Well it's not striclty on subject but it concerns pumpkins !

I splashed out this year and planted, spherical courgettes, yellow
courgettes, normal courgettes, marrows, outdoor cucumbers/gherkins and
pumpkins.

Upon planting out these I stuck one of each variety into raised beds (ok so
they were stacks of tyres, but they work great, and heat the soil up very
well), anyway, watching them develop, I noticed a funny thing, that is every
single label I had in my pots was wrong, the marrows, were round, the
pumpkins yellow, the courgette spiky, groan, assuming some fishy business I
asked the family who'd been playing silly buggers, but no one confessed, so
I put it down to my every so slightly addled brain.

Sadly it has come to light now that far from just muddling up the labels, I
have not actually managed to plant a single pumpkin!!!, no one of the twenty
or so plants in total which are currently growing is manifesting itself to
be a pumpkin, now that really takes some beating I thought. I can find the
open seed packet, and can count out the seeds, and there are some missing.
They were even the gargantua variety, so quick question for you all, have
you been round my garden, pinched my pumpkins and replaced them with marrows
etc in identical pots ???

Or if you have any other suitably plausible explanation i would love to hear
it !!!

Cheers
Duncan

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article MPG.19682aa079c10d5b9897b9@lateinos,
Warwick wrote:
I found an old envelope from a few years back last week. It was full of
pumpkin seeds that I'd obviously kept back after making a pumpkin soup.

I think they were from around 1998.

Since I was potting up some stuff to get some later colour in the
borders, I shoved them all in a pot of compost on the grounds that it
couldn't really hurt to try and maybe a couple would still be viable.

Judging by the erupting top of the pot with hundreds and hundreds of
seedlings come through in 4 days I think they can be classed as viable
then.

I've never grown pumpkins before and guess they'll want some manure and
lots of water.

Am I too late to put them into one of the mixed borders outside?

No, but they will only crop if summer carries on into autumn. If
the cold weather starts early, you are too late.

How big do the plants get?

Up to about ten yards by one, but they can have shoots snipped off to
fit other spaces. They need at least a few square yards.

If I wish to see a crop should I give them 1/4 of the greenhouse and
heat it in early autumn to get a crop?

That would work. You wouldn't have to heat it if there is a fair
amount of sun.

Do they want shade or lots of sun (I can provide either).

Sun.

Will they tolerate the clay or should I get a bit more organic stuff dug
in?

Dig it in. They are very greedy feeders, and like humus.

I try to make sure that I grow attractive foliage stuff in the borders
mixed in with the perenials and annuals so in the front along the
driveway I have Kale and red lettuces coming up between the rudbeckia
and poppies, Red sage and Oregano are used as edging plants and there
are peas and beans intermingling with the clematis and sweet peas, so
there is no problem with me introducing crop plants to the raised beds
or among the planter farm.

They aren't ideal, because of the way they overshadow everything.
Incidentally, carrots are good foliage plants, too :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.