growing pumpkins

by

Walking and Talking With My Pumpkin Vine

Video camera in hand, I walked the garden last night, taking traveling shots of the pumpkin vine. That’s my cat, Slinky, at the start of the video who is always glad to find me in the garden.  I look forward to seeing  her sweet little face peering around the corner.

It’s been an exciting year in our pumpkin patch, thanks to a self-seeding vine in mid-April.  The vine traveled the length of the house, before shooting up the side of an arching trellis. I tied the vine with string to support the weight of some developing fruit. From there it trailed back toward the ground.  Last night I redirected the newest growth, a u-turn if you will, before it crossed the side yard and headed toward our neighbor’s fence.

Come along for the tour:

Pumpkin’s Progress in 90 Days:

Watch Me Grow

Watch Me Grow

Getting a Head Start

Getting a Head Start

Already Dwarfing the Indoor Transplants

Already Dwarfing the Indoor Transplants

Heading West

Heading West: Trellis Number One

Heading for Trellis Number Two

Heading for Trellis Number Two

Up, Over and Down Trellis Number Three

Up, Over and Down Trellis Number Three

Hanging on By a Thread

Hanging on By a Thread

by

Pumpkin Vine Sprawl

Well will you look at that?!  Our granddaddy of all pumpkin vines has meandered across the planting box, over the trellis, through the tomato cage and around the berries.  Yesterday Big Max grew at least a foot!

I have two smaller vines growing as well, transplants from indoors.  One of them set fruit last week, but they can’t keep up with the big guy.  We’ve counted at least a dozen pumpkins so far, currently a pale yellow.  Two of them are the size of basketballs and so far unharmed.  The rats, squirrels and other mysterious visitors are helping themselves to the smaller fruit, but fortunately we have enough to go around.  Fingers crossed.

A few of the fruits have rotted on the vine but the plant itself looks okay.  I hope this is just part of the natural selection process and that the others continue to grow.  I wish you could all stop by for an in-person tour.  I guess photos will have to do.

Upward Mobility

My Pride and Joy

Leafy Green

Pumpkin Vines: The Long View

Up and Comers

by

‘Big Max’ Pumpkin Vine: Busy Bees, Budding Fruit

Our ‘Big Max‘ pumpkin vine is enjoying the recent heat.  The smaller varieties are leafing out and looking healthy too, but ‘ol Max steals the show.  Max re-seeded from last summer, so had a bit of a head start.  I’m definitely planting directly into the beds next year.   I don’t think the indoor starter plants paid off in the end.  So many of them wilted and died within 24 hours of transplanting.

Will you look at this happy pumpkin vine?!

The Happy Gardener and her Platter-Sized Pumpkin Leaves

Female Flower Setting Fruit

A Squirrel Stopped by for Lunch

Male Flower: Pollinating Bee

Female Flower: Pollinated

Curly Tendrils

It’s a Wrap: The Power of the Vine

Related articles
by

Pumpkin Nirvana: The Crop Runs Away!

Yahoo!  We have a small but viable pumpkin crop.  Last year’s one volunteer re-seeded in the upper box.  I had to amend the soil and top off the box before replanting it in the lower box.  Not only did it survive, it thrived.  Look at that baby grow!  Our ‘Big Max‘ has a companion as well, cosmos from another season.  For whatever reason, that tiny four by four-inch spot in the lower box has the perfect combination of soil, shelter, sun and moisture to make things grow.

A few of this seasons indoor seedling transplants survived so we have two or three varieties at different states of growth.

I spotted a few male flowers last week and the requisite bees in the vicinity.  Yesterday the first female bud emerged, a tiny, yellow orb with magnificent potential.

Here is our pumpkin crop so far:

The Vine’s Curling Tendrils

Morning Sun Streams Through

Budding Female Flower

Pumpkin Plant Close-up

Planter Pumpkins: The Long View

by

Pumpkins Go Viral!

Well…not exactly. But when you say “viral” these days, people notice. In bygone days, it meant you had “the clap.” Now we’re usually referring to our email account, Facebook or Twitter.

I digress…

We have a bumper crop of pumpkins this year. It’s been pretty exciting. Even with the disappointing weather which has been ten degrees below the seasonal norm, the plants continue to send out shoot after shoot. We have five or six varietals, some with leaves the size of dinner plates. We mourned a few losses this afternoon (squirrels!) but the plants are so prolific, that we felt we could afford to be cavalier about our losses.

Bumper Crop