Giant Pumpkins Atlantic Giant

Its time to play around with giant pumpkins again.
I know I will never grow a world record giant pumpkin. The odds are against me because I live here in Alabama where the summers are scorching hot and day light hours are less than the upper north. But I do have fun growing Large pumpkins.
I did not grow one last year and the one I grew the year before stopped growing when the pumpkin was only 36 days old. It aborted. They say sometimes they just do that.
It estimated 310 pounds. My goal was to beat our State record which was only 410 pounds.
Yes, I was disappointed when it stopped growing. I was only 100 pounds from matching the state record. I have no idea yet what the new state record is if there is one.
Pumpkins can grow 65 to 90 days on the vine . 90 if you are extremely lucky.(rare)
The females normally have 3 to 7 segments (stigmas). Most giant growers look for 5 or more segments. 6 and 7 segments are Rare. There have been a few Freak Mega Females that had 12 and 13 segments (multi-fused blossoms) But no one has been successful at getting one of those to grow a giant. (that I know of so far)
Most giant pumpkin growers grow only one giant per plant. Some grow more than one but there is a certain way to train the plant in order to do that.
Giant pumpkins are fun. Some think they are a total waste of space and time thinking why grow it if you cannot eat it. Well, I eat the culled ones. The ones that are pulled from the vine that are not to be grown . If you pollinate them or let them naturally pollinate, You can have a small pumpkin to slice and fry within 7 to 10 days after it was pollinated and taste really good. LIke Squash.

This is a photo of the pumpkin I grew two years ago. Son, Chad, is standing with it. He thought it was exciting---never saw a large pumpkin before til I grew one.

Here we go again!

Surprisingly, that pumpkin also made it to the newspaper. I guess the News Paper was desperate for news. It also made it to other newspapers in other cities. Found that out later.

Any Way------

This year I started out with 4 atlantic giant pumpkin plants. I transplanted them into the ground May 9th. They were doing pretty good till one day I found out that one of the neighboring kids broke one. He was playing with his sister and she said go get some leaves so we can make a salad. ............................
A few days later another one was broken...................................wonder how?
So then I was down to two plants. I decided I wanted a giant green pumpkin which is not a pumpkin but called a Giant Squash because it is green but grows and looks just like an Orange giant pumpkin. So I sowed a giant green squash in the place of one of the broken pumpkins. It has germinated and seems to be doing pretty good.

This is a photo of the 936 Holland on May 25th.

Here we go again! Hope that's not a bad thing.


I won't show a photo of all the plants. I have sown more seeds this past week.

This is 936 holland a week later on June 1st. They grew slow at first. It seems the older the plant is, the faster it grows.

Sorry, took photos just at dark. I promise to take them in the daylight from now on.

Just wanted to show you how fast they are growing now.

This photo is also of the 936 Holland , two days later, June 3rd.

I have a 1203 Daletas in the ground too. Same age as the 936 Holland but it is doing poorly. I noticed a lot of sqush bugs on the plant two days ago and I removed them and killed them dead as a door-nail. Then I removed their eggs off the leaves using a strip of duct tape folded in a backward circle. I sprayed the plant with liquid seven dust. The plant was doin fine at first----it was slower than the 936 but was healthy. Now it has a few yellowing leaves randomly on the plant. I am assuming the squash bugs caused it. We shall see what it looks like in a week.

Meanwhile, the new green squash plant ( 820* lovelace ) is growing its second set of leaves. (excited)

820* Lovelace
and
936 Holland

means : 820 was the weight of the pumpkin or squash.
the Lovelace or Holland is the last name of the person who grew it.
The * on the 820* means it is a green squash.

I had some old seed that I thought I would try to grow from year 2005. They are in the ground and hoping one of them germinate. They are the 1000.5 Lishness and the 530 Lishness.
898 Holland (year) "07" orange
556* Lovelace "06" green
679.9* Lovelace "07" green
All of these seeds were sown in the ground and taking forever to germinate.
They are in a 15 x 200 ft garden plot. The 898 Holland has germinated and showing green leaf at the surface of the ground. I really want another green one to germinate.

Thats all for now.

This message was edited Jun 4, 2009 7:48 AM

Oh, I think everyone here was fascinated by your last pumpkin-growing saga. I learned a lot.

Cool!

I don't have the time to do something like that right now, but still cool! I guess I've always have a fascination with the folks who got their pictures in the newspaper posing with large or unusual looking veggies they have grown. That's what small town newspapers are for!

Thanks for sharing the adventure.

Is there a link to your previous experience I would enjoy reading up on it.

I just can't get over how well rounded that pumpkin is. You must have turned it everyday to not have flat sides?

Janet

Duct tape for egg removal - great idea!

Wow, they're growing really fast. Looking forward to watching your progress over the coming months.

I read about a man who was growing the ridiculous ones, 11 hundred pounds or something. He'd built a big screen house, just for the plant, and he did all sorts of calisthenics. Maybe he even read Tarot card to the plant.

I bet you could hang a IV above one, have it drip nutrients into the stem of the fruit, haha!

Yes, it'd be fun. Maybe I'll do it someday--- I hear the winner's seed sells for huge prices.

Duct tape--I'll have to remember that one. The squash bugs were so bad here that I've sworn off of curcubits for a couple years to thin them out. They seem to be near impossible to control in an organic environment. Last year I scraped off eggs daily and picked off adults morning and night, and they still destroyed every plant I had prior to fruiting. Very depressing after all of that sustained effort.

I miss the giant pumpkins, though, and I had to satisfy my delicata cravings at the farmer's market, where they cost a fortune.

I wonder if I could keep them at bay with a carefully constructed screen house, though? I hate to throw things like sevin around when I've worked so hard to cultivate my organic environment. It would be very disappointing to lose the frogs or the army of lacewings, mantis, ladybugs, parasitic wasps, etc. that I depend on to protect my plants.

I will have to look up my old post---been two years.......

I took pictures in the Day LIght..........I get an A for that!
Its actually measuring 10 feet today. Maybe this rain we had this evening will push it along even faster.

That looks like really sandy soil

The other plant that was attacked by squash bugs is same age as the one above.
I have to make a decision.
The main vine is not growing and yellowing. But some of the first secondaries are growing and healthy green. I think I should terminate most of the main vine and let the healthy secondary take its place. I have never seen so many squash bugs on one plant before. I don't know if squash bug damaged plants ever revive such an attack. I don't know if yellowing leaves will ever revive---but my common sense tells me that It will not.
What do you think?


The first few secondary vines near the trunk (to the right) are doing well, especially since I removed the squash bugs.
(poor plant)

That is really sandy soil. Be careful when you order top soil. You might get all sand.
I am adding chopped leaves, manure, peat moss to the patch this Fall.

I am cloning off the 936. After I took this picture, I put a 6 inch pot of soil under a few vines at the leaf nodes and covered the nodes with soil. They should root----but I dont know how long that takes. Then I cut it from the vine it is growing from. Transplant it.
This is the whole patch out back. it is 20x 110

Happy Gardening.

YEAR 2007 THREAD

1ST part
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/729033

2ND part
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/754630

hope they work

Oh yeh, about that pumpkin being so round. No I did not roll it side to side each day. It just grew like that. You don't want to roll your pumpkins back and forth. Their stems will break very easily. Snap Krackle Pop.
Different giant pumpkin genetics will cause the pumpkin to grow a certain way.
You have big round ones, Some look like bean bags with a dip , Some have rough skin like Cantaloupe---and are called cantalouped skin. Some are Flat. If you ever decide to grow a giant and you receive seeds from another grower---select your seeds according to how you want your pumpkin to look by knowing its family history.

cloning/rooting

Interesting about the cloning. I have a watermelon vine that's in the same sort of condition: still green and healthy-looking at the tip, but the first few leaves and stalk are looking sickly. It suffered because I couldn't get it into the ground as soon as I wanted. I put a few seeds near it and figured I'd thin out whatever wasn't looking as good in a few weeks.

Maybe I'll try what you did, though. It would be interesting to see which produces first - the transplant that got sidetracked with developing a new root system or seeds planted many weeks later.

I have never grown watermelons before. Do watermelons naturally root to the ground at each leaf node like pumpkins do?

They don't normally root, but they do put out curly-ques to rap around whatever is available to hold their vines in place.
If you want to try an experiment, try this. The plant will put several runners out. When you see the first melon that has set on a runner, back up two leaf nodes toward the base of the plant and cover the stem with dirt and wet it. Do this for each of the runners. Let the melons develop and compare the output to other plants allowed to grow normally.
Claud.

Another AG grower here, these are my babies. The 1081 Leonzi, the 1112 Holland (middle), and the 1024 Biss. I am going to use a 965 Pukos for the pollinator.

ha! I made an assumption there, eh? Thanks for setting me straight. So why would I do that saltmarsh? Wouldn't it just damage the stem and kill the melon?

Lovely punkin vines, amigatec.

indy_v
I would expect the plant to root where it's covered. I would also expect more roots to be able to better nourish the plant and produce more or bigger melons. I don't know, I never thought to try it when we raised them on the farm. My viewpoint may be biased. After planting, hoeing, cultivating, shooting crows, staying up most of the nights guarding them from teenagers out to have a little fun and destroy our livelihood in the process, picking, windrowing, loading, hauling, and finally selling them, I saw watermelons as a major pain in the butt. I'll take squash and tomatoes any day.

Amigatec, those are pretty plants. Is this your first time growing the Atlantic Giants?

The 1203 completely wilted. I removed the whole plant. Its a gonner.
It gets very hot here. I rounded up the supplies I needed to put a misting/watering system around the main base of my pumpkin plant with items I already had on hand.
Its not the best, nor is it pretty, but it works great. It was impossible to set this system up without packing the ground around it. I will have to loosen the soil again.
Plus I got out there and remove a lot of weeds around the garden and widened it.

Photo with misting system OFF.

Misting system On.

The plant is really growing now. Not as fast as the wealthy experts but it still zooming.
Have a nice little female at 11 feet, but I don't know if shes the one yet.
Also thought about letting one of the first secondaries grow its own secondaries out to the side of this plant and grow a pumpkin on it too.............still thinking.

southern wind blowing the mist

You can sure see how much room you're giving them to sprawl.

to see how fast the plant is growing, look up on June 4th photo and now June 7th.
The plant has almost doubled in size.

The local fair is in Sept. They called and wanted to know if I would have a pumpkin for display. The most I would win is $7, that really sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!! He said he would let me in the fair for free. (let me in for free) . LOL I can walk anywhere I want to for Free!!!!!! I really wish I had one for the STate Fair, but even then , I would have to drive 3 hours. Plus Hotel. And their contest only pays $300 if you win. what a joke. (NORTH to Alaska!!! Go north, the rush is on!!)
I don't think I will be goin to any Fairs. It aint worth the effort.

This is my second year growing these, last year I had 2 plants and grew a 460 and a 180. This year I ain't messing around the OK record is 638 lbs, and my goal is 700 lbs.

Oh if you're worried about packing down the soil, build you a pair of "Patch Shoes".

They look funny but they don't pack the soil.

Yes my shoes are screwed down to the boards.

I know you can grow big Pumpkins in the south the Georgia State Record was set last year at 980.

Those shoes are cool! I bet you get a good work out if its muddy out too.

Ive heard a few growers making shoes like that. Like snow shoes.

I am so frustrated. The neighbors dog will not stay home. He or She strolled through the garden and stepped on my 820* squash plant. Broke off the main. I was so mad that I did not know what to do with myself. the remaining part of the plant does have two very tiny secondaries . All I can do is Protect it, Baby it, and Wait .......
I have been putting up a barrier fence. I will show you later.

(I really do not like dogs)

Happy Gardening

cricket

try electric fence, that will send a message to your neighbors dog since they don't care what havoc their dog creates.

Sorry to hear about the loss for you.

Janet

its not a total loss yet, Hoping....

HOme depot has this barrier stuff, 100 ft row is about $35.
I put this fence up today. T-Post , Post driver, barrier. I used heavy duty twine and ran the twine in and out of the top edge of the barrier and tied it to each post. Other wise the fencing barrier would sag. Took me about 3 hours total. A few breaks.

I thought my female that is at 11 ft had too much sun on her so I put a canvass chair over it to help shade til pollination day.
All the soil that was packed down was loosened back up today too.
I even made a trail with a hoe for each vine. A preplanned Path for each vine.

The fenced in area is 18x90. I will let the vines growth past the fence. I just want to protect the trunks and the fruit.
The corn started turning a little greener since I fertilized it. Silver Queen, narrow double row, now growing on the outside edge of the fence.

It's in the low 90's the last couple of days and I have females to pollinate.