Corpsehead Gardening

[Pumpkin_Man]

I would love to see a picture of your pumpkins when they're ready.
Mike

[SPOOKMART]

Here are my pumpkins i grew last year. Trick or treaters had to walk up a Jack o'Lantern path. Amazingly enough they stayed lit until the very end. We usually have a very windy Halloween. Basically i had 7 decent size pumpkins and a bunch of smaller ones. I don't think that's bad for backyard gardening.

[witchy]

Very nice SPOOKYMART!!

[SPOOKMART]

Thanks Witchy,

Now hopefully the Great Pumpkin is watching over my currrent Pumpkins. We're getting that tropical storm right now. It's a slow moving wet out. All it takes is a few slugs and they can devour my babies. Hopefully even the slugs decide it's just too gloomy to go out and they stay in like me and watch a horror movie or two

[NeverMore]

Nice Haul! So bummed that now I have a huge yard but no time to grow any. Was pretty fun growing them vertically last year though.

[SPOOKMART]

Thanks Nevermore,

One thing about pumpkins is they're self sufficient. Dig a couple of large holes and fill up with cow manure, compost and slow release fertilizer like Espoma(anything with chicken manure in it and other goodies. Bury 1st layer and add some of the dirt, repeat process untill you have a hill. Sow seeds, water and let mother nature do the rest.

[tantraman]

I like the details of the skulls are you doing a graveyard theme?

[SPOOKMART]

Most of my haunts tend to revolve around a graveyard.Who knows what changes happen this year.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Those are really great, SPOOKMART. Thanks for posting the pics, and congrats on getting those pumpkins to grow.

Mike

[SPOOKMART]

Thanks Mike,

It's not too hard but I was lucky last year. Spring began in January. I got such a start. THe year before I had a few small ones because I got them started too late and the rains came. Now last year they experienced some storms but as I recall the hurricane was all wind and little rain and fast moving.

I say get em in and started early. Slugs are the worst threat. Then just let them sprawl. Mother nature takes care of most of it. I tried pollinating the 1st female blossom last year and it wound up a blossom/fruit drop off. I left the duties to the bees and they did a better job.

Need more cow manure on my main hill because it has a lot of plants. Mid June is when they take off here just like everything else. I dumped about 3 5 gallon bucks of rotten potato in a hole before adding soil to make a hill. I'm hoping that will be the magic ingredient that gives me something over 50 lbs. I won't be disappointed with a bunch of 20-30 lb'ers though.

[NeverMore]

I used this stuff last year.



Worked well. Just made a ring around the sprouting pumpkins. Helps to check under the leaves every so often once they started crawling across the ground.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I swear, at some point, I will succeed in growing pumpkins. It won't be this year, and it probably won't be next year, but I am going to keep trying.

Mike

[SPOOKMART]

I tend to avoid stuff like that Nevermore. When slugs are a major problem I throw them a beer party! lol You leave out saucers of Schlitz or something and they go out with a bang. Most of slug prevention is just getting to them before they climb on board. They're slow so they can be controlled. When it's real bad it can be impossible. We're getting another coastal storm today and tomorrow. It's been too dark and gloomy for the garden. Slugs love this weather.

[SPOOKMART]

It's not entirely too late Mike but start the seedling if you do and then transplant. If you have furry friends taking off with things they'll grab seeds too. Other than slugs most things avoid pumpkins because they have spikes on their stems. I swear rain is the worst problem for pumpkins. If you get too many damp nights the leaves can become diseased and fruit wont set.

[NeverMore]

Probably growing vertically helped me a lot with the slugs, plus it's a lot drier here. I remember rolling up some wet newspaper and laying it on the ground at night. Bugs and slugs like damp areas so they would collect there instead of on the plants. I'd just go out in the morning and throw them away.

I posted a recipe last year for a home made fungicide for the white mildew. It worked very well, as long as I kept on top of it. Once I let it go too long it got hard to keep it from spreading and leaves started dying.

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