Jack o' Lanterns

I'm looking for a little advice on how to grow pumpkins big enough for my kids to carve. I planted 3 or 4 jack o' lantern seeds, and they're now huge vines that I'm training up a trellis for space. Should I take some of the pumpkins off of the vine to encourage the remainders to get bigger, or will they get big enough without me doing that, allowing for a larger crop? Do I need to fertilize? Does anyone have advice for supporting the pumpkins that grow on the trellis? How do I know when they're ready to harvest?
Thanks!
Christy

To get mine as large as possible, I always removed all but one (the best looking and biggest pumpkin) from each vine. You were smart to plant more than one so you will have backups in case something goes wrong with one or more of your vines. I don't raise pumpkins anymore--passed that torch to my daughter, lol.

OK, you'll be able to tell I'm a beginner by this question. NatureLover, do you mean keep one pumpkin per arm of the plant, for a total of several pumpkins per plant, or one pumpkin per plant, total? I'm not sure if you meant "vine" as one of many or one whole plant. I hope you mean arm, or my kids are going to fight over who gets the home-grown pumpkins. Thanks!

I meant per plant but I well remember how it is with those kids, lol. Just do the diplomatic thing. Pick two of your four plants and remove all but one pumpkin. Then let each of your (oh gosh, I'm assuming you have two like I do, lol) kids claim one each of the remaining two and leave all the pumpkins on them. I used to always have one plant that I left all the pumpkins on. The pumpkins were smaller but the kids and I had a blast painting faces on them. Then after we were done displaying them, we cleaned the meat out, processed it, and froze it to make pumpkin bread out of. And of course they loved to "help" me clean and bake the seeds for eating. And please don't worry about being a beginner--we all start out as beginners. You know the saying about the only dumb question being the one you don't ask.

Marleine

Ok...so, I have a related question to ask. We have a communal garden with some friends of ours and are growing pumpkins for the first time. One of our friends said that he heard you're supposed to pick off some of the blossoms to encourage the growth of only a few pumpkins per plant (like you have indicated). However, the pumpkins we're growing are just the small ones, "pie-sized" I think they call it. Is it still necessary to pick some of the blossoms on these, even though we're just hoping for lots of smaller pumpkins? I guess what I'm asking is, do you pick some to generate a bigger pumpkin, a more quality pumpkin, or to simply help the plant produce? (Does that question even make sense?) :) Thanks to all!

easter_lily,
Since you're not looking for bigger pumpkins, I would treat the ones you have just like cantaloupes. I always let all my cantaloupes, cucumbers, etc. mature since I'm not concerned with them becoming huge. I would think that especially in your case, more is better since there will be enough for everyone to have at least one (depending on how many folks you have). The only reason I know of for removing pumpkins is to attain bigger size on the ones you leave. Kids have so much fun painting faces on those little pumpkins--hope you get lots of them!

Thank you, NatureLover. That's kind of what I thought, too, but wanted to check with someone who's done this before! Best wishes to both of you on your gardens. I'd love to see pictures of your jack-o-lanterns when they're carved, GardeningMommy! Your vines are looking great so far!

Yeah, the vines are looking good, they are just getting huge! I wonder how much bigger these are going to get before the end of the season, as I obviously didn't leave enough room for them!

NatureLover, thanks again for the advice. I actually have 3 kids, and though only 2 are old enough to care about a pumpkin, the older ones will both feel ripped off on behalf of the baby if he doesn't get his own pumpkin too. So I have to grow at least 3 good pumpkins! I think my biggest challenge is going to be figuring out what vine goes where, and which pumpkin belongs to which plant. I planted using the method of several pumpkins on one small hill (though, truthfully, I omitted the hill), so all the vines originate from the same place and are tangled together. I'm just going to have to sort through the mess until I can figure it out!

Do you have any recommendations regarding how long to wait before I remove all of the excess pumpkins from the vine?

gardeningmommy...Just a thought. I had read that you can scratch your kids names on the pumpkins when they're small, and the name will grow with the pumpkin and they'll each have one with their names on it. I thought it was a cool idea, thought I'd pass it along!

Kristie

GardeningMommy,
You can remove the excess pumpkins at any point--the smaller they are when you remove them the better as they are only using up energy that could go to the ones you want to keep. kls_01, that's a really cute idea and I'm sure the kids would love it. If you don't scratch too deep where it would expose the inside of the pumpkin to disease, that should work. I always let my kids each pick out a pumpkin while they were still about the size of a cantaloupe and let them mark it with a flag. We made the flag by using a long slender stick cut from a tree and then cut out whatever shape they wanted from a piece of scrap fabric for the actual flag. They loved it but they probably would have like the name on their pumpkin better!

Kristie,

I read that too! Here it is (I'd link it, but the page lists tons of other stuff along with this):

"Wait until the pumpkin is about 3 to 4 weeks old or developed enough to have smooth, slightly toughened skin (all fuzz long gone). Any blunt tool will do; a large nail works fine or even a ball point pen. Break the skin and don't penetrate more than 1/8 inch. There will be some "bleeding" for a few hours after surgery. Wipe the marking during the next few hours, and it should seal within a day. At first, it may be hard to see the results; but the scar will show in time and will grow in size along with the pumpkin."

I am debating whether or not I want to do it or not, because I know there will be a lot of disappointment if the one with their name doesn't make it. But I think I want to do it anyway! If not, I'll definitely have to go for personalized flags.

I would like to attribute the instructions and picture sadako.com.

This message was edited Jul 19, 2007 8:10 AM

OK, two more things.

First, I bought some knee-high nylons, and was planning on putting the pumpkins into the nylons, and then securing the nylons to my trellis. Does anyone know if that will work?

Secondly, I found the seed packet for my pumpkins. It says they grow to 10-15 lbs. Will selectively pruning yield a pumpkin larger than that (which I'd like--the ones you buy at the store for carving are usually more like 20-30 lbs., aren't they??), or by the nature of the veriety of pumpkin am I constrained to that size, regardless of pruning?

The variety I used (too long ago to remember the name, lol) was only supposed to get to about 10-15 lbs. also but by pruning off all but two, I ended up with approximately 25 lb. pumpkins which made the kids real happy. Mind you, I was young and poor and couldn't afford to put on a lot of extra fertilizer which should make them get even bigger.

Marleine

Thanks, Marleine. I'm happy to hear that they can get bigger than the package states--I though that might be the case. My boys would love the pumpkins to be as big as possible! We have a few that are about the size of an orange right now, and they're very excited about that. Soon I'll have to sort through the whole mess and prune some out.

I haven't added any extra fertilizer (besides compost at planting), so we'll see how that turns out.

Does anyone know if I can just add regular run-of-the-mill fertilizer to these? The kind you apply when you water?

This message was edited Jul 20, 2007 4:04 PM

GM - I don't know if you've seen this thread, but there's a lot of pumpkin-growing savvy to be found there. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/729033/

No, I didn't see that thread, as I'm a lowly non-paying member right now (I only joined DG 2 weeks ago). Too bad I can't see it--that surely would answer all of my questions.

This message was edited Jul 20, 2007 11:08 PM

Hi GM,
As stated earlier, I couldn't afford fertilizer--all I had to use was my homemade compost (which is great stuff--I still use it!). If you have some extra, you can side dress your vines with some and it will do just fine. And even if your pumpkins don't get as big as the ones they sell in the store, your kids will be extra happy with them because they grew them. Kids get so excited when they are involved in the gardening process. I always marked off a little corner for each of my kids and let them have their own garden. They just loved it. And now that they are grown and on their own (daughter 34 and son 32) they both still love to fool around with gardening and growing houseplants. I think it's great that you're including your kids in this venture.

Marleine

OK, here's the update! I've pruned a few of the pumpkins off of my vines, but found that it's going to be nigh unto impossible to get it to one pumpkin per vine. There are just too many things to sort through, and it's too prickly! So I'm caring for the largest pumpkins and picking off ones that I can tell are on the same vine.

NL, by "side dress", do you mean just lay some compost down at the base of the vines and let the sprinklers carry the nutrients down? Now that's something I can do!

Also, here's a picture of my makeshift slings for my pumpkins. I've only done one so far, as I want to test it out before I do it for the rest. I made it by tying two knee-high stockings together, and then tying that over the top of the trellis and securing it with a zip tie. This pumpkin is about 6' in diameter already, so I am so excited!

Here's a backed out picture of the pumpkin on the sling, in case you care to do this to your own jack o' lanterns.

For anyone who's considering making a pumpkin hammock out of nylons like I did, don't bother. It might work with another fabric, but not with nylons. The pumpkin quickly grew too wide, and slipped out of the little hammock I'd created. I went back to the drawing board, and now I've made some supports that are essentially I-Beams (except the top and bottom boards are triangle shaped) made from scrap wood. They were very easy to build, and I think they're going to work well, provided they stay upright (and I think they will). They've taken stress off of the vine, which is good, since the strings of my trellis were beginning to scar the vine form the weight of the pumpkin. Here's how they look!

Oh, I've also carved names into the 5 pumpkins that I think I'm going to keep. I'll let you know how those turn out. And I found a "siamese twin" pumpkin--two pumpkins, each with separate stems (though, actually, the stems are partially fused) that are fused together. I hope it grows, because it'll be awesome on my front porch!

G.Mommy, were they hard to grow? Did you start from seed?

They were very easy! I did start them from seed--a 10 cent packet at that. I planted them in early June, and in a little less than 2 months they've gone from seeds to HUGE vines with lots of pumpkins. I've pruned a few off to make the others bigger, but as of today I have 5 that are at least 6 inches wide or tall, or both. My largest is about 9 inches wide and 7 inches tall. It's my first year gardening, and I have three small (but wild) boys, so if I can do it, anyone can! :o)

Hi, GardeningMommy. You sound like a mom after my own heart. This is my first year gardening (well...with a sizeable garden that is) as well and I have two preschoolers. It's been a lot of fun but even more work than fun. I think we're going to downsize until the kids get bigger! We bit off a little more than we could chew for the first time out! We planted pumpkins also but am afraid we'll only have just enough...maybe...for one per child, including the family we're gardening with. We started out saying that our first year would be highly "experimental," and that's just what it's been. Lots of learning to be done, but it's been a great experience for us and the kids, too. They learn so much by planting and watching things grow. Good for the soul!

Thanks for your advice on the slings and the I-beams. Looks like you're investing a lot of time and energy into those little pumpkins. I hope the kids are enjoying watching them grow! Again...would love to see pictures when the pumpkins are grown! :)

Hi Easter Lily,

Yay, another mom of small kids who's venturing the task of a garden! I totally agree, it's a lot of work, but luckily my hubbie finds gardening fun too, so we've been tackling it together. Phew--I've not only got to learn everything from scratch, as this is my first year, but I've got to landscape our entire yard. We built a new house, so our backyard was just dirt when we moved in last September. We've been very busy putting in sprinklers, laying sod, designing our yard layout, planting perennials, shrubs, trees, veggies, etc. It's been quite a job, but any little payoff I get is so great! I think that's why I'm so excited about my pumpkins--they are visible evidence of my gardening! The kids are loving having something big like pumpkins as their own, too. Maybe you'll get more pumpkins soon, so you can have a little excess besides the one per child. I still see a few baby pumpkins coming on my vine. Then again, maybe it's too late for them to fully mature. I don't know! :o) Post pictures of your pumpkins, too! I'd love to see how others are doing. I am going to let my two oldest boys enter their pumpkins (as long as they agree to help me with them every so often) in a contest at the local nursery. Everyone who enters gets a ribbon, and they'll think that's cool.

Anyway, good luck with your pumpkins! :o)
Christy

Has anyone ever tried cutting a notch in the vine just about the pumpkin and then laying one end of the string in the notch and the other in a pail of water? I read in a kids craft book that this will make jack-o-lanterns very large.

Hey again, Christy! I laughed when I heard you are landscaping your yard this year. We are too!!! Instead of a new house though, we have a very old house that happened to have NO trees in the backyard and no decent landscaping. We've actually been here for almost two years but had other big projects to do before we could even think about the landscape...like a new roof that would have destroyed anything we would have tried to plant. So, needless to say, we had to wait on that to be done first.

I agree with you that having things that grow quickly is so rewarding when you have such a major job ahead of you. I have enjoyed my sunflowers so much for that reason! I'm planning on growing them again next year because it made our home look so much cozier having something that looked "grown up" and mature next to the house.

Back to the pumpkins...our garden hasn't been faring too well in this scorching heat and drought. The few small pumpkins that grew have already matured and the vines died back. Now they're sitting on my countertop waiting on me to make some pies out of them! That should be an adventure. I've never done that from fresh pumpkins before. (If anyone has any tips, feel free to share them.) Maybe I could send pictures of my pies instead, and make everyone's mouths water. :)

Blessings on your gardens everyone, and thanks for your reply, Christy!
-easter_lily

Drum roll, please! I harvested our first pumpkin yesterday! My sons have been checking their pumpkins every day, and are so excited, particularly for their personal pumpkin with their name on it. Here's my 2-year-old with his gardening prize! It's only about 9 lbs., but it's a great size for him. In the end, largely because the vines were an entangled mess, I decided to prune out pumpkins that were obviously on the same vine as another, but otherwise just to let them all grow. Now I've got about 15 good pumpkins on the way.

Here's a close-up of his scarred name. I would highly recommend doing this if you have kids. It's so fun, and they just love it.

Thanks for the pics, GardeningMommy! What a cutie! And the name turned out really well, too. The kids should be really proud of their prize pumpkins! Sounds like you're getting a good return on all your work! We'll have to try this next year IF we grow pumpkins again. Thanks for the input!

:) easter_lily

Way to go GM!! Matt looks verrrry happy with his pumpkin. And he is such a cutie! Fortunately, when they're his age, a 9 pounder looks as big as a 25 pounder, lol. If y'all had the scorching hot weather we've had down here, you REALLY did good growing anything. I got a lot from my garden for fresh eating, sharing and canning but it was all burned up by the third week of July.

I've been landscaping from scratch here too. We finished building our house (did it ourselves) about 2 years ago. I started out with 5 acres of dirt--NO trees, flowers, shrubs, just nothing! It's been a long process so it's a good thing I enjoy growing things, LOL. Sounds like we need to keep up with each other's progress on all this yard work!

Easter lily--I've been freezing fresh pumpkin for years. I always picked a nice big one and just painted a face on it rather than carving it. After I'm done with it, I cut it in sections and microwave each section until it's tender enough to cut away from the skin. Then I run it through the blender (or a food mill) and put it in canning jars and stick it in the freezer. My family just loves pumpkin bread any time of the year and, of course, pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And when it's frozen from fresh, it tastes soooo much better than the stuff you buy in cans from the store.