Pumpkins 2014

[Kyox89]

Definitely looks like sun burn, it gets pretty uniform on our squashes/zucchinis every year.  If I remember I'll get a picture.
 
Also, those little tiny ornamental pumpkins that are the size of a baseball?  great to chop into cubes and fry up with some onions and oil and some spices

Thank you! The leaves are all very light green and turning yellow nowadays. Kinda worried about that.

 

[Helvete]

Here's a pic of the tan on my zucchini plants.  It's normal.  I don't know about the yellowing you're talking about though
 

 

[Slizarus]

I'm growing Jarrahdale Pumpkins, Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkins, and Small Sugar Pumpkins... I think you can tell what I use Pumpkin for

 

[serrano]

Ok  a little update:
 
Marina

 
Muscate de provence

 
Winter luxury

 
Blue hubbard

 
huskless

 
Kakai - one of many

 
first Hokkaido (uchi kuri)

 
Pink banana - there is 4 of those 2 feet monsters but they are yellow so far

 
 

this might be ither Blue hongrie or chirimen or black futsu.
I'd say blue hongie.

 
small Kakai on the fence

 

 

[JDFan]

I usually grow a couple giant plants each year - - this year the weather and my laziness killed off one plant and almost the other as well (the 105+ degree temps burnt all the growing ends off since I forgot to cover them with some shade cloth) - Fortunately I had already set one pumpkin on the one plant and it is still hanging in there ( It's about 70Lbs. right now and slowly growing) but will not be that big since there isn't any new growth and the older growth is slowly dying off so just trying to keep it going for another month or so to have one for Halloween.

 
Here's a pic of last years which wound up at right around 200Lbs :

 
And the year before had a 320 Lber :
 

 
This year probably won't get that big but the Field pumpkins are finally starting to show up and are doing pretty well so should have several 50+\- lbers on them (have about 6 pollinated and more starts soon) on the Giant field pumpkin plants and they have a lot of new growth going that survived the hottest part of summer.

 
 
 
 
 

 

[Gargoyle91]

I beat the powdery mold by using MILK and backing powder something about the enzymes in milk that kills it off- Used 2% milk mixed it a 3% ratio to water and a tablespoon or so of baking powder. But have have to stay on top of it and spray when you see it come back.

 

[keybrdkid]

I wasn't planning on planting pumpkins this year, but I had some seeds so I planted them. I was late in planting, so I'm not expecting Halloween pumpkins-if any. Not sure what I need to do to get them to grow into big pumpkins. I generally have had problems with powdery mold (warm coastal climate here Zone 10,) and bugs eating the leaves-caterpillars and/or horn worms on a previous occasion. Leaves are being eaten this go-around, but not sure what is eating them-haven't seen the culprit yet. Plants are producing long-stemmed flowers, haven't seen any fruit flowers yet. That tip about milk and powder something is interesting. I may have to try that, since I wasn't sure if my copper sulfate measurements were right anyway..
 
Here is a picture of one of the flowers (I hope it is a pumpkin flower, it could also be a squash.)
 

 

[Helvete]

holy crap anyone have a serious issue with squash bugs this year?
I hadn't seen them in a few years but those little boogers ripped the squash, zucchinis, and pumpkins to shreds starting in mid August.  Fortunately I already had harvested enough squash and zucchini by then to fill half a vertical freezer XD. 
 
Pumpkins were planted a little late--they were victims of the little gray demons.

 

[JDFan]

holy crap anyone have a serious issue with squash bugs this year?
I hadn't seen them in a few years but those little boogers ripped the squash, zucchinis, and pumpkins to shreds starting in mid August.  Fortunately I already had harvested enough squash and zucchini by then to fill half a vertical freezer XD. 
 
Pumpkins were planted a little late--they were victims of the little gray demons.

 
Yep there really bad here this year also --Luckily my plants were big enough that they are just losing some leaves and not the plants on the FGiant Field pumpkins - and already lost the Atlantic giant plants to the heat early this year. Wound up with just 1 AG this year at 55Lbs (nothing impressive but it will be fine for the Halloween display along with the 6 or so Giant Field pumpkins that are still going. For those that do not know what they look like here's a pic of one leaf of my infested plant this morning :

 
Here's a pic of the AG and some of the Field pumpkins taken this morning - not sure if the newest one will ripen before Halloween but the others should turn orange in a couple more weeks.
 

 
 

 

[Super Hots Canada]

Since we have some pumpkin experts here I figured this might be a good place to see about getting an ID.
 
For the past two years I've bought the same Atlantic Giant Dill pumpkin seed packs (the same brand I've always gotten and never had trouble with) and both years they've resulted in these yellow melon-looking things. The plants grow much like pumpkin plants, only they don't get near as big and I've not once got a fully-grown fruit from any of the plants.
 
Most of the fruit just get around the size of a hardball and then drop off the plant, but right now I have -one- that is actually getting larger and looks healthy - only, I have no clue how to tell when it is ready. They start out as yellow and don't seem to change color.
 
Can anyone tell me what this actually is? (it's probably a bit smaller than a football)
 

 
 
Thanks folks!

 

[JDFan]

It does looks like an AG from the retail store seeds -- The seeds you buy at the stores come from fields that are grown specifically for seeds so the plants are let to set as many fruit as they can rather than being grown as a single fruit per plant like those grown for size are usually. So they are not really grown for the specific traits like size\shape and your results can be varied. Normally they take anywhere from 80 to 120 days of growth after pollination so do take a while. Most people that grow the store bought seeds wind up with pumpkins in the 100 - 300 pound mark and not many get larger than that ( the larger ones are usually tracked for good genetics for years in order to get the weights they do.) If you would like some seeds for next year that have better genetics and should grow much larger go to www.bigpumpkins.com website and check the seed exchange sub forum (many members will post seeds for a SASBE once the weigh offs are over and the seeds are retreived and dried ( mid Novemberish)

 

[Super Hots Canada]

It does looks like an AG from the retail store seeds -- The seeds you buy at the stores come from fields that are grown specifically for seeds so the plants are let to set as many fruit as they can rather than being grown as a single fruit per plant like those grown for size are usually. So they are not really grown for the specific traits like size\shape and your results can be varied. Normally they take anywhere from 80 to 120 days of growth after pollination so do take a while. Most people that grow the store bought seeds wind up with pumpkins in the 100 - 300 pound mark and not many get larger than that ( the larger ones are usually tracked for good genetics for years in order to get the weights they do.) If you would like some seeds for next year that have better genetics and should grow much larger go to www.bigpumpkins.com website and check the seed exchange sub forum (many members will post seeds for a SASBE once the weigh offs are over and the seeds are retreived and dried ( mid Novemberish)

 
"AG"?
 
I've always bought seeds for the Atlantic Giant Dill pumpkins, but I never expect them to actually end up giant since I tend to set 'em and forget 'em. That typically gets me some average size pumpkins - the size people usually use for Jack o' Lanterns & pies. I'm not worried about ending up with giants, but these are how they're supposed to look:
 

 
... They start out green and mature to orange.. But instead I've ended up in the past couple years with these yellow things that are definitely not the same.
 
Thanks for the info

 

[JDFan]

AG == Atlantic Giant
 
Take a look through the growers diaries on Bigpumpkins.com and you can see the growth of many different giant pumpkins over the past year. Also there is a timelapse video Here (

) that shows 2 months of the pumpkins growth (from about 40lbs. to 225 pounds - so a bit larger than yours at the start but should give you an idea of what they can look like.
 
They are actually not true pumpkins but a variety of squash (curcubita maxima) and come in a wide variety of colors\shapes. The Field pumpkins you posted in the earlier post would be a different variety (curcubita Pepo) that usually are green at the start and turn orange - they also have giant varieties which is what I posted earlier but are considerably smaller than the AGs (ie. world record for a field pumpkin is currently 211 pounds) where the AG world record is over 2000 pounds ) -- The ones I grew this year are about 50-70lbs. If you would like some seeds from the field pumpkins I grew this year PM me an address and I'll send some once they dry (they are currently still turning from green to orange  (hopefully before Halloween)
 
 

 

[Slizarus]

What do you do with giant pumpkins?

Eat them? Seed em? Compost em?

 

[JDFan]

Mostly use them for halloween displays -- and carving. Most growers that do it for competitions use so many chemicals that they can't be used for food etc. so they are mainly for display. Seeds are used for growing the next year.
 
Where I live the weather is not really conducive to growing them ( temps in the 100s for most of the summer takes it's toll on the plants) So I'm lucky to get one or 2 for a display asnd never anything really big. but the niece really enjoys having the display set up and seeing what the neighborhood kids say about them. This year the plant died early when it got too hot and the ends of the vines got burned by the sun and stopped growing so only got 1 about 50 lbs. but had the field pumpkins growing also and got a few 50 - 70 lbers on them. Here's a pic of one that is currently turning orange
 

 

[Pfeffer]

Hmm, I'm not that much of an pumpkin eater so I usually stick to 2-3 plants. I've tried some US varieties like the Atlantic giants and some gourds but I kept being disappointed in them, tastewise. The AG grew large fruits but I think they have a "flat" flavor. As I'm from Europe we have a different climate, a shorter season and a lot different varieties.

My favorite is still the French heirloom "Rouge Vif d'Etampes". It gives large yields of relatively small (large bowl) sized pumpkins. They have a nice, sweet flavor.

 

[Pfeffer]

By the way, do you guys (/gals) happen to know some squash like ones that also taste good but are more wetweather/fungus resistent?

 

[Helvete]

I happen to like bush scallops, I'm pretty sure they're a squash though.  You can find strains of them that look like small decorative pumpkins, but the ones I have are white.  They have a very rich flavor that's more like a pumpkin than a squash and are great cubed and stir fried with onions, potatoes, and spices.  Actually I recommend that with any type of squash or pumpkin

 

[JDFan]

Sounds tasty ikeepfish !
 
Harvested the field pumpkins today (hopefully they will finish turning in a few days to be ready for Halloween) 
 

 

[Super David]

This is whats growing now.
My Hydroponic Atlantic Pumpkin.
Its take two weeks exactly to get from the first photo to the second.  This thing is going fast!