Can someone check my pumpkins?

[imnewatthis2010]

Im new at gardening and this is my first time growing pumpkins. I planted at the end of May and right now have 1 small pumpkin starting (This particular plant I started 3 weeks before the others in a small jar, so that's why it's ahead of the others I think).

But I'm not too sure if I planted them too close together or in a small area, as some leaves are dying,wilting,getting white mildew and turning yellow. I uploaded some pictures of the various stages from first planting up until today, along with some close ups of the leaves.

When I planted I just cleared out the grass and weeds and mixed the dirt in with gardening soil, I've also been spraying it with a organic vegetable fertilizer that connects to my hose nozzle.

Please Note: The white stuff on there now is due from the powdered pesticide (sevin) that I just sprinkled on there. Also I covered the small patch with a tarp as it's been storming the past 2 days(should i cover it up or leave it be?), but other than that the weather has been very hot and dry, I water once a day around noon. Any tips on how to get these things healthy or anything else? Thanks


Heres the pictures: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/alb ... 0232GBGFEJ

Let me know if you need anymore info. Thanks

[kgall]

I certainly can't answer all of you're questions but...I would water early morning, preferably without getting the leaves wet if possible, this will help to hold powdery mildew at bay. I would also cut out all of the affected leaves.
Good luck!

[imnewatthis2010]

Thank you very much. Now do I cut where the leaf is or do I cut the whole stem off down to where it sprouts out of the ground?

[engineeredgarden]

The damage to this leaf is from too much water in the past - perhaps from a torrential downpour in your area. It's the cause for the damage to the laeves in the other pictures, too.



I hate to tell you, but there are way too many plants in that space. One pumpkin vine will easily grow to at least 15 feet long, and the foliage will spread out 4-5 feet wide.

EG

[imnewatthis2010]

Should I maybe completely pull some plants out and maybe start covering the garden with a tarp whenever it rains?


I want to salvage all that I can since I've been very excited to start and get a few pumpkins for Halloween

[stella1751]

I'm growing pumpkins for my second time. The first time was years and years ago, back when I hadn't a clue what I was doing. This year I've been studying pumpkins. There are some great websites out there with advice on how to get the most out of 'em.

This one offers advice on how to prune. I think, based upon my limited experience, that EG is right. You've got too many in too small an area. Pruning might help.

This one, given me by another forum member, has fascinating information on their root system, which helped me figure out where to feed them. They like a rich soil, something capable of sustaining their rapid growth. However, before reading this, I had been fertilizing them at the base of the plant instead of feeding the wide ranging lateral roots.

This one talks about what to feed them. They appear to like easily attained soil amendments like compost, manure, and coffee grounds. I've been giving mine a weekly dose of manure tea, and their response has been gratifying.

I found several other websites, too. I just keyed "How to grow pumpkins" into my search engine, and dozens of websites came up.

I'm attempting to grow three pumpkin plants and one watermelon in a 40 square foot raised bed, so I understand what you are up against. Each morning and each afternoon, I train my vines, using wire-coat-hanger clips I made to steer them in the desired direction. So far, it appears to be working, but because of my late start, it's early days yet to be sure!

[engineeredgarden]

You definitely need to remove several, but don't pull the plants. Instead, just cut the vines with a pair of pruning shears - as you won't disturb roots of the other plants this way.

EG

[garden5]

Prune some of the plants.

Spray with a solution of 1 part milk to 4 parts water about once a week or a little more (this helps the powdery mildew).

Stop using Seven (read this)

[imnewatthis2010]

Oh wow thank you everyone. I'll get to pruning and spraying today.


Thank you for that info about sevin, I've only sprinkled it twice, but I'll definitely get rid of it now. Thank you very much

[imnewatthis2010]

So i took out a few plants today, turns out a lot of them didn't actually make it too far. I also checked to see how many female plants were on there, besides the one that is already growing, i found one more with a golf ball size pumpkin on it, so that's 2 so far. I didn't see any other females. But i did see a few bees flying around.

I also saw 2 beetle type things on one of my plants, they seemed to be on top of eachother and not moving. unsure of what to do i just cut that leaf off and stomped on them, hopefully i got them. i tried to et a picture but my camera phone sucks

[BP]

Those were probably Japanese beetles mating. They are going at it constantly here lol. They didn't mess with my cantaloupe or honeydew plants, but did start on watermelon leaves. They also devoured peach tree leaves, zinias, and cannas. I got one of those Japanese beetle traps you see everywhere and it works great. I rarely have any in the garden and pick off only a couple a day off the zinias on the edge of the garden. I have emptied the bag on the trap twice and would say there were around 200 each time.

[imnewatthis2010]

So I see a lot of tiny little female flowers starting with pumpkins on them, I want to say about 5-6? I tried to count but I keep losing track of where they are, I also have 2 started already, one's turning orangish already and the other one is about the size of a small grapefruit.

The whole leaf situation still sucks, they're turning white still so i've been watering the roots directly with watering can and avoiding the leaves. I also did a combination of water/baking soda on them today to kill and fungus.

Hopefully these young pumpkins start and don't die off, i self pollenated one today with a male leaf and carefully opened the female flower then just twisted the male into it.

Any tips on how to keep theese tiny female flowers going so they start develoing!?



Thanks a lot

[engineeredgarden]

Well, you've got to remove the affected foliage (powdery mildew, dying leaves, etc.) , but also produce alot of new ones. Basically, the larger the surface area that photosynthesis can take place (more leaves), the better pumkins you will get. Proper watering and fertilization is important too....

EG

[garden5]

Hopefully these young pumpkins start and don't die off, i self pollenated one today with a male leaf and carefully opened the female flower then just twisted the male into it.

Do you mean that the flower was closed and you pried it open to pollinate it? The flowers open when the flower parts are ready to be pollinated. If you just forced it open to pollinate it, there's a chance pollination may not be successful. It's best to work on your plant's schedule .

[imnewatthis2010]

It seems the more i cut off dead leaves the more it looks like the plants dying, but if i leave them on it looks horrible too.


Some of the female flowers with tiny buldges on them that looked fine 2 days ago just fell off today.. I'm not sure if they're getting enough water or what ( i water directly on the roots going into the ground and avoid the leaves). They just seemed to plop off, the flower part looked like it turned yellow. Idk if it was fully formed or not yet.

Also my littlest pumpkin, I'm not sure if it's still growing or not. It's still very green but it's been the same size for awhile now. I'm not sure if it's getting enough water anymore or it's dying. But the stem and pumpkin are very green but the vine leading to it looks thin. I cut off the leaves around it so it would focus just on that pumpkin.


I really don't want to lose anymore pumpkins = / but I feel like I messed up on them.
I'm hoping to get atleast 5 good looking ones for Halloween