RE: Greenhouse shade over Pumpkin Plants

Since you use a misting system anyway, why not try removing the shade cloth
but keeping the individual fruits covered?

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf Of
thomas
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 3:40 PM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: 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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