had put a bamboo shoot under it to support it some, but what I did wasn't enough. 

I'm probably going to have to go with the 282 plant now.  The pipes will be kinked in that 1415 plant which will probably restrict the flow of nutrients in the plant and I don't want that.  The 1415 plant is about 5-7 days ahead of the 282 because it was germinated a week earlier and it has slightly better color.  I was planning on pulling the 282 this week, but this is why you grow a backup in the same hoop house.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

I have to do everything I can right now to not go out and pour a bunch of fertilizer on my plants.  We are in the big growth zone right now and we aren't seeing the kind of growth that I would like on the pumpkins.  Both plants grew like weeds over the last two weeks, but the pumpkins aren't putting on incredible inches right now.

I have to remind myself that slow and steady wins the race.  Like I said before, there are different kinds of pumpkins and the ones I'm growing this year tend to be more of the long growing, no big gains but constant gain types.  Trouble is that at this point of the season you don't know if you have a long growing type that is going to go heavy (meaning it will be a thicker pumpkin) or if the pumpkins are just not going to grow well this year.

Last year's pumpkin set a bad precedent for me.  That pumpkin was a rocket out of the gate.  It turned out to be a balloon at the end of the season but it sure was fun to watch grow.  At mid-season it was the second biggest pumpkin, in terms of measurements, at the time of the patch tour ever recorded in Colorado and it was still growing very well at that point.  This years pumpkins aren't that way.  What counts is were the pumpkin is at come way off time however and ultimately what the scale says is the truth.

So at this point of the season if your pumpkin isn't as big as you like or as big as your friend's don't fret it.  Do your best and that is all that you can do.

This evening I spent a lot of time burying vines.  Like I said, the vines grew a lot this last week and I had some catchup to do.  Right now my 1791 plant is almost exactly the size my 1421 plant was at the beginning of September.  I've terminated a lot of vines this week as the plant has filled its space.  By the end of July the 1791 will have filled up all of its available space before the pumpkin.  After the pumpkin the plant isn't growing as fast since the pumpkin is sucking up most of the energy right now.

The 335 plant should have filled in all of its available space before the pumpkin in the next two weeks.

Avoid Pumpkin Stem Cracks; Check for Roots on the Main Vine Next to the Pumpkin

Recently I've had a number of emails from growers talking about cracks forming on the stem of their pumpkin.  95% of the time, at this point of the season, it is because of roots on the main vine just before, just after or directly under the stem or on side vines right next to the pumpkin that are holding the stem down as the pumpkin grows up.  At each leaf node a root will form out of the bottom of the vine and out of the top of the vine.  You need to remove those roots and any dirt covering the top of the vines so that as the pumpkin grows the vine can lift up with the pumpkin.  Otherwise those roots will hold the vine down and something has to give and usually it is going to be the stem of the pumpkin.  I pull all of those roots up early on and then check to make sure the vine has a little slack in it as the season goes on.  You can crack the stem and vines if you don't watch it closely.  I've had it a couple of times (this year as a matter-o-fact) where I pulled the roots up and a week or two later they had reattached to the ground so you have to watch them closely.  

This evening I sprayed some foliar multi-mineral on both plants.

Burying Vines Makes a Bigger Pumpkin

"Burying vines makes a bigger pumpkin."
"Burying vines makes a bigger pumpkin."
"Burying vines makes a bigger pumpkin."

If I say it enough times then I start to believe it.  Why bury your pumpkin vines?  Because a root will develop at each leaf node, out of the time and the bottom of the vines.  That will double or more the number of roots your plant has by the end of the season and all of those extra roots will help grow the pumpkin.

What did I do this evening?  Bury vines of course.  At each leaf node I added a little myko and then I piled dirt on top of the vines.  Again, not one of my favorite things to do this type of year when the vines are growing super fast (I've had to move my walking boards each day for the least three days) but it makes a difference.

I noticed this evening that the 1791 pumpkin is already getting orange around the stem area.  I've been wondering what side of the genetics I was getting and I know now.  The 1495 Stelts side seems to be prominent in this plant.  It was what I wanted.   Big and heavy genetics on that 1495 with a nice, orange color to boot.

Pumpkin Plant is Out of the Hoop House Now

I took the 1791 plant out of the hoop house today.  It was  a little scary because it was 2 feet out of the house (the main vine is a little longer than 9 feet now) so trying to maneuver it and not snap off the main vine was a challenge. I would only do this during the heat of the day when the vine is a little more rubbery.

Once I got the plant out of the hoop house I started staking down the vines with bamboo sticks and burying the vines.  If you bury the vines you'll get roots out of the top and the bottom of the vines at each leaf node.  I also took off the start of any tertiary vines because you don't need those and if you let those grow you will end up with a jungle mess of  vines.  Lastly I put down a little myko and Azos at each leaf node.

I'll use a modified Christmas tree pattern for my vines.  From the main vine I'll let the side vines grow out and I kind of bend them back towards the stump so it looks like a Christmas tree laying on the ground.  A good example of what this looks like can be seen at on this old blog post.

After burying the vines, I then put up a silt fence to help protect the plant from wind.  The plants are kind of vulnerable at this point until the side vines get a little longer and have roots down to anchor the plant.

Does Your Pumpkin Plant Growth Seem Slow?

I got a lot of questions from growers this time of year about their plants being kind of small.  Right about now your plant should be vining but that vine may or not be laying on the ground right now.  Cool temperatures will slow the plants down.  Until night time temperatures get into the 50s your plant isn't going to grow a lot.

As long as your plant isn't way behind don't sweat it.  At this time of you want the roots growing.  The salad will catch up by the second week of June and you will have more vines then you will know what to do with.

How Much Area to Grow a Giant Pumpkin?

Growers have debated for years how many square feet they should let their pumpkin plants grow in order to obtain the biggest pumpkin.  I believe the answer to that depends on the weather, seed genetics and your growing area.  World record holder Ron Wallace reported that he increased the size of his plants some last year because of foaming stump problems in the past and when he did so he saw less foaming stumps.  We don't have enough humidity in Colorado to have foaming stump issues so our pumpkin plant sizes are more environmentally dictated.

I believe to grow a big pumpkin you need a minimum of 400 square feet.  However if you are going to grow on a plant that small you have to keep it meticulously maintained to grow a big pumpkin.  LongmontPete is a good example of that growing a 1,306 pound pumpkin two years ago on maybe 350 sq feet.  The ideal size in Colorado I think is around 600-650 square feet.  Some of the ideal size will depend on the genetics of a plant (some plants just want to grow) and the weather that season however.

Last year my plant didn't want to grow. After the fruit the vine hardly grew at all and I never was able to fill in my total growing area.  Some of that I believe was genetics and a lot of it was due to a super hot summer.  I saw some of the same growth pattern this year with the 1421 plant but it grew more vigorously after the fruit once the vines rooted and everything is filled in now.

For the first time I measured my growing area today and come up with 640 square feet for the 1421 plant.  That is more growing area than I guessed I had.  The main vine is approximately 46-49 feet long right now and is still growing.

Some Biology & A Touch of NPK for the Pumpkin Plant

This evening I gave both plants some compost tea with Photsynthesis Plus, Big Bloom, Actinovate, molasses and Azos in it.  This was sprayed on the ground.  I then gave the 1421 plant about 1 1/2 ounces of fish & seaweed.  I would have given it more but there is potential for big rain in the next 24 hours and I don't want a sudden spurt in growth.

Just as the good doctor predicted, slowed growth on the pumpkin has shown a bit up extra growth on the side vines after the pumpkin.  I gave them an extra spray of fish & seaweed to encourage the growth.

Pumpkin Vine Burying, Myco & Compost Tea

Early this morning I buried the vines on my pumpkin plant; put down some myco and humic acid at each leaf node; and then buried the vines to encourage roots to grow at each leaf node and also to anchor the plan in the wind.   I also gave each plant about 1 1/2 gallons of compost tea with 1 1/2 tablespoons of liquid seaweed in it. 

It is possibly going to be record breaking temperatures today in Denver.  Not an ideal way to introduce the pumpkin plants to the sun for the first time (they've been in the hoop house for a month).  I'll be misting the plants a lot today to keep them cooler and keep the humidity high.  Young leaves don't do well in the hot sun.

7 Secret Giant Pumpkin Growing Tips for New Growers

The following are 7 giant pumpkin growing tips for gardeners and families wanting to grow a giant pumpkin:

1. What do you feed a giant pumpkin?
A well composted soil that is balanced is key to growing a giant pumpkin. Most of what will determine if you are going to grow a giant pumpkin happens before you even put the plant in the ground. A great soil comes through some hard work and soil tests to make sure the levels of nitrogen, potassium, potash and calcium are in the right ratios.

2. Do you need special seeds to grow a giant pumpkin?
Yes! Atlantic Giant seeds are the only variety of pumpkin seed that will get over 500 pounds and the Atlantic Giant seeds you get in the hardware store probably aren't going to do it for you. You need seeds that have had controlled crosses of the best seed stock to get the real giants. With these types of seeds to grow a pumpkin over 100 pounds is not very difficult. Get seeds from the Pumpkin Man at http://seeds.denverpumpkins.com.

3. When should you plant your pumpkin seeds?
I start my plants indoors under grow lights and in a heated closet around April 15th.  By May 1st I put my plants in the ground inside of a hoop house (a small greenhouse).  For most growers who aren't looking to grow competition pumpkins I would recommend starting their pumpkin seeds around May 3rd in a big pot and put their plants outdoors around the 20th.

4.  How much do you water the pumpkin plant?
I water everyday and keep the ground lightly moist but not overly damp.  Giant pumpkins are 80% water so you need a lot of water to grow a big one.

5.  When do you pollinate the pumpkin?
I usually pollinate around July 1st.  That will give the pumpkin a little more than 90 days to grow before the weigh-offs that start around the end of September and go to mid-October.  In just 90 days a well taken care of pumpkin will put on as much as 40 pounds a day at its peak growth and will end up over 1,000 pounds.  By July 1st your plant should have grown big enough to power the growth of your pumpkin.  You want to grow just one pumpkin on the plant and it should be on the main vine at least 9 feet out from the stump.

6.  Do giant pumpkin growers use any special growth hormones, fertilizers or chemicals to grow a giant pumpkin?
The honest answer to that is 'kind of.'  A competition giant pumpkin grower usually grows organic.  Not because of a a green, love of the earth attitude (frankly most growers would poor battery acid on their plants if it would make a pumpkin grow bigger) but because it tends to grow the biggest pumpkins.  Growers will use a combination of things like Myko, Azos, liquid seaweed (growth hormone regulator), compost tea, etc. that may seem a little exotic to some but is pretty well known in the giant growing community.  A lot of these things can be found in the Giant Pumpkin Growers Kit.  I am spent time with growers that have grown world record pumpkins.  They don't really have any secret formulas other than hard work and a fair amount of research to have had the success that they have had.

7.  I've heard you should bury your vines to grow a giant pumpkin.  Why is that?
At each leaf node a vine will put out a root from the top and bottom of the vine if the vine is buried.  You can probably double the amount of roots your plants have by burying the vines.  Those roots will be an important part of growing a big pumpkin.

To learn more about growing giant pumpkins or to get involved in competition giant pumpkin growing visit the Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable growers at www.coloradopumpkins.com.

Doh!

Lost the end of the main vine on the 1451 today.  When moving the hoop house off the plant it must have got snagged and the the vine cracked.  A real bummer but not the end of the world.  I'm just going to take a side vine and turn it into the main vine and in two weeks you won't even know that it happened.  The bummer however is that I've had this happen before and I know what happens.  The first side vines will start becoming the sink and they will take off and the new main vine will be kind of slow to grow over the next week which will delay my pollination a little.

The Pumpkin Plants are Aging

At this time of year you start to see a lot of aging in the plants and pumpkin growth has slowed down a lot. The oldest leaves have died off, most of the leaves look tired and now the youngest leaves on the edges of the plant are doing a good portion of the work to make the pumpkin grow. I usually see a lot of sucker vines popping up on the plant this time of year. A hormonal change has happened in the plant and it knows it is coming down to the last month of growth and it is doing everything it can to produce more posterity. I find these sucker vines irritating and pain to get rid of. There is a fine balance between going into the plant to get these vines out and not damaging the older leaves when you do so. One thing you have to watch for is new pumpkins growing in the patch. Even with a watchful eye, I've pulled out 60 pound pumpkins that were well hidden in the vines.

The last couple of days I've given the plants NutriCal, calcium and Fish & Seaweed. Very slow growth on the 868 pumpkin. The 1204 is still growing quickly for this time of year.

Splits & Pumpkin Rot

Got a double dose of trouble this morning. Discovered on the 868 pumpkin a split along one of the ribs on the top face of the pumpkin. Not too worried about it now. That area tends to be thicker on the pumpkin and it looks more like a growing pain than it does a pumpkin that wants to open up. The skin on this pumpkin has gotten kind of tough this last week and as a result it doesn't stretch with the growth quite as easily. I put a 30% solution of bleach on the crack area and then put sulfur powder on it.

Of more concern is the oozing that I found on the main vine when I was working on the crack. About 8 inches past the stem I saw a big spot of clear ooze coming out of the main vine. I applied the same 30% bleach and sulfur powder on it too. I then covered the pumpkin today so it wouldn't get wet from the overhead watering that goes on throughout the day. This evening I checked both spots and both areas were dry with no oozing which was great to see. I'll keep my eye on both spots because if you can get on this stuff early you are way better off down the road.

It's Nice to Have Strong Friends

Long time friend Jeff Tyus was invited over to the pumpkin patch today for his annual adjustment of the pumpkins. Jeff is a power lifter and his good wife once bought him a shirt that said, "I may not be smart but I can lift heavy things over my head." I love Jeff. And his ability to move heavy pumpkins so they are better positioned on the vine. A Colorado grower recently had his pumpkin nearly picked off the vine because the pumpkin grew into the vine and nearly snapped it off.

Last year, after trying to move the pumpkins myself, Jeff literally moved one of them with just a shoulder and one of his arms. It was very impressive. This year he had to use both arms on the 1204 and 868 plant. He didn't know it but he made my day when he said that both pumpkins were much more dense than last year's. My two pumpkins last year went very light to the charts so I have a little hope that maybe I can have the pumpkins hit the chart this year. I have zero expectations for going over the charts.

I went into the Biz bag of tricks today and put down a quarter cup of organic Richlawn fertilizer with humic acid mixed in with it to each plant. Although I give the plants a foliar fertilizer on a weekly basis I haven't gave the plants much NPK on the soil and I was concerned that the roots might start to bonk without a little something to get them through the next 50 days.

I should mention that my kid's pumpkin has been growing nicely over the last week. There was a couple of times early in the season that I didn't think the plant would make it. About a month ago it finally snapped out of it and started growing good. Hard to tell yet but they might get a white pumpkin.

Growing Pumpkins this Time of Year is Fun

As I've mentioned before, June and July are a lot of work in pumpkin growing. The vines grow like crazy and it can be a little exhausting burying vines and taking care of the plants. I'm not sure how growers with more than 4 plants do it. Right now we are to the fun time. Most of the vines on both plants are terminated so you just get to watch the pumpkins grow and this time of the year they grow a lot.

Pictured to the right is the 1204 Scherber. Doesn't show well in this photo but it is starting to orange up. It is going to be a nice looking pumpkin I believe. Today I spent some time putting down some more sand for the pumpkin to grow on and positioning the pumpkin on the vine. As the pumpkin grows out it can start pressing against the main vine so about this time of the year you've got to get it positioned perpendicular to the main vine or else you run into problems when the pumpkin gets to big to move.

This morning I gave the plants some humic acid, calcium, magnesium, molasses and and a touch of alfalfa meal. This evening I will give it some fish & seaweed as a foliar application.

My kids plant has a pollination on it now. On Tuesday it was pollinated. It seems to have taken so hopefully this next week it will take off growing.

A New Personal Best for the 10 Day Measurement on the 868 Johnson

Today it has been 10 days since I pollinated the 868 Johnson (AKA Ricky) pumpkin plant. The 10 day mark is the day that you are usually clear from the pumpkin aborting. The measurement on this pumpkin was the biggest I've ever had before on a 10 day measurment. The plant is very impressive. I might have gotten everything I wanted by putting that 1544 Revier into my 1161 Rodonis last year. Another 72 days 21 hours and 11 minutes or so and we will know for sure.

Both plants are within 100 square feet of taking up all of their allotted space. By the end of next week I anticipate having all of the vines terminated except for the main vine on the 868 pumpkin plant.

The cocktail of fertilizers that I gave the plants yesterday seems to have done the trick. The leaves were back to a nice green color again even after more rain last night.