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nanaimo,B.C,Canada

Went out to check my pumpkin late this evening and took the towel of it and the pumpkin is quite warm to touch. Is this because it is growing so fast? My other one on the same plant is not warm.

Dave

7/31/2003 2:54:48 AM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Thats Funny Dave that you bring this up. Brigitte came over with a few turkeys for me, and wanted to see the elusive north patch. It was dark so I was only able to show her the squash on the 494 nueville and it was hot to the touch. It too is covered with an old blanket. Which should not absorb that much heat. But was hot. hmmm Shannon

7/31/2003 4:38:53 AM

Cologne / Germany

I wouldn´t cover fruits directly with a blanket. At daytime it will heat up according to outside temps. At night the heat can´t get out due to the blanket which acts like a winter coat. Sounds like some danger to cook the pumpkin. I would use umbrellas or tarps instead. Circulation of air is the key.

7/31/2003 5:13:53 AM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

I use old blankets over the big pumpkins and white sheets over the blankets at day and only the thin sheets at night. As far as I observed, pumpkins are always cool under them, so far. Well, they have shade structures over, so the sun never gets on the blankets. Besides that, the water from the sprinkler is continuously refreshing the shade tarps from noon till 8 pm.
If you let the sun reach the blankets, as Ingo said, they can become greenhouses for the fruits.

Don (fighting against Sun in the middle of Spanish Summer)

7/31/2003 6:23:02 AM

Nova Scotia

down here in the bahamas i have sugarbaby watermelons and i can pick one at the end of the day and put it in the freezer for 3hrs. and it will still be hot inside when i open it.

7/31/2003 9:41:55 AM

Yup that squash at Shannon's was warm! I seem to think it's not just the blanket, but more like the molecules moving around or something weird like that.

I don't think one little blanket is going to cook a pumpkin. We're talking a few degrees, not a couple hundred.

7/31/2003 11:29:39 AM

Oz

lol no just the carbon cycle and restricted gas/heat exchange into the air. little pumkin is growing ,,,,using the sun/water/sugars to grow and making heat.
so the best to do is a little air all around.
i dont know what it is ,but i sure someone has temp.studied pumpkins...if not they will!lol
there is a low and high temp in the growing cycle each day,, if not more often.
in other words night growth and day growth.

7/31/2003 11:58:15 AM

Cologne / Germany

Frictional heat caused by excessive growing? Wow, why does this not happen in my patch;-)

7/31/2003 12:08:28 PM

Oz

lol...not friction,,,er come to think of it cells dividing makes friction...microcellular friction un das pumpkin ya??

8/1/2003 5:48:44 PM