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Post by horsea on Oct 7, 2013 22:57:43 GMT -5
A couple of days ago I attended a Giant Pumpkin fair & weigh-off. It was just great! Everyone in the arena was so excited. The winner (this is Canada, where the growing season is not like Ohio or Rhode Island) was over 1,100 pounds. Now I want to take a crack at it. Has anyone here any experience with growing giant pumpkins? I know that the first time you try you probably won't get a thousand-pounder.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 8, 2013 11:17:30 GMT -5
I looked into several years ago and realized that my little yard won't cut it. Giant pumpkins grow on GIANT vines. It doesn't help that Florida is not a good climate for growing giant pumpkins. You, on the other hand, should be in a good pumpkin-growing climate. The vines that prizewinning pumpkins grow on are also extremely pampered. The basic principles are what you'd expect: seed from other champion pumpkins, lots of sun, plenty of room, very rich soil, supplemental feeding, vigilant pest and disease control, and regular water. Also, after a potential prizewinning pumpkin has set, the grower usually removes other pumpkins from the vine, to force the vine to put all of its energy into that one pumpkin. Even so, with the right seed, good soil, and good basic care you can get a really big pumpkin that will wow your friends and family. Then you can decide if you are willing to give a vine the kind of diligent care needed to grow a half-ton monster. There is a website devoted to this stuff: www.bigpumpkins.com/Default.asp and the folks there like to see new people get into the hobby. You might want to check it out.
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materman
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Post by materman on Oct 8, 2013 11:45:04 GMT -5
Yes I would not be much help for even where I live (Missouri) pumpkins are pretty hard to grow. Bug issues, heat issues and the like make it hard. Did have a 35pounder starting to develop but mean neighbor cut it off the vine. I have heard some say they fed them 150 gallons of water a day in the peak of the growing season, plus who knows what else.
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Post by stratcat on Oct 8, 2013 12:25:24 GMT -5
Sounds like lots of fun, Horsea. If only I had room to grow some... Here's a site with pumpkin seeds and info that I've ordered Bott's Sunflowers from- www.pandpseed.com/Good luck!
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klorentz
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Post by klorentz on Oct 8, 2013 12:55:14 GMT -5
Does take a lot of work. Some fertilizer that will help. Rabbit or horse manure, Neptune's Harvest fish/kelp emulsion and Espoma Garden Tone or Bio Tone.
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Post by horsea on Oct 8, 2013 13:16:12 GMT -5
Thanks v. much to all of you for your info, comments and encouragement. Tks. for link, LinFL. I understand the basic requirements. I'm not even expecting a 100-pounder but I at least want something huge for Hallowe'en. I've cleared away 1/2 of my garden to make room for my future "giant". As to bugs & diseases, I've never had problems with squash and pumpkins in that regard. Something to do with supercold winters, I think. I am chomping at the bit, folks. Have any of you ever attended a Giant Pumpkin Fair? They are so much fun. Lots of good ol' boys and normal people, not like civilized city folk.
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materman
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Post by materman on Oct 11, 2013 8:46:20 GMT -5
Horsea, I might say after looking at your zone info, I wonder if growing a giant is possible where you live. Zone 3 sounds way too cold for me and sounds like a very short growing season. Do you have luck growing winter squash? I guess if you can grow them, you can grow a pumpkin. Better yet, may I suggest moving to a more temperate climate
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klorentz
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Post by klorentz on Oct 14, 2013 17:19:11 GMT -5
They grow em in Canada. The late Howard Dill who developed Atlantic Giant is from there.
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Post by stratcat on Oct 14, 2013 21:50:41 GMT -5
Once I got my hands on a few Howard Dill seeds and gave them to my friend to grow in his barnyard garden. They got lost in the dresser drawer...
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 15, 2013 22:31:24 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 16, 2013 8:54:44 GMT -5
Maybe rent a crane or a forklift to load it onto a flatbed truck? In the case of the world record pumpkin, they are going to transport it from Napa to NYC for media events. I wonder if they are going to fly it out there? (I can't imagine that a week on a truck is good for a giant pumpkin.) Then are they going to bring it back to Napa for the owner? Regardless, after all the media events are finished, you know Mathison (the grower) is cutting that bad boy open for the seeds. There's good money in selling the seeds from a world record pumpkin.
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Post by stratcat on Oct 17, 2013 21:43:48 GMT -5
Wow, now that's one huge pumpkin!
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Post by horsea on Oct 24, 2013 22:24:33 GMT -5
Horsea, I might say after looking at your zone info, I wonder if growing a giant is possible where you live. Zone 3 sounds way too cold for me and sounds like a very short growing season. Do you have luck growing winter squash? I guess if you can grow them, you can grow a pumpkin. Better yet, may I suggest moving to a more temperate climate The winner at the local Pumpkin Fair produced a pumpkin weighing 1,111.5 lb. 10% of that would be fine with me! I'm supposed to be getting some of his seeds. Our frost-free season may be only 100+ days, but there's more than a month of long sunshiny days, about approx 17 hours of the nice yellow beams per day. And pretty hot temperatures, too, most of the summer. It compensates for the short growing season. Move to a more temperate climate, huh? Well, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, California usually win the world record, I think. Anybody want to sponsor me as a refugee?
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Post by daylilydude on Oct 26, 2013 7:11:07 GMT -5
Maybe rent a crane or a forklift to load it onto a flatbed truck? In the case of the world record pumpkin, they are going to transport it from Napa to NYC for media events. I wonder if they are going to fly it out there? (I can't imagine that a week on a truck is good for a giant pumpkin.) Then are they going to bring it back to Napa for the owner? Regardless, after all the media events are finished, you know Mathison (the grower) is cutting that bad boy open for the seeds. There's good money in selling the seeds from a world record pumpkin. I just gotta ask... just how many seeds would you get from a pumpkin like that... by the 5 gallon buckets ;D
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billh
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Post by billh on Jan 7, 2014 23:50:08 GMT -5
horsea I have heard when you grow the monsters you have to grow them on a pallet so you can move them. I heard a story about a farmer who grew one that was several hundred pounds and thought he could roll it onto a trailer, what he got was a trailer full of pumpkin parts.
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Post by horsea on Jan 15, 2014 15:27:09 GMT -5
horsea I have heard when you grow the monsters you have to grow them on a pallet so you can move them. I heard a story about a farmer who grew one that was several hundred pounds and thought he could roll it onto a trailer, what he got was a trailer full of pumpkin parts. Yes, indeed. When you have chosen the one fruit that looks to be doing great, you right away put a pallet underneath (talk about faith!) just in case it does turn out huge! There's so much to know, so much to learn. Last night I could not fall asleep thinking about how I was going to manage my future 500-pounder.
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Post by paulf on Jan 16, 2014 8:47:23 GMT -5
I gave big pumpkin growing a shot several years ago. A friend sent me seeds from a 1500 pounder. I put pallets under the one fruit on each vine expecting several huge ones. They got babied all summer long and I ended up with two pumpkins at 100 pounds each and a couple of 75 pounders. Didn't need the pallets. My wife used the pumpkin patch for flowers the next year since it was so fertile from my experiment.
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Post by horsea on Jan 23, 2014 14:26:53 GMT -5
horsea I have heard when you grow the monsters you have to grow them on a pallet so you can move them. I heard a story about a farmer who grew one that was several hundred pounds and thought he could roll it onto a trailer, what he got was a trailer full of pumpkin parts. Yes, I know! However, a beginner's chances of producing a truly large pumpkin are the chances of a snowball in hell. However, you gotta have Faith, so I'll let mine grow on a pallet. Too bad about the guy who thought he could roll his giant fruit onto a trailer.
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billh
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Post by billh on Jan 23, 2014 18:17:30 GMT -5
Good luck on the monster, I agree you need faith and my faith is on you. Waiting for the pictures.
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Post by horsea on Jun 21, 2015 15:58:28 GMT -5
Good luck on the monster, I agree you need faith and my faith is on you. Waiting for the pictures. 1 year later: thanks, Bill!! I didn't try growing in 2014 because of inability to build a large enough fence for the huge space needed. So, this year, just for fun, I cleared away an area in my regular veg & flower garden, and yes, folks, I've got a young Giant Pumpkin Plant growing! The seed is from a 1,379-lb. prize-winning fruit. I am not going all-out; what's the point when you don't have the minimum 300 square feet necessary. Anyway, here is my problem: The stem of my baby giant-to-be is split, from the soil to the seed leaves. The rest of the plant is doing fine as far as I can see. What would cause this split? Tks.
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Post by spacecase0 on Jun 21, 2015 18:24:47 GMT -5
so is the milk trick that unknown ? personally I have never tried it, but it sure seems like it would work
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