Prepping for the Pick & Paint Pumpkin Patch Party v4.0

[Northernfox]

I look forward to seeing it!

[TheWaterbug]

Two weeks of growth uploaded here.

More to come when it's finished growing.

Please post comments about the Giants over there and leave this thread for more pedestrian pumpkins

My normal pumpkins are doing well. They've been in the ground now for nearly 6 weeks and most of them have just started the "rapid vining" stage.

[TheWaterbug]

So after re-re-reconsulting my notes, I'm going to delay sowing until July 5th, when I return from my ill-timed business trip. I sowed on June 10 last year, and while I didn't record the date they ripened, I do recall that they'd been ripe for quite a long while by the party date, and I definitely remember that most of the vines were completely dead. In fact a number of the pumpkins had already rotted on the vine.

So sowing 3.5 weeks later shouldn't be a problem.

. . . and that's looking like it was a poor decision. While the vines were doing nicely, we ran into a hot spell for about two weeks where it was in the upper 80s and low 90s, and most of the female flowers spontaneously aborted. It finally cooled down a bit, and I have decent fruit set throughout the patch, but they're really small, and I have only 5 weeks left until the party (probably 10/26). I may have another pumpkin party with mostly green fruit, like I did my first year.

So after 4 years it'll look like I've learned nothing!!

Lesson for myself--planting X days later than last year doesn't necessarily mean fruit X days later.

[Northernfox]

The hot weather seems to be the factor you can not predict! Green Pumpkins still paint up well!!

how is that giant one doing?

[TheWaterbug]

I have decent fruit set throughout the patch, but they're really small, and I have only 5 weeks left until the party (probably 10/26). I may have another pumpkin party with mostly green fruit, like I did my first year.

So after 4 years it'll look like I've learned nothing!!

Lesson for myself--planting X days later than last year doesn't necessarily mean fruit X days later.

Just to follow up on this, a bunch of the fruit ended up rotting on the vine before maturity, so it was almost a complete crop failure. I had perhaps 15 harvestable fruit (instead of the 100 I had last year) of which 10 were the Jarrahdales that are less popular amongst the kids. I had only 2 really good-looking JOLs and a few Luminas.

So I ended up going to Smart & Final and _buying_ 50 pumpkins for $3 apiece. Thank goodness for Smart & Final, as everyone else was charging $7/each or more. I scattered the pumpkins around the patch, under leaves, etc., and most of the kids couldn't tell the difference.

A few of the parents asked if I grew them all, and I said "I grew some and supplemented." Another parent marveled at how clean all the pumpkins were.

So all in all the crop was a miserable failure but the party was a success!

[applestar]

Good save! ...they do the same thing at big farms that regularly run U-pick and cater birthday parties too. We went to a party that included a hay wagon ride, pumpkin picking and a corn maze, and the pumpkin fields were in a sorry shape but had perfect looking pumpkins scattered around. When. I quietly asked our hayride guide, she admitted that they lost their pumpkin crop to powdery mildew that year due to unusually wet season and had to truck them in.

[rainbowgardener]

'S why I could never be a farmer, even though I love to grow things. I couldn't handle having my livelihood depend on vicissitudes like this.

[DoubleDogFarm]

We will lose .50 on ever sale, but will make it up in volume.


Out of the blue and into the black
You pay for this, but they give you that
And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black


Eric

[jal_ut]

I am thinking your best chance of growing a pumpkin there would be to plant about mid March. Of course if they made it, you would have pumpkins in July instead of October.

Do you get frost there through winter? Pumpkins can be planted on the last average frost date in your garden.

It would be worth trying a few since you already have the plot in shape.

[ReptileAddiction]

That is too bad. Why did the fruit rot in the first place? Was it due to too much moisture? If so you could construct a structure out of posts over the whole patch and then throw some greenhouse plastic over. Depending on the size of the patch, you might have to shell out a couple hundred for the plastic but if you are careful with it and only leave it up when it is really necessary, I am sure it would last quite a while.