First Year Growing Pumpkins
- Subject: First Year Growing Pumpkins
- From: "Philip Cheatham" c*@comcast.net
- Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:57:37 -0400
- Content-language: en-us
- List-archive: <http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/> (Web Archive)
- Thread-index: Acb5a0ZcGIVQXHMIQdqg8iIfB/KFsw==
Well, My first season growing giant pumpkins has come to an end. I didn't
grow the 1000 pounder like I dreamt of doing, but I did grow a 370lb Biga
that's now listed as the second largest pumpkin in Delaware. I learned a
lot from reading the emails, but I gained even more experience through the
"trial and error" method.
There's one thing I definitely did wrong, but I'm not sure what I need to do
to correct it. I severely compacted my garden soil by walking on it every
day, all season long. At first I used planks to walk on, but I had to keep
moving them around. By mid July I needed to be every where in my garden;
weeding, spraying, pruning, burying vines, etc, the boards just weren't
efficient enough. I could have covered my entire plot with walking boards,
so I just removed them. By the end of July the soil was so compacted water
would hardly absorb into the ground. It just laid on the surface, mold
actually started forming. Next the plants became severely infected with
powdery mildew. Until then the Biga was averaging 75lbs a week. It went down
hill after that. The leaves were all gone by the end of August and the
pumpkins got sun scald.
I don't want this to happen next year. How do I efficiently use walking
boards and keep my garden soil loose?
Philip Cheatham
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