Pumpkin patch practices and gourd garden grooming.
#101666
This year has been considerably better than 2018 was. Last year was nothing but constant rain, and terrible results. This year has been near perfect conditions for not only my plants, but hopefully for all the local farmers as well. I’m excited to see what this years crops bring in a few weeks. Last year it was actually hard finding enough quality pumpkins to carve, at a reasonable price.

This year I planted 36 Field pumpkins, two giant kins, 1 mounds of Lumina kins, and 6 mounds of various gourds. I did lose 5 plants early to disease and another 4 or so that just never germinated. The ones that remain have been looking pretty good, but I’m now noticing several that are dying off due to SVB attacks. At least the plants have given me nice kins to carve before they died.
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Last edited by Mayor of Haddonfield on Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DeadKing, amandap80 liked this
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By DeadKing
#101683
These are gorgeous. :jack_o_lantern: I am glad that you had a good growing season this year. You planted quite the amount of them too :-o and I like that Cushaw squash at the last pic, great! :orange_heart:
Which varieties did you grow from field pumpkins, do you know the names.. is it some particular varieties or random field pumpkins?
On the other hand, I had quite bad growing season, the weather and conditions were awful this year here.. but we will see what will happen at the harvest time.

Enjoy in your pumpkins and harvest! :fallen_leaf: :jack_o_lantern:
#101701
Thanks DeadKing! The Cushaw squash are becoming enormous. I'd bet that at least 3 of them are 24 inches tall, and several others are around 18. The last few years I've only carved the Scream pattern into a Cushaw, but since they are so large this year I may be able to venture into carving other patterns.

I planted 3 rows of field pumpkins with each row consisting of 12 plants. The rows were Connecticut Field, Howden and Big Max. These seeds were from packets bought from a local nursery.

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad season so far. It sucks when you put so much time and energy into it and don't get the results you were hoping for. I remember looking at what you produced last year and being very envious of how nice and large your pumpkins ended up being. Here's hoping your season turns around!
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By DeadKing
#101716
I like Cushaws. I had tricolor Cushaws in past (on the pic below), but they tend to be smaller than those white/green ones.

You should look for some great seeds at some specialized stores with varieties that have good disease resistance and yield, and you will be having even better results. :jack_o_lantern:

Well, you can not do much if the weather does not cooperate, and you grow in open field..

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#101719
I do love the multicolored cushaw. I may look at buying those seeds next year as well. If the results are as good as the ones I have now, I’ll be very happy.