Pumpkin Planting!

[DMF]

DMF, hopefully the weather co-operates in you area for the balance of the summer. We have had very little rain in July except for the past few days. The forecast is calling for seasonal averages for the next couple of weeks.

Today looks good but the rest of the week has storms...

Ya can't beat the weather!

 

[DMF]

Lots of flowers in the patch yesterday, but they aren't running yet. What do you think that'll mean?

 

[Luremaker]

Lots of flowers in the patch yesterday, but they aren't running yet. What do you think that'll mean?

Maybe you have bush plants instead of vining plants. The big brown one should be ready by the first of November.

My Jack-O-Lantern plants are doing great. They are vining and have lot's of flowers and a few fruit. My Howden's have lot's of flower buds and are slowly running. My miniatures are very slow this year. Some of the gourds have fruit but plants are still very small for the end of July.

First picture is of one of the gourds. The second was taken today (Jul 31), last was taken 10 days ago (Jul 21). In ten days the plants have really grown.

Have a great weekend, I off in the morning to pick up my new 6 row corn planter.

 

[barrybro]

I had two varieties that were 112 and 115 days that I planted the first of june to be able to harvest starting the middle of september.

They are starting to turn orange already. Is this normal for some varieties. It just seems way too early. Am I going to have a lot that will rot before it is time.

 

[Baucom]

I had that happen last year. It was my first year with a garden and I planted my pumpkins around the first of July hoping they'd be ready close to halloween (~115 days). They were all ready to pick before the end of September (~90 days). It surprised me; I don't know if it's because we still have hot weather through September or not. This year I pushed my planting date back about 3 wks--hopefully that won't bite me in the backside.

 

[DMF]

They are starting to turn orange already. Is this normal for some varieties. It just seems way too early. Am I going to have a lot that will rot before it is time.

We had a crop that turned early (well, we planted early really) and we picked them early as well. If you store them in a cool dry place (we put some in the basement each year) they'll last a long time.

My wife always puts a few big ones in the basement that we can carve...of course, we never have time to do it and they last well after Christmas.

 

[dsv farms]

I had two varieties that were 112 and 115 days that I planted the first of june to be able to harvest starting the middle of september.

They are starting to turn orange already. Is this normal for some varieties. It just seems way too early. Am I going to have a lot that will rot before it is time.

We frequently have howdens starting to turn by mid august. As long as the plants are still green we leave them alone, but if they start to die off from powdery mildew or whatever we'll cut the pumpkins off the vines. Depends on the weather but we have cut the first week of september and had very little loss.

 

[Luremaker]

All of our plants now seem to be producing lot's of fruit. The Jack-O-Lantern plants are doing the best. The weather is much better now. Warm days (70+) and the nights only get down to the low 60's. We have had a few days of rain and all of the plants have lots of new growth. I have not even needed to spray for bugs this year. Looks like we might even have a bumper crop if all of the fruit reach maturity and we do not have an early frost.

 

[DMF]

That's awesome Luremaker!

We just took a look at our patches last night after being gone on vacation for a week. A lot of weeds even though I weeded before I left, a lot of flowers with some plants starting to run, but no fruit yet. Weather is getting better, but still not great. Last week while we were gone, we had a rain storm that dumped over 4" of rain in an hour and a half!

 

[Luremaker]

DMF, I can see the weeds just loving all that rain your getting. Are you getting any heat? You may not be getting any bees to pollinate the flowers. You may have to get the extra long Q tips out and start pollinating the flowers.