Pumpkin female blossoms!

945 N. Harp female blossom almost ready to open-tip turning yellow

Last week I saw a bunch of male flowers, still small and closed but no female flowers. Yesterday I saw some baby female flowers with their baby fruit attached. Yea! Finally!

945 N. Harp female blossom not ready to open-blossom green

Yesterday I noticed the female blossoms are still small and closed but the male flowers are now blossoming and ready for the girls! There are two female blossoms on the main vines and 7 more on secondary vines. The picture on top is almost ready to open as the blossom is just starting to turn a subtle yellow color on the tip. In the other blossom pictures in this post, the blossoms are still very green and will open later. I will pollinate all of them when they are ready and see what I get.

895 Grande female flower

Look how different the shape of the baby pumpkins are on the different pumpkin plants! The 945 N. Harp pumpkin flowers have round little pumpkins attached and the 895 Grande pumpkin flower has an oval shaped pumpkins attached. I think that is so cool that you can start to see the future pumpkin shapes even on the blossoms.

Even though the blossom looks like it has a baby pumpkin attached to it, it still needs to be pollinated which happens after the flower opens. Some will abort if pollination is not complete or if the weather is too hot. I hope the females open this week as the weather is suppose to be perfect for pollination-80’s all week. Not too hot. Anything over 90 is problematic for pollination.

Bri’s Giant Pumpkin Patch in

Jun8

baby pumpkin plant under low tunnel with shade cloth open

They’re in! The giant pumpkin plants are finally planted in Bri’s Pumpkin Patch. I rototilled the extra composted horse manure in and finished the low tunnels and put them in place Saturday in record breaking 99 degree heat here in Santa Fe. Brutal.

949.5 N.Harp 09 baby pumpkin plant

Sunday I planted my four baby giant pumpkin plants-949.5 N.Harp 09, 817.9 Schieder 09, 1166 Mohr 09, 895 Grande 08. I planted them at a 45 degree angle in the direction they will vine and up to the cots (baby leaves) so their stems will be protected from snapping off in wind. They are just starting to lay down so I built up the soil under them to support them. I placed them in the direction to grow out of the tunnels (remember to look at the second true leaf and that is the direction they will grow). I was worried that even with row cover over the top of the low tunnels, it would still be too hot for the baby giant pumpkin plants so I covered them with additional row cover. I had them in the windowsill but not outside to really harden off so I was afraid they would be really tender to the intense heat. I watered with Super thrive and seaweed fertilizer to help with the shock.

In addition, I went out and got some shade cloth to put over the row cover and to shade the ends. That should help with the temperatures expected to be in the mid to high 90’s the rest of the week. It ended up with much lower temperatures on Sunday- 86 degrees because a storm moved in all day and cooled things off and dumped some nice rain that night. Perfect planting weather! Not too hot. Nice lightning storm too.

4 low tunnels with pumpkins

I checked them last night after a 96 degree day and they are doing well what with all the extra protection. I still have to get in the drip system for the pumpkin plants but that should be easy the way I designed the patch. I also want to put a path around the patch to discourage people from walking through the patch and compacting the soil.

I also planted the last of the eggplants-Thai yellow egg and the winter squashes-Chiogga d’ Marina and Galeux de Eyesines seeds. Finally, I only have to get the corn in…almost there.

Time Lapse Growing Giant Pumpkin and High Speed Camera Explosion

Jun3

This was so much fun I just had to share it. I found it on you tube. It came from www.billsbigpumpkins.com . It is also on my video page and currently on my sidebar as my featured video so others can find it after this post is buried.

giant pumpkins ready to go

May27

baby giant pumpkin leaves

Here is a picture of one of my baby giant pumpkins. The first leaves to come out on any plant are called cotyledons. These are the roundish ones in the picture growing on the left and right side of the plant. Notice how big they are! Most cotyledons are about the size of your fingernail. These are 3 inches across. The first true leaf is also out and is the biggest one in the picture as well as the beginning of the second one at the top of the picture. The vine will grow in the direction of the second leaf. This is good info to know as it will help you place the pumpkin in the direction you want it to grow (instead of into a fence). Notice the shape of them-they are the shape of all the rest of the leaves to come only smaller. When the leaves grow up they will be huge- 12-18 inches across! When the giant pumpkin have their first 2 true leaves, they are ready to go into the ground. Mine are ready but I’m not.

low tunnel 09

I have to partially rebuild my low tunnels that I will put the baby pumpkins in. A low tunnel is like a small hoop house only much shorter. They are meant as a temporary measure to protect the plants. I will cut them in half as I don’t think I need them to be so big this year. As soon as that happens, those puppies are going in the ground.

Giant Pumpkins ready for garden!

May16

Here are the pumpkins and one giant marrow (kinda like a giant zucchini-they grow them in Europe). I’m planting them by tues or wed. I’m hardening them off with a little sun gradually the next few days) now that the nights have warmed up into the mid-40’s. I gave them a drink of Superthrive and seaweed fertilizer to help them with stress through the transition after I brought them in today. Now they are back in the house. Getting a late start this year-want to see if it makes any difference as it was so cold in May (many 27 degree nights, 50’s in day) and I thought they would just sit in the cold soil there anyways. Hope they catch up!

5 giant pumpkins and one giant marrow

From left- front row: 352 Cabossel 09, 949.5 N.Harp 09, 817.9 Schieder 09, form left-Back row: 1166 Mohr 09, 895 Grande 08, 73.6 Wursten 09 (giant marrow)

starting giant pumpkins!!

May1

Today I am planting giant pumpkin seeds. I will put them in 4″peat pots so that I can peel the pots away later without disturbing the roots when I transplant them. They grow really fast once they come up, so I will have to put them in the soil perhaps in 2 weeks from starting the seeds. I will transplant them once the first true leaf comes out. You can tell which way the vine will grow as it will grow in the opposite direction of the firs true leaf. This way I can place it in the soil in the direction I want it to grow. I am growing 4 giant pumpkins this year. They are: 817.9 Schieder 09, 1166 Mohr 09, 949.5 Harp 09, and the 895 Grande 08. They will go in my new pumpkin patch and I am growing another one: 352 Cabossel 09 (that’s me!) for the community pumpkin patch here in Santa Fe that I will plant when I teach a workshop May 15th. To understand what this means is the first number is the weight of the pumpkin the seed is coming from, the name is the grower’s name, and the last number is the year of the seed. So mine was a 352 lb pumpkin, my last name is Cabossel, and it was grown in 2009. That is how we giant pumpkin growers know what seed we are planting. We also look at the parents of the seeds we choose to see who they were as most of the time they come from very good “stock”. You can also just grow generic varieties that you can get from places like Amazon.com which is what I did when I started this hobby before I got serious. I grew a 225 lber from the generic variety which is fine for most people! I will try to break the state record here in NM this year. Have to beat 404 lbs…