Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi guys,

Im new to this forum and sort of new to growing my own.

We are having problems which im hoping someone can help with.

Last year we tried to grow pumpkins and butternuts, they flowered and produced the veg but as soon as the flower died, the veg did too, kind of rotted

This year we were told by the garden center to pollenate them for the veg to grow, so we brough quite alot of little pumpkins, all sorts of sqaush's, marrows and zucinis(sp?)

but despite pollenateing them they are all starting to die

What are we doing wrong??

We are also growing....

carots, parsnips, pak choi, brocoli, cauliflowers, lettcue, toms, cucmbers, fruot bushes and trres, sweude, sprouts, beets, onion, radishes pretty much everuything!

these have done really well and we have already harested some pak choi, radishes, lecttue and rocket.

Any tips/hints/advice on my sqaushes, pumpkins and marrows will be greatly received.

Thanks!!!

x

Hi welcome to the vine!

Last year the reason for the rotting may have been the weather, it was so wet and terrible for squashes, loads of people had problems!

This year it is still quite early for squashes (you don't say where you are but Essex has been pretty wet/cold so far and we're supposed to be the driest county...). The first squashes will often rot as it's too cold/wet still. Yes, they can also rot if they're not pollinated, so you're doing that right!

I would suggest waiting! They should start to produce more flowers and fruit as the summer (?) goes on and if you're worried why not raise them off the ground with straw?

Good luck with those.
The rest of your crop sounds great! My pak choi has been a disaster - bolting straight away, so I'm very envious of you!

My squashes are relatively small plants still now and are only producing male flowers at present therefore the flowers will look pretty for a day or so then wither and die. When the female ones arrive (soon I hope!) you often don't get anything much off the first couple of ones for some reason but the season is yet young so hang on in there! By the way, have never needed to pollinate squashes that are grown outside, the insects should do it for you as they are attracted by the big yellow flowers.

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I actually have another pumpkin question, it being my first year growing them.

I have 4 plants (2 spooktacular and 2 Dill's atlantic giant) which are all about 4-5 leaves big.

And a friend has a couple whose leaves are just poking through now.

Are either of us likely to get pumpkins in time for Hallowe'en?

Ta muchly knowledgeable peeps.

Thanks for your advice, my butternuts are still small, no flowers on them yet, but my pumpkins and marrows are huge, long vines and lots of male fowers and a few female with the fruits on, any idea why my marrow and corrgetts started to die too? i have about 4 on each plant (got two plants) and one has rotted.

We were growing them in our green house but today i have taken them out to see if they do any better outside.

My pak choi i was so proud of, we still have lots growing, but here was out first harvest, made a very lovely stir fry hehe



x

Now that's just cruel!






What's the secret?

lol sorry.

No idea what the secret is, we grew them in a big tray in the grren house, maybe teh greenhouse had something to do with it.

x

Anyone have any idea if pumpkins with about 5 leaves, or those just showing their first leaves now, will give fruits for halloween??

pak choi very impressive mine has been nibbled a bit by ? pigeons but swiss chard has been excelling itself!! have had a few healthy pickings for dinner

same question im wondering too winged one i planted mine at the suggested time on the the back of the packet, my gourds are doing really well no flowers as yet, but my pumpkins are really small still, i know the packet is more of a guide but it says harvest end of sept?? hopeing mine will stretch out till halloween as ive made the patch a little eeire looking i want it to look spooky for halloween

I'd grow all squashes and pumpkins outside, not in a greenhouse.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

Winged one - I am a novice but last year we got our pumpkins in really late and they were just fine for halloween - we only grew mini ones though but we sowed them about early July. I also think it depends on the weather, you need some decent sunshine at the end to harden their skins and finish them ripening! I'm sure someone more experienced will help but I would guess you should be fine!

Our mini pumpkins last october, sowed early July pic(3rd pic down!)

Michelle

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My garden blog
http://michelles-garden.blogspot.com/
Updated 20th August 2008

Pumpkins will be fine for Halloween as the fruit doesn't take a long time to grow. You want the plant to be concentrating on establishing itself still and getting big enough to support the fruit. Five leaves is still small so keep watering and feeding them. I think you aim for 100 days of growing fruit so count back and that dictates when you want to start pollonating the females. By my calculator thats one month from now. If you set fruit now thats fine it can just grow longer (and bigger maybe!) or you harvest it sooner. If later it doesn't matter it just won't get as big.

The key thing is you can't have lots of big fruit. So compromise to either many samller ones or a couple of bigger fruit. Always pollonate more than you need as some will naturally abort or get damaged. If you get lucky just cull the weakest.

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just wnted to give you all an update,

My pumpkins and marrows etc are all doing so well now! i took them out of the green house and they have grown like mad, lots of yellow/orange flowers and 2 pumpkins have come from no where and are getting very big!

x

Sorry to crash in on the pumpkin chat, but you all seem to know about these things...

I have a pumpkin plant growing in a large pot. Some friends came round and pointed out that it was a strange plant because it was growing upwards (about 5 foot now) as opposed to resting on the ground. They reckon i'm heading for trouble once it starts fruiting as the pumpkins will just fall off or break the plant. They also think it's too big a plant for my tiny garden....

Am i being a fool? Is this thing going to take over my garden? Even my house?

Some pumpkins do seem to have a self destruct instinct! If you can try and stake it down it will do better and of course be able to support the weight of fruit. However, if you can arrange support there is no reason why it can't grow up. If you try to move it be careful that the stem doesn't snap. Little bt little is the trick one inch per day etc. Use bamboo canes to hold the vine in place.

As for the size well they do get big. I'm hoping mine fill each fill a space 15'x25' although they have a long way to go. You can always prune the vines to restrict te size but the less feedling the plant can do the smaller your pumpkin. The fact you have it in a pot will naturally restrict its size so I wouldn't overly worry. Just don't expect lots of fruit.

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