Giant Pumpkins for 2013!

[TheWaterbug]

Last year's Giant Pumpkin thread was a lot of fun, so here's the sequel!

I'm just starting to prep the beds for this year's Atlantic Giants. I'll post a proper picture of the hole tomorrow, but here's what I dug out while broadforking an approximately 15' x 15' area:



That one that I couldn't get into the wheelbarrow is probably close to 75 lbs.

So I'm going to double-dig the innermost ~6' x 6' of the plot, and till a bunch of manure and stuff into the whole patch. And then do it again on the other side of the yard.

Last year's largest was 142 lbs. Hoping for larger this year!

[CaliforniaGardener]

How deep do you dig the area down to soil prep?

[JayPoc]

What exactly does one do with a 150 pound pumpkin?

[joed2323]

Im going for the same thing waterbug, i have dills atlantic giants, big max, and first prize hybrid plants...My money is on the atlantic giants, but after my last years failure, id be happy with anything bigger then 50 pounds

Last year was a bust for me, the majority of it was my fault, so this year i want to go big or go home

Im doing pretty much the same thing you are with compost and manure, and digging a deep hole, i hear thats one of the "keys" to growing the "big daddies"

If you don't mind i can share my progress and post pics as well on this thread throughout the growing season, maybe we can get others to share their pumpkin growing season as well, after all its up to you

Im looking forward to seeing your progress

[TheWaterbug]

How deep do you dig the area down to soil prep?

I used my broadfork over the larger area, and it has 14" tines. In the center section I dug out the loose soil and 'forked it again. So I'm down at least 28" in the center. It's hard to see in the photo, because there's so little contrast, but here it is:



I'll till in some bagged soil, manure, nitrogen fertilizer, and gypsum this weekend. I'm trying to figure out if my tiller is going to be any use in that center hole.

What exactly does one do with a 150 pound pumpkin?

I'll let you know when I grow one

Last year's went next to the mailbox on the street, as a fall decoration, until it finally rotted in around late December. They're pretty much useless for cooking or eating, but if you're handy with the big tools you can carve them, too.

If you don't mind i can share my progress and post pics as well

All threads are community threads!

[rainbowgardener]

So your 15 x 15 plot is for ONE giant pumpkin plant?

[TheWaterbug]

So your 15 x 15 plot is for ONE giant pumpkin plant?

Oh yes! Some people will dedicate an entire yard to a plant. And each plant gets culled down to a single fruit, so that all the plant's energy goes into making on massive pumpkin.

Here's a picture of last year's two vines at 8.5 weeks:



The vines eventually grew to ~2x that size, area-wise, but I'd hoped for larger. So this year I'm 'forking larger and deeper. If you're really trying to go large, you're supposed to bury secondary vines, and prune and train and generally go insane.

This site has more details, and I believe that the photo on that first page is a single vine for a single fruit. They recommend up to 1000sf per vine!

[TheWaterbug]

And here's a 900 lb. pumpkin grown by one "Michelle Lofthouse." Any relation to jal_ut?

[JayPoc]

So....basically just for fun? Lol...seems like a heckuva lot of work and space to grow one giant fruit that you can't eat. But if you enjoy it, more power to ya. Good luck!

[applestar]

If you push the tiller down that slope into the center hole, will you be able to gt it to climb out?

Looking forward to seeing everyone's progress.

[Susan W]

Yikesies!!!!!
Please keep us posted for entertainment value only!

[jal_ut]

I like to grow a few large pumpkins each year just for the heck of it. I use them for yard decorations.

[joed2323]

James - what do you do special for your pumpkins?? I thought I was reading a previous thread of you saying you just stick them in the ground and let mother nature take its course, if so that's some nice looking "giants" for not pampering them...

How many pumpkin plants do you normally grow in your patch?

[TheWaterbug]

If you push the tiller down that slope into the center hole, will you be able to gt it to climb out?

Looking forward to seeing everyone's progress.

Probably. The slope is reasonable, so it won't be like trying to climb a wall. I'm picking up some bagged soil this afternoon, and then I'm going to try to till it in. If you see a picture here later, with me cursing at a stuck tiller, you'll know what happened

[TheWaterbug]

I found this Giant Pumpkin blog yesterday, so I drove up to Burbank in the afternoon*, and the good Stuart Shim (the blogger and host of the workshop) had left some seeds from a 800 lb. behemoth. I got two packs of four and bought $100 worth of super high quality unicorn manure . . . err . . . planting mix.

Per Stuart's instructions I dug my center pit even deeper, to about 4' below grade, and mixed in 12 cu ft of this extremely expensive soil. I tilled another 9 cu ft of lesser soil into the top ~8" of soil in the surrounding area, and then put another 2 cu ft of super soil into a low mound in the center. I know I was going to plant at grade this year, but given the amount of fluffing up I'd done in the 4' below the seed, I'm sure I'm going to get some subsidence over time. So I built up a low mound about 8" tall and planted the seed.

It was 8 PM by the time I got everything finished, so it was too dark for pictures, but I'll try to get one tomorrow.

And then I have another pit to dig, fill with the world's most expensive soil, top off, and plant with my second set of seeds.

Alea iacta est!!

* There are more workshops (and, I presume, more opportunities to get some seeds) throughout Orange County tomorrow and in the next several weeks. See the linked blog for more details.