Greenhouse shade over Pumpkin Plants

  We have used a frame system using greenhouse shade cloth covering the plants
completely the past 2 years. Under this shade structure we have a misting
system set up to use. I would think this would help protect the plants from
the severe heat. Under this shade system we use tarps to cover the pumpkins.
We have bigger pumpkins this year but we had a lot earlier start also this
year. But the pumpkins this year have never had any days where they put on
very much weight.
   I have several watermelon plants and have some very nice melons growing on
them. None of the melon plants are shaded. They are all out in the full sun.
We have some of the biggest and prettiest melon plants this year with some of
the biggest leaves I have ever seen on the melon plants. We have the melons
covered with shades to protect them from the sun. We usually spray the melon
plants the same time we spray the pumpkin plants with fertilizers. The pumpkin
plants we have under the shade are some very pretty plants. They have all
grown to be in excellent condition and the plants all have been healthy
looking with the right colors the plants should be. It seems the shade has not
hindered the growth of the plants.I have been comparing the melon plants that
are not shaded to the pumpkin plants that are fully shaded and wonder if the
pumpkin plants were not shaded would they do as well as the melon plants
without the shade being over them.
   I need to hear from the hot climate, preferably growers who grow in temps
around or over 100, who have grown their plants under shade systems and from
growers who have grown there plants in the FULL Sun without a shade over the
plants. I will be using this info to make a decision on how we will be growing
next year. Do you think it is best to grow pumpkin plants under a shade or
not? If I have pumpkin plants without being shaded I know we will have to have
misters set up over them and a good overhead watering system set up also.
   We are trying to understand why we can not get better growth on our
pumpkins. We like to think we are fairly good growers. We have been in and
around farming most of our lives. We have always had gardens along with having
grown watermelons and cantaloupes successfully several years in the past.
   We understand a lot about photosynthesis and that the plants usually shut
down after certain temps are reached, but then we look at our watermelon
plants and see how good they are doing with it being as hot as it has been.
Are the pumpkin plants shutting down on us in this heat?
   We are using a couple different shade cloths that have a rating of about 25
percent to about 30-40 percent. Do we need to go to a heavier percentage or do
we need to keep using the shade over the pumpkins?
   Anyone have any ideas that might help us in deciding what we might need to
do next year or what we might be doing wrong?
  It has been frustrating this year for us after doing so much to try to grow
something bigger than what we have. Maybe we need to forget about growing
pumpkins and just stick to what we know, melons and cantaloupes.
Thomas Hathorn
S.W. Oklahoma

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