Re: pumpkins DIGEST V1 #285

Beth, mine are growing organically with absolutely no problems, though I,
too, have stooped to one chemical method of control -- I sprinkled slug
bait around the outside of the pumpkin patch after finding munched-out
pollinators on all my male flowers, and one of my newly set pumpkys had a
chewed side, too. I don't like doing it, because there is a fat garter
snake in the patch who eats slugs, and though I don't think she'd eat an
already dead one, she might swallow one that had eaten the bait but not
succumbed yet. After the sprinkle of bait, I've had no problems whatsoever
and have two pumpkins set and inflating mightily on my Anderson 815. 

Denise McCann Beck / Earth Island Organics
USDA Zone 7
Sunset Western 4
Coastal Bristish Columbia

> > >What an effect this pumpkin growing has on us... although I've been
> > >growing things all my life, I have never given two plants this level
of
> > >scrutiny before.  Every morning, every evening, I am inspecting every
> > >little detail.  Oh!  The hairs on this stem are a little longer than
> > >those over there, what could this mean??   And, I'm not happy to say I
> > >have been killing things and using scary chemicals.  My yard used to
be
> > >a haven for pretty much any living thing.  Not so any more.  I've
> > >drenched the ants with diazinon because I don't want their strawberry
> > >root aphids.  I've seen spiders bailing out and (good!) worms dying
> > ugly
> > >deaths.  I don't even want to think about what happens to the birds
who
> > >eat the writhing worms.
> > >
> > >I better grow a terrific pumpkin this year - I'm not sure I can keep
> > >going down this particular path.  I don't think I would mind
> > selectively
> > >killing the pumpkin threats.  I can smoosh a cucumber beetle under a
> > >rock.  But these chemicals have so many repercussions - and I probably
> > >don't even know the half of it.
> > >
> > >Is there anyone out there successfully growing large pumpkins without
> > >using these scorch-the-earth chemicals??
> > >
> > >Beth
> > >
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> - -- 
> Regards,
> 
> Chris Wilbers
> Sioux Falls, SD
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