Chat: intro (longish)
Hello,
I've been on the list since January I think, and I've posted a time
or two. I'd been waiting to catch up on my email, but it looks like
that's a lost cause so I've decided to go ahead and write. :-)
I joined this list after finding the GiantPumpkins list on what is now
yahoogroups. I could tell it was a spin-off of a bigger list..it was
only a matter of finding said list. ;-) What I was actually looking
for (and if anyone knows of one, please send me subscription info)
was a list for pumpkin enthusiasts who do all different kinds of
pumpkins/winter squash/gourds and the like, but one takes what one
can find. :-) I've learned a lot here and I intend to stay and learn more.
I found one list that claims to be for (real) pumpkins [as opposed to
the numerous (fake) pumpkin lists for the rock group with the
nasty name ;-)] but it's not really active. (as in, no one except
me and the listowner post, and I think she's just posting to be polite)
The archives for this list only go back so far...but I can tell the list
has been around longer than the archives go back. Are there more
of them somewhere else?
I got a very late start this year. I intended to start in good time, but about
the middle of March I came down with health problems which have had
me at various doctors offices to the tune of an average of 1.5 times a week.
This seriously cut into my time to garden, and put me back; not to mention
the fact that the various tests, medicines, and junk make me feel bad enough
not to do a lot even when I am home. :( I started seeds in peat pots the
end of May. None of the "big ones" germinated. [A lot of the various other
squash and pumpkins did, even though an awful lot of my seeds were
in excess of 5 years old.] I started more...they didn't come up either,
although
the "Show King" squash did, so if I grow anything big this year it'll be a
giant
squash, probably. I say probably because my wander-down-to-the-nursery-
and-buy-a-pack-of-seeds Atlantic Giant and Week's NC Giant pumpkin seeds
both germinated, and maybe they'll give me large pumpkins too. Then again,
the heat may do everything in. It has in the past, but like I said - I've
learned
a lot from archives and I hope to have better ways to fight now. :-) I also
picked up some pumpkins/squash from catalogs that claim that one can get
in excess of 100lb fruit from them with minimal effort (believe it when I
see it),
but most of those I bought intending to cook with. My previous largest was
about 50lbs, and the only reason I know that's what it was was because
I got tired of my husband speculating and got an my bathroom scales
carrying it. ;-)
Anyway, the other reason I wanted to post was that I've been doing some
reading, and I came across a mention that sounded kind of interesting -
if it can be applied to pumpkins. The book is _The Heirloom Gardener_ by
Carolyn Jabs. In one place she talks about a guy who saves heirloom beans.
He pre-sprouts his seed and then stores it in the refrigerator in a gelatin
solution until the soil is warm enough to plant them out. I've not
finished with
the archives by a long chalk, but I don't think I've ever seen this discussed
here. The guy who did this wrote a book, but it's out of print and none of
the libraries I have access to have a copy. It's called _Growing and Cooking
Beans_ by John Withee. This sounds like it would be wonderful to me if
you could do it with pumpkins. Does anyone do this/know how to do this?
I have a long enough growing season that the only reason I germinate inside
is because it has a much better success rate for me than direct seeding.
We're awfully dry here, and it's much easier to put peat pots in a bag and
then plant seedlings in the ground the day they break soil. The only
problem with
this is that it means I have to put them in the soil ASAP. They get too leggy
if I don't plant them right away. It would be much nicer if I could just
germinate
them and store them until I had a day off that I felt good. I could germinate
everything early and have a good way to hold them if we had a cold snap
unexpectedly before I got them in the ground or got behind on taking the
cover crop down for the year.
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