From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Joliet, IL

as a first time grower, i got mad when my perfectly positioned fruits on the main vine with "s" curves aborted
due to this crazy heat. 95 in joliet IL today.
but i have had real good success with below method i rigged
up.

after hand pollinating in a.m. I used a cheap medium sized
styrofome cooler sold at any liquor store as a shade and
temperature controling device.

i punched a lot of holes on all fours sides of the cooler
with a 3/4" stick for ventilation. then i severed the tap roots from the vine to the ground near the blossum, lifted
the vine and blossum together gently (did it night before
while vines supple) and placed the cooler lid bottom side
up under both vine and blossum. the lid had a small lip
where it would keep it tight to the cooler when normally
used. so i notched out a small place on each side of the
lid lip so the vine and blossum lies flat on the upsidedown
cooler lid.

so now looking down at your blossum , you see the
bottom side of the styrofome cooler lid under the vine and
centered blossum resting flat. then place a bag of ice on
the lid next to but not touching the blossum. then put
the styrofome cooler with holes cut out on the sides upside
down, over the blossum and ice bag, and place a brick or
rock on top to keep it in place.

i then put another bag of ice the same way when i got home
from work. i put more ice in a.m. before work the next day, and again in p.m. after work the next day. i read the first
2 days are critical for a pumpkin to set in the heat.
after that just a laundry basket over blossum for shade.

also instead of buying bags of ice, just fill up old
laundry detergent bottles 3/4 full of water then freeze.
they work good again and again and a bigger chunk of ice
lasts longer than a bag of ice and lest costly.

good luck. keep the pollinated girls cool pumpkinheads.

7/16/2002 7:20:24 PM

No Place Special

Hi Shazzy, im Mike. If you live where I think you do, we aren't all that far away from each other. I live in Walcott, just on the west side of Davenport. I was happy to see another grower so close!!!! How are things going for you so far? Take care and hope to keep in touch. Mike

7/17/2002 11:35:30 AM

Joliet, IL

hey mike. yep, i have been checking your diary for updates
due to our close proximity. i just started posting
last week. check out my diary for my many adventures
as a first time grower this season. i tried the above
styrofome cooler method on a corkum 857 squash and a
948 hebb squmpkin on the last 2 days respectively. 93
yesterday and 95 degrees today. i also tried pollinating a friend i gave a plant to, an 857 corkum that threw out yellow instead of green which is cool. my corkum 857
is a totally green squash and 22" at 10 days. i posted 10
day pic on my diary that will be up soon.

i will let you know results of all 3 in a few days.
i bet i go 3 for 3 successful sets even with this heat.

ya never no though...that's what makes this a freaky
hobby....always into the unknown..kinda like fishin too.

mike, nice to meet you and i will stay in touch.
it's beer thirty at my local watering hole. just put another bag of ice next to pollinations and it is now
budweiser time.

try to stay cool brother..see ya

7/17/2002 4:14:44 PM

No Place Special

Hey, nice to meet you. This is also my rookie year. I grew pumpkins for the first time last year. I grew the big max seed from a store. I was able to get to 140#. I was overjoyed with that! Wish I had meet you earlier, I could have taken you along with us on a trip to Steve Krugs last weekend. He holds the Iowa record, 969 i think. There was 4 of us that went from big p. dan Carlson (clammy), a seasoned grower, Mark Peterson(petey) a few yrs under him, me (Walcott) and my motherin law Judy Stevens (Eldridge Pumpkin) a rookie. Good luck! Mike

7/17/2002 10:14:30 PM