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Southern Illinois

there are many of us that have secrets about growing pumpkins,and i can tell you one thing these guys that are raising these 1,000 pound pumpkins have secrets that they are not telling;so come on guys tell us some of your secrets on growing the big pumpkin.

8/29/2002 9:39:49 AM

derry n.h u.s.a.

I for one am no heavy hitter,but i do have a coulpe of large pumpkins on the plants that i have.And i can attribute steady growth to the following facts,Water is one of them,you cant get them huge by depending on mother nature she seldom comes through when you need her too! So i water everyother day and keep the soil moist,then when it downpours the pumpkins shouldent split from the lack of moisture in the soil.The next thing i do is to keep an eye on insects,set up a spray program and stick with it.Insects carry and spread diease,no BAD insects no diease.Weeding is also a factor,as thats where insects like to hide.No one likes to walk along there main vine and pull out 15" tall lambs quater for fear of disturbing the roots,but its gotta be done unless you have weed free soil unlike me!
burying vines,I bury every vine except the main and i leave 12" or so of each secondary showing,and i dont like to see weeds covering the main ,so i keep that area as weed free as possible.and As the article says in last sundays newspaper"you are a slave to these plants"So keep at it. Above all dont over do it with fertilizers and too much manure,a little manure goes a long way! and like anything else have a plan of attack early on.If you dont have much room ( a small patch) dont over do it trying to grow 5 plants in 500sq/ft plant 1 or 2 plants far away from each other and have a plan on how you want your main vines too run and your secondarys.I plant 5 ft from the edge of my bordered garden,just because the roots hit the edge doesnt mean i can grow a large pumpkin,roots will go where they can go they wont stop just because they hit a stone,they'll bounce off and keep going in the direction they want.Theres no secrets,just hard work,and take your time growers this is supposed to be enjoyable.Hope this helped.John

8/29/2002 10:32:51 AM

Southern Illinois

john how far do you think the roots go down,and how far do you think they spread out,and how deep do you bury your vines,and when do you start to bury your vines,and how far do you stay away from the pumpkin when you bury the vines,what do you cover your vine with,thank you john.

8/29/2002 11:40:40 AM

derry n.h u.s.a.

I,have hit roots when flipping the soil with my pitchfork 10 to 12" deep "fat roots" from the stump or base of the plant,I was 12 to 14 ft from the base of the plant when this happend last year and the main vine was only 4 ft long,so i would guess the main roots from the base of any given plant would travel 15 to 30 ft,thats why i use planks.The roots from the vines are some what shallow,as any time it rains i see them popping up in bulk rates every where,theirs shallow ones off the base also i would think.I trench my vines 2 to 3 " under the level soil and then bury and mound 3 to 5 " abovel the level ,so it creates a bit of a hill on the vine itself.I start doing this as soon as i have 4 or 5 ft of vine early on and bury using regular soil from the patch( i used cow manure 1 year"big mistake) got vine rot everywhere.I try to put pumpkins on the main vine,hardly ever do i go with a secondary,so i dont worry about burying the main.This year i have a pumpkin on the 980 plant that is growing right over a secondary off of the main,i dident want to cut it due to me being a tight wad and i wanted that extra vine and leafs so i built up the sand level with the top of the already buried vine and it slid right over it,lol.I know of a first year grower right now that has a pumpkin larger then mine at this point,and from what i saw at his home he's right into gardening and right ontop of things,im convinced its diligence that grow the bigger ones and alot of knowledge of course Gambling and lady Luck play a roll also.I'd say luck is key towards the end of the season:)how long have you been growing $$ pumpkins HH?.John

8/29/2002 12:43:51 PM

Webster, NY

John, thanks for all the great advice. This year I had a pumpkin growing at a pace for 500+ pounds. Then, some disease that I couldn't recoginize attacked and my biggest and best grower slowed down to almost nothing. I have samples into the local coop to tell me what it was, but then I'll be able to plan what to do. Overall, it's fun and a great learning experience.

8/29/2002 12:45:20 PM

Webster, NY

John, thanks for all the great advice. This year I had a pumpkin growing at a pace for 500+ pounds. Then, some disease that I couldn't recoginize attacked and my biggest and best grower slowed down to almost nothing. I have samples into the local coop to tell me what it was, but then I'll be able to plan what to do. Overall, it's fun and a great learning experience.

8/29/2002 12:45:50 PM

Billerica,Massachusetts

John: are you growing the 1107 this year?

Glenn Peters

8/29/2002 12:48:06 PM

Southern Illinois

i have been growing pumpkins for about 4 yr,in the past years i have only raised atlantic giants,i usually plant about 5,000 seed,when i till my rolls,i put 18-46-0 in the roll ,i spray with a pre -emergence weed killer,as the plants come up for bugs i use liquid seven xlr mixed with a fungacide,after about 5 leafs i start spraying each plant 20-20-20 foilar spray at least 2 times a week,before the vine lay down i take a hand full of nitrate put beside each pumpkin plant also a hand full of 0-0-60,i also switch over to warrior i spray all the plant all over the ground around the plant,before the vine take over the middle rolls i put nitrate down the middle of the rolls,i keep the weeds out, i spray with cobra and poast plus and many other chemicals,by planting this way the biggest pumpkin was 300 lb,i have two pumpkins in the patch around the 400 lb mark,i keep the seed every year from my biggest pumpkins,to grow the next year,thanks for the info,john.

8/29/2002 1:40:24 PM

derry n.h u.s.a.

hey Glenn:
No i didnt keep any for myself,from what i have heard through the grapevine,most people have had a hard time with the 1107 seed,I did recive an e-mail from a grower that had one around the high four hundreds but it split,others were having a hard time pollinating,so my conclusion is that it was a bad cross,some seeds self well others dont,I know a grower in the northern mass that has a selfed seed from last year,won't mention names or what the seed is but its around the 900+ mark now.John

8/29/2002 2:09:21 PM

Billerica,Massachusetts

A 900 lber in my area? haven't heard anything? been too busy with summer and kids was on vacation last week, stopped by the cookout and got soaked!

8/29/2002 3:00:18 PM