Pumpkins.... It's that time of year!

[firefighter9208]

Each year we plant a pumpkin crop. Four years ago it was 1/4 acre. Then we expanded to 3 acres and planted that many for two years. This year we planted 6 acres. 3 acres at my grandfather's (close to his pond) and 3 acres at our house (close to our pond).


We use 2" pacer pumps to water through drip tape. This year we had to water the rows to get the seeds to germinate (it was so dry).


Along with the pumpkins we also planted about 10 acres of corn (6 acres white field corn, 1 acre sweet, and 3 acres of Indian corn). We also planted about an acre of watermelons and cantalopes.

Here are two pictures of the pumpkins early on in June. In the first picture you see two deer tracks, two pumpkin plants, drip tape, and lots of morning glories . The second picture is of the fruits of my labor (hoeing) . I will post others as follow ups to these.

Questions???

Chris

 

[firefighter9208]

This year we had a lot of problems with morning glories . I had to hoe each field of pumpkins 4 or 5 times before they got big enough to cover the ground. Each time I hoed them I came back and plowed with my Farmall 140.

Some of you might suggest a pre-emergent, but that didn't even work this year on the corn crop. I spray all my corn ground with Simazine and Atrazine and the morning glories still covered the ground. We lost about 1 1/2 acres of Indian Corn to the morning glories, as you can see in picture three (right side of the picture). I sprayed this corn with both pre-emergent and then went back and sprayed it with Atrazine post emergent and it still didn't control the morning glories.

Finally when enough of the corn was broken over, I just bushhogged it down. .

Picture 1 is of pumpkins after watering the first time.
Picture 2 is after hoeing.
Picture 3 is of the pumpkins at our house and corn that is broken down with morning glories.

 

[firefighter9208]

Here are some pictures of the pumpkins as they progressed to cover the ground.

Picture 1 was taken on July 17th of Jack O Lanterns. All that hoeing paid off.

Picture 2 was taken on August 6th. They are really starting to cover the ground now!

Chris

 

[firefighter9208]

Mixed in with the Indian Corn (that I bushhogged down) were two rows of Jubilee II watermelons that were about 200 feet long.

This is a picture of part of a truckload of melons off those rows. We pulled over the two rows and got 45 watermelons that averaged from 45-47 pounds each.

You can also see in this picture how bad the morning glories were in the corn.


Sorry for the poor image quality. I didn't have the resolution properly set on my phone.
Chris

 

[Western]

Chris, If you had a market for morning glory's, you'd be a wealthy man!

 

[firefighter9208]

Chris, If you had a market for morning glory's, you'd be a wealthy man!

LOL! My wife told me to leave the morning glory seeds out of the planter next year!

Chris

 

[randy41]

Chris-how do you irrigate the melons and the corn?
nice looking melons.

 

[SandburRanch]

A garden that size is quite an endeavor. I hope you are only hoeing weeds in close proximity to the pumpkins and cultivating the remainder with a tractor.

Those melons look like they may be Crimson Sweet? I had a volunteer plant this year that produced 3 melons and they sure are good.

 

[firefighter9208]

Chris-how do you irrigate the melons and the corn?
nice looking melons.

I do not irrigate the watermelons, cantalopes, or corn. We get about 35" of rain a year, so we usually get a rain that will "make" the corn.
The watermelons are sweeter w/o irrigation.

Chris

 

[firefighter9208]

A garden that size is quite an endeavor. I hope you are only hoeing weeds in close proximity to the pumpkins and cultivating the remainder with a tractor.

Those melons look like they may be Crimson Sweet? I had a volunteer plant this year that produced 3 melons and they sure are good.

I hoe a streak about 12" wide and use the Farmall 140 to plow the rest of the weeds.

The melons on the truck are Jubilee II. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the Crimson Sweets that we grew.

Chris