Giant pumpkin

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

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[Master Blaster]

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Looks like you know what you're doing! Very nice

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

Lol far from it. Put the seed in the ground and see what happens… water and fertilizer… probably would have had a better crop but i just couldn’t control the weeds and BUGS!

[Master Blaster]

Lol far from it. Put the seed in the ground and see what happens… water and fertilizer… probably would have had a better crop but i just couldn’t control the weeds and BUGS!

Are you growing again this year?

[MadHatter]

My brother and I have grown giant pumpkins for about 6 seasons. This kiss of death every year has been vine borers. I've tried every pesticide, kept plants covered but they always kill plant. Biggest one I've grown is about 100lbs but they were on track for 500 plus

Thuricide, it works.
Microscopic worms in a bottle, that kill the big worm.
I use it in a sprayer, and hit em twice a week with it in the evenings.
If you spend enough time with your plants, eggs become pretty noticeable, and the bore hole even more noticeable.
You can take a syringe and inject it straight into the bore hole, and up and down the stem on each side, and save a plant.
I lost my 3 first plants the very first year to vine borers, and not a one since using Thuricide.

When do you start seeing the vine bores?

Anytime from May to early August here in N Texas.


Growing a giant pumpkin here in Texas is impossible, big ones yes, giant no.
Unless you were to do it hydroponically, or build a greenhouse with a couple mini splits running, our climate is just not good.
Look at our record, it's only 600lbs and some change if I remember correctly, vs what is achievable buy novices further north.
1000lb pumpkin isn't even worth taking to the fair in some places
I've scared 200lb a couple times but both were complete flops. I lost both plant early, and had immature pumpkins.
They had 1000lb potential imo.
I need to build bigger beds with a liner, add a canopy, and automated watering system if I really want to achieve much more I think.
My soil drains too fast, causing the plants to much stress in the late summer, and daily waterings are a must.
Miss one and the plant is probably toast.
I've always grown Wallace pumpkins.
Probably 85% great germination rates, tremendous growth.

The IV feeds mentioned above are popular with giant watermelon growers as well.
Some of these guys are junkies, and take it to another level.

Bury the stem of your plant around each or every other set of leaves.
Not only does help the plant, as it naturally wants to throw roots at these locations, it is also the most common place a vine borer will lay an egg, being underground he has no access.
He'll still lay a egg, but it will be in a more noticeable place.
Giant pumpkins growing is a lot of work.

[CabezaBlanca]

Thuricide, it works.
Microscopic worms in a bottle, that kill the big worm.
I use it in a sprayer, and hit em twice a week with it in the evenings.
If you spend enough time with your plants, eggs become pretty noticeable, and the bore hole even more noticeable.
You can take a syringe and inject it straight into the bore hole, and up and down the stem on each side, and save a plant.
I lost my 3 first plants the very first year to vine borers, and not a one since using Thuricide.



Anytime from May to early August here in N Texas.


Growing a giant pumpkin here in Texas is impossible, big ones yes, giant no.
Unless you were to do it hydroponically, or build a greenhouse with a couple mini splits running, our climate is just not good.
Look at our record, it's only 600lbs and some change if I remember correctly, vs what is achievable buy novices further north.
1000lb pumpkin isn't even worth taking to the fair in some places
I've scared 200lb a couple times but both were complete flops. I lost both plant early, and had immature pumpkins.
They had 1000lb potential imo.
I need to build bigger beds with a liner, add a canopy, and automated watering system if I really want to achieve much more I think.
My soil drains too fast, causing the plants to much stress in the late summer, and daily waterings are a must.
Miss one and the plant is probably toast.
I've always grown Wallace pumpkins.
Probably 85% great germination rates, tremendous growth.

The IV feeds mentioned above are popular with giant watermelon growers as well.
Some of these guys are junkies, and take it to another level.

Bury the stem of your plant around each or every other set of leaves.
Not only does help the plant, as it naturally wants to throw roots at these locations, it is also the most common place a vine borer will lay an egg, being underground he has no access.
He'll still lay a egg, but it will be in a more noticeable place.
Giant pumpkins growing is a lot of work.

Holy ****! That’s a lot of work!

[Master Blaster]

Thuricide, it works.
Microscopic worms in a bottle, that kill the big worm.
I use it in a sprayer, and hit em twice a week with it in the evenings.
If you spend enough time with your plants, eggs become pretty noticeable, and the bore hole even more noticeable.
You can take a syringe and inject it straight into the bore hole, and up and down the stem on each side, and save a plant.
I lost my 3 first plants the very first year to vine borers, and not a one since using Thuricide.



Anytime from May to early August here in N Texas.


Growing a giant pumpkin here in Texas is impossible, big ones yes, giant no.
Unless you were to do it hydroponically, or build a greenhouse with a couple mini splits running, our climate is just not good.
Look at our record, it's only 600lbs and some change if I remember correctly, vs what is achievable buy novices further north.
1000lb pumpkin isn't even worth taking to the fair in some places
I've scared 200lb a couple times but both were complete flops. I lost both plant early, and had immature pumpkins.
They had 1000lb potential imo.
I need to build bigger beds with a liner, add a canopy, and automated watering system if I really want to achieve much more I think.
My soil drains too fast, causing the plants to much stress in the late summer, and daily waterings are a must.
Miss one and the plant is probably toast.
I've always grown Wallace pumpkins.
Probably 85% great germination rates, tremendous growth.

The IV feeds mentioned above are popular with giant watermelon growers as well.
Some of these guys are junkies, and take it to another level.

Bury the stem of your plant around each or every other set of leaves.
Not only does help the plant, as it naturally wants to throw roots at these locations, it is also the most common place a vine borer will lay an egg, being underground he has no access.
He'll still lay a egg, but it will be in a more noticeable place.
Giant pumpkins growing is a lot of work.

Vine borers are something I've never had to deal with but everything else you are spot on. I'm growing in a shaded area and will be running misters to keep the plant cooler during the hot days. My goal is a few hundred pounds for this year. Also growing watermelons as my main focus with a goal of hitting a hundred.

[toledo]

Not really feeling the garden this year so this would be a great excuse.

When do you plant?

Source for good seeds?

[Burnadell]

Hope, Arkansas used to be (and may still be) the watermelon capital of the world. My older cousin, Lester Kent, was on the Glenn Campbell show back in the day with the champion melon. They have since grown much larger melons, but I seem to rescale that they pick all smaller melons from the vine and let one melon get all the nutrients. I assume you should do the same with pumpkins.

[Master Blaster]

Not really feeling the garden this year so this would be a great excuse.

When do you plant?

Source for good seeds?

After the last frost is the rule of thumb but the competition growers start in heated mini (some not so mini) greenhouses to have enough time to get them big. I joined a few groups on Facebook and from there join a club for $25 that will come with really good seeds and helpful information on growing.

[Master Blaster]

Hope, Arkansas used to be (and may still be) the watermelon capital of the world. My older cousin, Lester Kent, was on the Glenn Campbell show back in the day with the champion melon. They have since grown much larger melons, but I seem to rescale that they pick all smaller melons from the vine and let one melon get all the nutrients. I assume you should do the same with pumpkins.


[ATTACH]1085827[/ATTACH]

I was going to go there if a get a good melon this year but decided on the OK state fair instead. Chris Kent from Tennessee holds the world record at 350.5 pounds, another cousin? You are correct on the one fruit per plant.

[Burnadell]

I was going to go there if a get a good melon this year but decided on the OK state fair instead. Chris Kent from Tennessee holds the world record at 350.5 pounds, another cousin? You are correct on the one fruit per plant.

I have heard of Chris Kent, and although my family migrated to Arkansas from Tennessee, I can’t find any connection that makes Chris a relative.

[Tex_Cattleman]

I had a contest with another guy two years ago. Mine ended up weighing right at 100 lbs.
The time I put into that vine was ridiculous. And yes, I was wiped out by squash borers, or whatever other critters get into the stem.

Here it is next to one of our hereford bulls.

[MadHatter]

Hope, Arkansas used to be (and may still be) the watermelon capital of the world. My older cousin, Lester Kent, was on the Glenn Campbell show back in the day with the champion melon. They have since grown much larger melons, but I seem to rescale that they pick all smaller melons from the vine and let one melon get all the nutrients. I assume you should do the same with pumpkins.

Yes sir it is.
I grew up selling Jackie Mays melons, from the time I was 14 until I was 18.
Jackie put it on the map, and it grew big time.
At one time they held all the records, but other people in better climates started catching on.
Wish I still had pictures from back then, but I could fit 234 in the back of my pickup I believe, shocks bottomed out, all the way back to Mena.
I have some Carolina Cross going this year, and hoping for the best.

[Drycreek3189]

I remember some article that said take all the blooms off the vine except one. Somehow they put a tube in the vine in front of the one you are growing and feed it through a bowl to feed this one pumpkin. Water or food to make the pumpkin grow bigger was in the bowl.

Don’t know about punkins, but I’ve heard about splitting the vine in front of the melon, putting a cotton string through the split, and the other end in a water vessel of some type. The idea is that the melon/punkin will suck the water up. Just what I heard, no experience.