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New Castle

Hello, this is my first year attempting to grow giant pumpkins. I started off on the wrong foot with a considerably late start. I didn’t manage to get my first seedlings in the ground until early June and others followed over a several week period. I have invested a great deal of time and money into preparing to get these to grow. I have one of my first Atlantic Giants that was set in latter June up to approximately 183 pounds and several others coming in at just over 100. My problem is I am only seeing a 5-9 pound daily growth in them. Much of the research I have done mentions 20 to even 50+ pounds per day gain. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or what I need to do in order to get more considerable growth rate.

I have extensive watering system set up on timers, followed many recommendations on what to feed, mixtures and scheduling. In fact I am following much of the information I gathered from Joel Holland. Can anyone give me any information that might help me out on this?

8/8/2020 1:49:33 AM

Grittyville, WA

What seeds did you use? How big are the plants? How far out on the main? What DAP are your pumpkins? 50+ is definitely the realm of the top growers using a very good seed with very good weather, but yeah you can do a few things wrong and still hit 15-30 lbs... Hmm.

8/8/2020 2:16:21 AM

Western Washington

Welcome aboard, Firecat!

The first thing that comes to mind is, "Have you completed a soil test on your patch, and if so, what are the results?"

Also, if you are located in Newcastle, WA, this year really wasn't the best weather-wise for pumpkin growing, but even with that, you should be experiencing greater gains than what you are.

Much luck to you, Firecat!!!!

8/8/2020 3:30:19 AM

Fraser Valley, BC, Canada

Yeah our weather out this way north of you wasn’t great either... slow start to everything from blueberries to corn and in between. If you just picked up random AG seeds from a packet etc you are dealing with unknown genetics. That’s what I did, not knowing better... (smacks head). Hopefully you didn’t do as I did, and if so, that could be part of your problem like it is mine. Do your best and pray our west coast weather stays warm enough TIL end of sept and you could still do half decent.

8/8/2020 4:33:07 AM

Looking at the time frame, I would think that your plants were not very big when you pollinated. Your root system is probably not as big as what is needed and your plant is probably growing which is sucking energy away from pumpkin growth. These plants require a nutrient rich balanced soil to do the big daily gains.
Take Suburbans' advice and get a soil test done this fall.
Have you been burying vines.
Try to have only main vine and secondaries on your plant. If vines are running all over the place, that would take away from growth.

8/8/2020 5:39:34 AM

Post pictures in a diary on BP so people can get an idea of what is going on. Pics are always a big help. Will take a couple of days to show up in your diary unless you are a premium member.

8/8/2020 5:44:02 AM

Syracuse, NY

what I'LL be doing today i've done on only one plant and have a LOT of work to do, but, to me, it's the most important thing - PRUNE your plant; average everyone's opinion and make your own decision, but along with as one great grower said, only main and secondary growth should be allowed. i'll be straddling each vine for as long as it takes, going step by step and pinching off EACH and every tertiary bud, female flower and all male flowers as well, leaving A FEW tertiary vines that have grown a foot or so BUT ONLY up until i leave MAYBE a LEAF ONLY on a few of them and at the ends of all terminated secondaries with each a bamboo stake, because this provides residual support for the entire vine during windy conditions until they're buried and the leaf is always beneficial once fully-grown. will explain more if needed. once a vine has reached its BOUNDARY or 15-17 feet in length, removing all but maybe one outlet for the plant to grow, such as the main vine (should or will) focus the plant moreso onto growing the fruit and that is my opinion; as Joel would do, all of this AND BURYING it all as the vines grow, unlike ME with the boundary proposal, lol!
if you never spend anything, see how the bank account grows!
ahem - okay, time for me to go do all that right now, lol---good luck---eg

8/8/2020 12:19:37 PM

Syracuse, NY

and, oh, yeah, i recommend a Miracle-Gro (is it 'Gro'? can never remember, lol) 15-30-15 or 10-50-10 water soluble @ 1 tbsp/gallon 1-2 times a week over the entire plant(s) up to 6 feet + even beyond the perimeter of the plant all the time every chance you get to take advantage of the add'l rooting that, thankfully, even goes on without our help - there's nothing to lose! when i pulled up the stem end of my 2003 Haist fruit a week ago, leaving it attached to minimize fluid leakage, it was TWO FEET long; well, it could have been there since the vine rooted long before, but, still...whoaahh---eg

8/8/2020 12:28:03 PM

Colorado

Firecat,welcome to the madness. I like to say growing a big pumpkin is a process.Seed,soil,pruning,watering,fertilizing,weather,weedf,insect damage,plant size, primary and secondary root system, disease control, hrs of sunlight and square footage all play a role in growth rate.Havent seen your details to guess on what the main drawback is.20 to 35 lbs a day growth is very doable in many areas of northern half of US and southern canada.Read diarys and find a mentor in your area if you want to grow something big.

8/8/2020 3:38:45 PM

New Castle

Ok guys here goes. I’m going to try to answer several of the questions that were brought up above. First I am in NewCastle Virginia to clarify location part. Next is the seeds, I purchased several seeds from Joel Holland and also planted several of what I refer to as stock Atlantic Giant seeds from a local hardware store. These seeds produced nice plants in which one has produced what is now my 191 (Shade1) pumpkin and I have two other that have pumpkins slightly over 100. One of Joel’s Pedigree(McMullenxGeddes) seeds has produced one pumpkin that is now at 117# while another from that same cross has a 144#. These along with all of my AG sets were pollinated from other pedigree plants from him. I have made sure to set no pumpkins less than 10-12’ with most averaging 15’+ from the base of the vine. I have worked pretty hard trying to keep everything pruned and buried also but due to my fire services responsibilities it may not be as good as it should be. As for soil test and preparation I did the questionable deed and purchased a fairly extensive DIY test kit and going by it I thought I had made satisfactory adjustments to my soil prior to planting. I used Joel’s micro??? soil additive to promote root growth both in the planting sites and in trenches, I used his Pumpkin Power, Spring Wakeup, something acid(sorry not reading label) in the planting sites. Throughout this season I have been feeding pretty much everything he recommended ranging from fish, seaweed, amino acid activator, bloom booster/finisher, Biomin Calcium and etc. Now from the responses above I gather one thing I have failed to do is remove all male blooms. This will now be on the agenda along with some more extensive pruning..

8/9/2020 12:38:39 AM

New Castle

I have also reached out to Joel and plan to increase feeding rates and frequency, monitor soil moisture closely trying to maximize available water without overwhelming the soil. I also plan to improve my composting throughout the beds to hopefully help correct any nutrient deficiencies.
Any other suggestions and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

8/9/2020 12:39:42 AM

Colorado

Firecat.Looks like your serious about growing something big. My mom is from vesta virginia near stuart.The first giant pumpkin I ever saw was at the patrick county fair in the late 60's/early 70's. There was a couple 300lbers there and they had a wow factor( that was big for that era).Anyhow your biggest obstacle in this hobby is temperature. If your down in the valley it will be too hot.If you live on top of the mountain your nights will be too cool or youll have a "short growing season". So you have to modify the environment to keep the plants happy and productive. good luck

8/9/2020 11:14:40 AM

Syracuse, NY

yeah, anyone whom types a paragraph bigger than any of mine is gonna be a BIG contender, lol---i'll admit that i put a lot of info in my replies, so, don't take anything i say toooooooo seriously but DO evaluate it all against what others say in the same topic we're discussing - that being said, don't worry TOO much about the male flowers' removal, as you may someday need a few for a pollination you did not anticipate. save a few for a rainy day; the process for me will still remain as i said, but i'd hate for you to be outta males as i said just-above - same goes for females>>>leave one or two on or available until AFTER you've pruned the plant, or else if anything happens to your best one while you are pruning? you'll have another chance. been there, lernt that! keep on questioning - that's how to get answers, lol---bye 4 now---eg
oh, yeah, as i, myself would like to water the s*&% out of even just ONE of my plants to give it ALL it can take, i have 9 going and am VERY happy with how they are doing - i'll jinx it by saying more, lol---once i get them pruned and even ONE plant's vines totally buried, i must remember that even though watering as much as possible, for ME, is the ultimate goal, once i prune and bury the vines as much as i can, i'll need to be careful, with all those roots suddenly becoming active and i'd better not be getting crazy with leaving a sprinkler or 2 on overnight and finding a huge split the next day and i just realized my next thing to get - a 2-hour water timer...okay, have a good day---eg

8/11/2020 10:07:18 AM

North Of The Border

Personally I top out at 10 pounds per day. Don't worry about the weigh gains, unless you want something huge, in which case get your soil perfect, pollinate 20 feet out, with 20+ secondaries behind the fruit, prune well, to get rid of tertiaries, and give the plant good space, get world class seeds, 2145 McMullen, 1911 Urena, something proven, and then fertilize lightly the whole year, and water the heck out of your plants when the fruit is at day 20. Depending on your climate you might need a greenhouse cover in the spring, or you might need shade cloth to cool the plant. It really depends on your climate. Personally I need to get more water to my plants, and I need to get an earlier start, without damaging the plant. You should work on soil first. If you have the soil perfect (get a soil test), you should try to get the plant pruned well. After that water it when it is dry, and water well. A full grown 1000 square foot plant can use 200+ gallons of water on a dry sunny day. If those are both done well, you are well on your way to a 1500 pounder!

Hope this helps!

8/13/2020 11:52:29 AM

North Of The Border

Most people only use 100 gallons per day

8/13/2020 11:53:25 AM

Nampa

Sometimes the first year is all learning how to do a better job the next year. So far my 2nd and 3rd year are pretty much the same....Meaning that I'm still learning. If everything else is good, the growth rate can be tied to how old the plant is, or how many days from pollination. 10 lbs / day is depressing. I recommend measuring only once a week so that you don't feel bad everyday. It's only exciting when it's growing. You will probably grow over 1K next year. Going on a patch tour was very helpful for me. The diaries are pretty good too. Best of luck to you this year. Usually the first year = a personal best. :)

8/14/2020 2:16:41 PM