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Last year my pumpkins were growing great, the pumpkins were about the size of a soccer ball, they were the giant pumpkins, I went to the water them and noticed they had turned a light orange color and looked spongy. Have you ever experienced this?

I know some of the giant varieties are lighter orange. I'm growing Atlantic Dill's this year, but due to the late start due to all of our rain, mine just sprouted a few days ago. I don't know about the spongy thing though, maybe some pics would help?

Last year, I got greedy. Well, that and I was trying pumpkins for the first time in a gazillion years, and I hadn't a clue what I was doing. I was up to 21 viable pumpkins for three plants, just the small kind, and the plants started to selectively abort the excess. I think I wound up with 18. I decided that pumpkins will step in and take care of themselves. If they decide they can't support all the pumpkins on the vine, they will kill some to make certain the others live.

I also found that the more each plant produced, the smaller were the pumpkins. Some of the ones I processed at the end were quite puny for the variety of I was growing. I think that's especially true with the giants, which I've never tried. I've read, though, that you want to limit them to two per plant, maybe even one, to get the big ones.

If the Pumpkin is soft for some reason it is probaby dead.
The plant may have aborted it.
Usually an unpollinated Atlantic Giant pumpkin will die of at the size of a soft ball.
If conditions are not right the plant will abort pumpkins if it can't support them to keep the plant alive.

How long is the main vine on your plant?

Was the pumpkin sitting on the ground? Sometimes bugs and rot can take over and ruin the pumpkin.

It really doesn't matter much if it was on the ground or not but was does matter is that it is outside and exposed to anything.

Cucurbita Maxima, which includes the giant pumpkins, Big Max pumpkins, Hubbard Squash, and Banana Squash, has always seemed to me to be a little different in growth habit. Yes, they will abort a fruit at times. Though I have had some nice fruit from this species, there has also been some disappointments. This year I am growing Hubbard and Banana.

The Dill Atlanic Giant is fun to grow.
Sme years are good and some are not.
I have had some 400 pounders.
They are not a pumpkin but a squash as stated above.

I forgot to add it is a squash in so many words.
This issue between pumpkins and squash has never and probably never will be solved.
I guess it comes down to if you look at it as a realist or a purist.

Pumpkin/squash, who cares? They are all fun to grow. Such large fruit cannot be had from any other garden cultivars. I have never planted the Dill Giant Pumpkin. My season is too short. I have planted Big Max, and they often go over 100 pounds which seems "Giant" to me.

One thing I like to do if I grow a large pumpkin is: when I get a good fruit set on the vine, I will go move the fruit closer to the root attachment point and set the fruit on its blossom end, and put some newspaper under it. I move it far enough to give the vine some slack so the fruit can expand upward without pulling the vine taut. When sitting on its blossom end the fruit will then develop nice and round, instead of having that smashed look that most giants have because they grew up laying on their side. They are so heavy they smash themselves.

That's the way I grow them also.
I like them big and round.

Last year my pumpkins were growing great, the pumpkins were about the size of a soccer ball, they were the giant pumpkins, I went to the water them and noticed they had turned a light orange color and looked spongy. Have you ever experienced this?

Cody, fill us in on what they did? Did you get any pumpkins? Are you growing pumpkins this year?

Oh, and WELCOME to the forum.

I have found that the pumpkins in the genus C pepo are more reliable to grow. Varieties Connecticut Field and Howden are good.

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/squash_harvest.jpg[/img]

These pumpkins are typical for C pepo.

Atlantic Giant from a few years ago.
[img]https://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae263/nemf/Picture001-1.jpg[/img]