Pumpkin plant size? How to protect from critters?

[jal_ut]

When you see a pumpkin forming and it is about 8 inches wide, go pull the vine toward it and then sit it up on its blossom end and put a piece of cardboard under it. The cardboard keeps the underground critters from chewing holes in the bottom of the pumpkin. By sitting it up on its blossom end it will form nice and round, not lopsided. Remove other blossoms or pumpkins from the plant so it has only the one to feed and nourish. Water the plant and stand back and watch a pumpkin grow.