Please help!!! Did I plant my pumpkins to late!??!

[conn96]

Well, first of all, a lot of you have told me that I planted my pumpkins to late. I planted them on July 4th and the seed packet says 100-120 harvest time. So shouldn't they be ready by Halloween? Also, I only planted one plant and no flowers have appeared yet. I'm worried. Is this normal? When will they appear? Thanks.

[engineeredgarden]

Well...it's gonna be close. I think they'll start coming in just about that time - give or take a week. I planted mine on June 15th last year, in hopes of them maturing about a week before halloween. However, they were 2-3 weeks early, if memory serves me correct.

EG

[garden5]

Well...it's gonna be close. I think they'll start coming in just about that time - give or take a week. I planted mine on June 15th last year, in hopes of them maturing about a week before halloween. However, they were 2-3 weeks early, if memory serves me correct.

EG

Did you plant seeds or plants. I believe the OP planted seeds,which will add some time to the maturation dates.

[engineeredgarden]

garden5 - seeds. All of the commercial pumpkin growers in my area plant from seed around the first of July, and the excessive heat makes those vines grow like crazy. Since you are in Ohio, I would think the plants in your location wouldn't grow nearly as quick as the ones down here. As I said to the OP - it's gonna be really close, that is...if the plants are growing as well as expected.

EG

[garden5]

Yeah, you are right about the heat, we don't start getting any serious strings of warm weather until about late-June. Up here, you get a better head-start by pre-sprouting the seeds and growing them in containers for a week or two before setting them out. However, you have to be careful not to let them get too big, since messing with the roots will really set them back.

[engineeredgarden]

garden5 - yeah, almost everything is diect sown down here, because setting out transplants is just not necessary (except for peppers and tomatoes, of course)

[garden5]

garden5 - yeah, almost everything is diect sown down here, because setting out transplants is just not necessary (except for peppers and tomatoes, of course)

I don't know about the peppers, but I'd bet that you could get away with growing tomatoes from seed, down where you are. I know that I had some volunteers come up in my garden this year (seeds that overwintered in the compost, which was then spread in the garden) and are giving up a late-crop of tomatoes right now. I'm sure you guys down there could do it, too.

[engineeredgarden]

garden5 - well, since I thought about it - yes tomatoes will. About 20 volunteer cherry tomato plants came up in a big flowerbed at work, and they produced like crazy. I would think early maturing varieties would do well, too.

EG

[garden5]

I've even heard some speculate that direct-sown tomatoes will do better than transplanted ones. This is supposedly because their root systems become much more expansive sooner (no root-bound problems to worry about). While I'll admit that sometimes they do AS GOOD as my transplants, I've never noticed any that do that much better, if any better at all. I've also found plenty that underperformed the transplanted toms.

Anyway, we're straying way off topic .