Pumpkin Palooza
There are many firsts as a novice gardener and this year, I wanted to take a stab at growing pumpkins! This post is meant to share the ups and downs and everything I’ve learned along the way as well as share the pumpkin arch progress, which I’m so very excited about!
Lessons from a first time pumpkin grower:
Timing is everything
I was really excited to try growing pumpkins this year. In short, I started early and planted in late May/early June. Maybe I didn’t believe I’d be successful, but in the end, I have a pretty decent harvest of mini pumpkins I’m excited to use but have to now store in the refrigerator until Halloween time. I’m worried they won’t keep and they’re taking up valuable real estate I could otherwise be using for cold brewskies.
From the growing perspective, the amount of time it took for the seedlings to take off and large leaves and fruit to start growing was much longer with the earlier batch. The second round has been growing at lightning speed, which means less work, less watering, less time the plants are out exposed to pests.
When the first few pumpkins grew to size and turned fully orange, I was so nervous they’d die on the vine that I harvested them right away. I learned later by leaving some of the fruit on the vine that they’ll keep just fine for several more weeks. I think I was likening them to tomatoes or persimmons - around here, if those are left for one day past their peak, the birds will devour them.Direct Sow vs. transplanting
We have far too many pests around to direct sow much of anything - I did direct sow pumpkin seeds only to find them dug up the next morning. Any plants that did sprout lasted a couple of days and were then chomped down by rabbits. I would love to one day direct sow a lot of things, but until I can figure out the rabbit issue, they’ll have to be started indoors for now. I’ll be planting a Kale bed this Fall meant solely to attract rabbits, a decoy garden if you will. Rabbits love kale and I can’t say that I do, so win/win!Powdery mildew
I’ve learned from Zucchini growing that powdery mildew is an issue - the pumpkins are no different. I avoid watering leaves for the most part, but the pumpkins on the trellis to get sprinkled on by a landscape sprinkler. Powdery mildew won’t necessarily kill your plants or ruin your harvest, but it can have a negative impact on how well your plants grow. Here are the steps I’ve taken:a. Don’t overhead water: water the ground under the leaves, not the leaves themselves. If this is unavoidable, don’t water in the afternoon/evening, but opt for the morning so leaves have a chance to dry off from the sun.
b. Clip away badly impacted leaves, this can slow the spread.
c. Neem Oil: I try to avoid using this as it can be bad for certain insects, but as a last resort, I spray the heavily impacted leaves with Neem oil.
