Pumpkin Stats

May 4    Seeds Planted
May 8 & 9  Germination

May 18    Plants Transplanted 
June 22  Plant A main vine 9 ft. long, Plant B main vine 7.5 ft. long

Transplantation

The pumpkin plants were transplanted into the garden over this past weekend (May 18th).  Each had its first true leaf, which was about sand dollar size, and was starting to get its second leaf.

It turns out that we will have room for both plants, with 2 20'x30' patches planned.  The garden site had graciously been tilled and leveled over the last few weeks by our new landlord. 

We are trying to go as close to organic as possible for growing our pumpkins.

Each pumpkin site was prepared as follows:
1. 2.0 cubic feet of Coast of Maine Quoddy Blend Lobster Compost was poured into a volcano shape.
2. Approximately 1 pound of Mykos, mycorrhizae from Xtreme Gardening was hand mixed into the upper half of the pile of compost.
3. Approximately 4 tsp. of Azos, a nitrogen fixing microbe from Xtreme Gardening, was added to the
planting hole.
4. Approximately 4 tsp of Neptune's Harvest Kelp Meal was added to the planting hole.
5. Each plant was then transplanted, with the first true leaf facing away from the direction I want them to grow.  The plants are supposed to grow away from the first true leaf.
6. Radishes, tansy, nasturtiums, and  marigolds were planted around each plant to try to prevent insect pests.  The marigolds were bought as flowers, the others as seeds.
7. Each plant was then watered with compost tea, which I made with the help of the kids.
8. The pumpkin patch was fenced to try to keep out critters (we have already met several of the
woodchucks, and our landlord says we have deer and racoons).
9. Those are bars of soap tucked into the fence posts.  The smell is supposed to help keep deer away.  I bought Ivory Coast, one of the smelliest soaps I could find.  It would certainly keep me away.
10. Once the plants are older, and the mycorrhizae have had time to do their thing, I will apply an
organic microbe-based fungicide, Actinovate.  I will also apply calcium, again using an Xtreme
Gardening product, CalCarb.

The preparation of each planting site followed recommendations from Don Langevin in How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins The All-Organic Way.  We also made our compost tea following his directions.  Due to the time it took us to prepare the garden, the compost tea sat for 30 hours instead of the recommended 24 hours.  I bought a backpack sprayer to use, but did not have time to figure it out this time.  I will use it next time.  I applied the compost tea with a watering can. 

Compost Tea recipe, as per Don Langevin's recipe.  Note that this is an aerobic culture.

1. 5 gallons of water (we used tap water, which in our case is well water)

2. 4 tablespoons, or 2 oz (1 tablespoon = 0.5 oz), of molasses (this is the food for the microorganisms you will be growing).

3. 4 tablespoons of Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed Fertilizer, which contains hydrolysed fish. (It was a bit lumpy, so I will have to mix it better next time).

4.  4 tablespoons of Humic Acid.

5. 2 handfuls of Earthworm Castings were placed into a cut-off pantyhose leg, which was then hung from the bucket handle in the liquid.

6. An aquarium air pump (Aqua Culture: 5-15 Gallon, Single Outlet Aquarium Air Pump, 1 Ct), along with tubing and a bubble stone, were used to aerate the mix. The pump and supplies were purchased from Wal-Mart - it cost just under $7.  I only needed 4 feet of tubing.

7.  The tea is supposed to be aerated for 24 hours and then applied to the plants.  It is supposed to be applied every 2 weeks from what I have read so far.

Germination

3 days ago, I put some Mykos (mycorrhizae) from Xtreme Gardening in the soil of each pots - it had not yet come in the mail when I planted the seeds.

The first pumpkin seed came up yesterday, May 8th.  It is still having trouble shedding the seed coat.  I was concerned about the other seed, as it had not yet come up.  I dug down gently into the soil, and was able to confirm that it has produced a strong root.  So, it is just a matter of waiting.  I watered both pots, as the soil had dried out.  I had assumed the soil was still moist, as the plastic wrap on the pots was still wet.  Maybe the seeds would have come up sooner if I had kept the soil moist.  Also, I was able to find a picture of how to sand the side of the seeds to help germination (Found in Don Langevin's How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins the All-Organic Way).  I didn't sand as much as I could have, in retrospect.  I had just sanded a little at the rounded end of the seed.  I was worried when the white outer coat was worn away and the tan color underneath showed through.  Apparently though, based on the picture I saw, this is what one should be aiming for.  Not just on the rounded end, but down both sides, so that there is a nice tan strip running down the edge of the seed on both sides, like a racing strip.

I have since found a nice tutorial (by Jordan Rivington, posted on the site for the Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario) on how to prep the seeds and germinate them using a plastic bag method.  There are lots of good pictures in the tutorial.

For now, both pots are on a heating mat, and are under grow lights, with a 16 hours on, 8 hours off cycle.

The seeds were planted on Saturday May 4, 2013.  Each of the 2 seeds was sanded lightly on the rounded edge.  Then, they were each placed into a 4 inch clay pot, pointed-tip down, into Jiffy All-Purpose Potting Mix from Home Depot.  I had mycorrhizae on hand for my tomatoes, so the potting mix for each seed was drenched in MycoGrow from Fungi Perfecti.  The tops of the pots were covered with plastic wrap, and the pots were placed on a heated growing mat.

We are moving to central Pennsylvania in early summer this year.  It will be the first time we have had a garden in several years.  Initially, I was thinking it would be neat to grow pumpkins for the kids to make jack o'lanterns out of.  While browsing seed packets at the store, I found seeds for giant pumpkins.  That got me started thinking: "What if we were to try to grow a giant pumpkin?"  I started reading and researching.  I quickly discovered that Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seeds were the ones that world record pumpkins usually were grown from.  So much for the seeds from the local store.  I ordered some of what I thought were the right seeds from Amazon, only to find that these were for 100 pound pumpkins.  The world record in 2012 was over 2000 pounds, so a 100 pound pumpkin would not do.  I then ordered seeds from Dill's for 500-700 pound pumpkins, as I was not sure if we would have enough garden space.  As I kept researching, the obsession became stronger.  If we are going to try for a big pumpkin, why not go all in?  Plus, it turns out we will have enough space in the garden.  So, I made 1 final order from Dill's.  This time, I ordered 2 seeds from their 2012-2013 Premium Seed List, Super Heavy Weights. Both were 1456 Bryson '12 seeds.  (Pumpkin seeds are named by the weight of the pumpkin they came from in pounds, the last name of the grower, and the year the seeds came from.  So, our seeds were from a pumpkin that was 1456 pounds, and grown by Mr. Bryson in 2012).