Hi,

Well we finally have a little pumpkin starting. It's about the size of
a plum but seems very healthy. I noticed that this one was bigger than
the other females that failed to start even before the flower opened.
Seems like a lot of female flowers are starting to show up now.

Still plenty of growing time left so hopefully we will get a nice
pumpkin.

How many pumpkins should I allow to grow on one vine? I don't care
about growing a giant but I would like a good size pumpkin we can use
for halloween.

If I start to remove some of the new female flowers when should that be
done? Should I wait until they flower or just remove them as soon as I
see them?

Thanks for any tips.

Steve

wrote:
Hi,

Well we finally have a little pumpkin starting. It's about the size of
a plum but seems very healthy. I noticed that this one was bigger than
the other females that failed to start even before the flower opened.
Seems like a lot of female flowers are starting to show up now.

Still plenty of growing time left so hopefully we will get a nice
pumpkin.

How many pumpkins should I allow to grow on one vine? I don't care
about growing a giant but I would like a good size pumpkin we can use
for halloween.

If I start to remove some of the new female flowers when should that be
done? Should I wait until they flower or just remove them as soon as I
see them?

Thanks for any tips.

Steve


If you are going to remove flowers, you might as well do it as soon as
you see them forming. Don't be in a rush to start doing that though.
I've seen pumpkins get as large as 5 or 6 inches across and then
collapse and rot. I suppose this happens when the flower barely gets
pollinated and isn't forming enough seeds to be worth continuing on. It
also seems to happen after a vine has formed some pumpkins and doesn't
have the strength to complete more.
How many pumpkins to leave depends on the plant. My smaller ones can
form several on one vine. The ones that produce big pumpkins usually set
one or two and any that follow seem to abort. (I never remove flowers. I
let the plant decide. If I was trying for the largest possible pumpkins,
I would consider removing them.)

Steve (the one from the Adirondacks)

said:

Hi,

Well we finally have a little pumpkin starting. It's about the size of
a plum but seems very healthy. I noticed that this one was bigger than
the other females that failed to start even before the flower opened.
Seems like a lot of female flowers are starting to show up now.

Still plenty of growing time left so hopefully we will get a nice
pumpkin.

How many pumpkins should I allow to grow on one vine? I don't care
about growing a giant but I would like a good size pumpkin we can use
for halloween.

I agree with the other Steve, let the plant decide. They normally set
a certain number of fruit (the limit of what the plant can support under
its growing conditions) and abort the rest.

(Of course if you were growing giant pumpkins for competition, you
would have a bunch of vines and limit prune off to only one per plant.
The plants will keep trying to set just one more fruit and that would
make a difference if you were going for super-giant pumpkins.)

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

I just let the plant go that way if one doesn't turn out there are more to
choose from. One thing that I do I set the pumpkin on a piece of slab wood
or even a can so it isn't sitting on the ground. I would have what I thought
as being a great size pumpkin only to discover that the underneath was
rotted or chewed.
--
Lynn

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Well we finally have a little pumpkin starting. It's about the size of
a plum but seems very healthy. I noticed that this one was bigger than
the other females that failed to start even before the flower opened.
Seems like a lot of female flowers are starting to show up now.

Still plenty of growing time left so hopefully we will get a nice
pumpkin.

How many pumpkins should I allow to grow on one vine? I don't care
about growing a giant but I would like a good size pumpkin we can use
for halloween.

If I start to remove some of the new female flowers when should that be
done? Should I wait until they flower or just remove them as soon as I
see them?

Thanks for any tips.

Steve

Thanks for the tip. I was just looking at our little pumpkin and
thinking about putting something under it to take some of the stress
off of the stem. Right now it is sitting off the grond about 3 inches
because of the way the stem is positioned. Once it gets bigger it will
probably rotate the vine and eventually hit the ground but I was
thinking of putting something under it like a piece of wood.

This would all be a lot easier if I had the kind of space one needs to
really grow pumpkins. I have two main plants on the side of our house
in a fairly narrow but long area. They are both running towards the
front yard and into some shrubbery we have there so it's a little
tricky managin the vines.

Steve

I just let the plant go that way if one doesn't turn out there are more to
choose from. One thing that I do I set the pumpkin on a piece of slab
wood
or even a can so it isn't sitting on the ground. I would have what I
thought
as being a great size pumpkin only to discover that the underneath was
rotted or chewed.
--
Lynn

Finally, FINALLY! We got some pumpkins to take off. Five or six gangly and
watery greenhouse started seedlings (we thought they were gourds) put in a
different location in town. Anacortes, in northern Puget Sound area. Now,
what? they are for Halloween, if the teenagers don't get them first. A
couple 18" or more and starting to turn color. The BIG question is: How do
we collect and preserve them until Halloween? That's still a couple of
months away!

HELP!

Lynn, anxious and sleepless (another Lynn...... Old Chief Lynn)

Lynn Coffelt said:
Finally, FINALLY! We got some pumpkins to take off. Five or six gangly and
watery greenhouse started seedlings (we thought they were gourds) put in
a
different location in town. Anacortes, in northern Puget Sound area. Now,
what? they are for Halloween, if the teenagers don't get them first. A
couple 18" or more and starting to turn color. The BIG question is: How do
we collect and preserve them until Halloween? That's still a couple of
months away!

Let the fruit continue ripening on the vine. The pumpkin will be mature
enough to pick when the stem is very hard (like wood) and the rind is
tough enought to resist piercing with a fingernail. Cut the pumpkin
stem from the vine (the pumpkin won't keep it you break the stem off
of it). Put it in a warm, sunny place for a couple of days to cure, then
store it in the coolest part of your house or basement until ready to use.

Fully ripe and uninjured pumpkins and squash should store for months.

Edibility declines faster with some types (acorn, delicata, pie pumpkins)
than others (butternut, buttercup, Hubbard). Some buttercup squashes
actually improve with a bit of storage.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Thanks!

"Pat Kiewicz" wrote in message
...
Lynn Coffelt said:
Finally, FINALLY! We got some pumpkins to take off. Five or six gangly
and
watery greenhouse started seedlings (we thought they were gourds) put in
a
different location in town. Anacortes, in northern Puget Sound area. Now,
what? they are for Halloween, if the teenagers don't get them first. A
couple 18" or more and starting to turn color. The BIG question is: How
do
we collect and preserve them until Halloween? That's still a couple of
months away!

Let the fruit continue ripening on the vine. The pumpkin will be mature
enough to pick when the stem is very hard (like wood) and the rind is
tough enought to resist piercing with a fingernail. Cut the pumpkin
stem from the vine (the pumpkin won't keep it you break the stem off
of it). Put it in a warm, sunny place for a couple of days to cure, then
store it in the coolest part of your house or basement until ready to use.

Fully ripe and uninjured pumpkins and squash should store for months.

Edibility declines faster with some types (acorn, delicata, pie pumpkins)
than others (butternut, buttercup, Hubbard). Some buttercup squashes
actually improve with a bit of storage.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Thanks!
Lynn

Hi Lynn
let the fruit ripen as is. the plant will look just about dead all dried up
and the pumpkin will have a very pretty orange color and be heavy. last year
it was late Sept early Oct till we gathered ours ( zone 5) I picked a
couple earlier than that but it went straight into pies .
this year we didn't even plant pumpkins or squash on purpose I threw out
the old unused ones straight into the garden to decompost last winter.( I
also have a couple of tomato plants that were a surprise plantings as well).

I heard once if you bath the pumpkin in a very weak javox solution then let
dry well it will keep better through the winter but I never tried it myself.
I usually cook it and freeze for later use.


--
Lynn waving from the other coast in NS

"Lynn Coffelt" wrote in message
...
Finally, FINALLY! We got some pumpkins to take off. Five or six gangly and
watery greenhouse started seedlings (we thought they were gourds) put in a
different location in town. Anacortes, in northern Puget Sound area. Now,
what? they are for Halloween, if the teenagers don't get them first. A
couple 18" or more and starting to turn color. The BIG question is: How do
we collect and preserve them until Halloween? That's still a couple of
months away!

HELP!

Lynn, anxious and sleepless (another Lynn...... Old Chief Lynn)