From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Western Massachusetts

The last 3 nights have been cold, in the upper 40s and low 50s. Growth has gone from 7 inches a day cc to 3 inches a day cc the last few days.

Starting tonight, the next 10 days will be in the 80s and nights in mid 60s. Should growth go back to normal?

7/9/2018 7:26:30 PM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

They grow mainly at night, and colder nights mean less growth. Also, as they get bigger, circumference will naturally slow down even if weight gain doesn't. That is because that gain in circumference spreads out over a taller pumpkin. Just look at the OTT charts, and as they get bigger, each inch in OTT relates to higher weight gain.

7/9/2018 7:48:25 PM

Grittyville, WA

Look at the charts and see what the actual gains are in pounds so that you know the numbers in pounds and yes if it’s cool or cloudy the gains can drop by as much as a third and still recover when conditions improve... In my experience.

7/9/2018 10:59:35 PM

Grittyville, WA

They can also be gobbling fertilizer and water up and reach a plateau because they need more of this or that... Keeping track of gains is smart.

7/9/2018 11:08:56 PM

Grittyville, WA

I like the old formula 0.001517*POWER(circumference,2.61374) for estimating weight. Works well enough for comparing daily weight changes and you don’t have to do the entire OTT measurement. It may be out of date for estimating the thickest pumpkins but I think it’s still fairly accurate for every other pumpkin. So... That’s .001517 times the circumference in inches to the 2.61374th power. It’s written in spreadsheet code above... if you do set up a spreadsheet and measure daily and leave the tape measure around the pumpkin it can be just a five minute task.

7/9/2018 11:31:38 PM

Westmoreland, KS

Hayden, that is not a real good thing...7 inches to 3 inches this early is a pretty big drop. I would be checking my vines for any issues. Even with those temperatures you should get fairly consistent growth.

If you covered your main vine with soil I would uncover it and see if you can find any problems.

7/10/2018 9:12:57 AM

Torrance, Ca.

What Jake said. Keep a close eye on the main and all secondaries all the time.
Every time this has happen to me I wasn't able to get the numbers up again and over the next couple weeks found the problem..
Good luck buddy and hope its just a freak thing and you continue with great growth.

7/10/2018 9:56:12 AM

Eastern Pennsylvania

How old is the pumpkin?

7/10/2018 3:00:12 PM

Western Massachusetts

This is only an issue on my 1807 Holub. Day 22 today,not doing a whole lot of growing but still growing slowly. The 1701 had slowed a little too in the cold but did almost 6 inches circumference growth last night and seems back on track

7/10/2018 4:08:11 PM