Intro, a Seed Starting Hint, and LOTS of Questions
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Intro, a Seed Starting Hint, and LOTS of Questions
- From: V* G*
- Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 14:36:00 PST
Hi All!
Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday & introduce myself to the
list. My name is Vicki, and I live in the metro Detroit area. I've
been gardening for about 5 years. I've never grown a giant pumpkin; in
fact, the only time I ever grew pumpkins was as a kid, and even then, it
was a mistake! I thought I was planting canteloupe seedlings I got from
the garden center, but what grew was much better! I'm thinking about
trying to grow a giant pumpkin, but I'm still wavering.
RE: starting seeds; Nancy Szerlag of the Detroit News suggests the paper
towel/ziplock bag technique, but with a twist. She has you spoon warm,
weak regular tea over the papers. I think this acts as a sort of
home-made fungicide, because I've had no problems with mold or fungus
using this method on tomato & other seeds. You dip a regular teabag
into boiling water 2-3 times, until it looks sort of tannish, then let
it cool to the point that you can comfortably stick a finger in the tea
& it feels warmish. I put my finished baggies next to the heat registers
on the floor, which probably isn't warm enough for something like a
pumpkin, but it's worked pretty well for lots of other stuff.
A few pumpkin questions I have are:
1. How do you transport such a huge pumpkin to a weigh-off site?
2. Where do you get the seeds from the winning pumpkins from prior
years?
3. I understand there's more than one Giant Pumpkin association out
there. What are they, and what are the differences? Is it helpful to
join one of the associations even if you're a total newbie?
4. I have an open compost pile. My father, the retired farm-boy, says
I should plant any kind of melon I want to grow right in the compost
pile. From what I've read on the net, this might not be good.
Opinions, please!
Sorry so many questions!! Can you tell I don't know where to start?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Vicki
vgreen31@hotmail.com
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