Wayne,
Was the spilt due to stress from the main vine pulling down on the pumpkin stem? If so, you should put something under the main vine, before and after the pumpkin, to prop the vine up, to relieve the pressure.
Your pumpkin growth rates look good.
I'd do what you are planning--- keep pollinating, then cull to the best one. You can select for shape, and growth rate.
I look forward to reading your progress.

Douglas

Thanks Douglas. I don't know if it's stress related to the main vine. Hard to believe that's the cause at this point because it's still a small pumpkin, but you never know. I'll check it again this afternoon. This pumpkin is perfectly round right now, about 6 inches across.

If you send me your email, I can send you a picture of what's going on for better analysis. My email is wperrier@charter.net

Well, another update. It's quite the soap opera. Went out this morning to measure and found that some birds pecked a couple of holes in my AG. Bummer. They're not big holes (yet), but I think I'm going to have to cover the pumpkin with a tarp or some sort of shade to prevent the birds from going near it. It's now at 22 inches circumference.

Started to move the main vine away from the pumpkin to increase the 45 degree stem angle. Pumpkin circumference was 28 inches this morning. Still nice and round, looking good. Stem split is still there; looks like it started to heal but then split again.

Pumpkin circumference is now 39 inches, although it's starting to look rather oblong rather than round. I measured at the round part. Stem splits have healed completely. I guess this is normal for these plants ?

I'm considering making a burlap or canvas "sling" to support the pumpkin, because it's on a slope, and also to try to let it grow rounder, rather than sit on flat ground. Does anyone have any experience with this ?

Wayne,
I think the standard way to measure the pumpkin, is at the largest diameter, even if it is on the oval.
If you eventually do over the top measurments, it is done at the widest measurements(side to side, end to end, and circumference).
You seem to have some nice pumpkin growth going.
I could be wrong, but I think I've heard that putting sand under the pumpkin, can cause it to have a more rounded bottom. You'd likely need at least a few inches of sand under the pumpkin.
I'm wondering about that slope. It's possible it could affect the shape of the pumpkin. I'm thinking you could get more growth at the downhill side, due to gravity, and it could cause some lopsidedness. But I have no experience with this.

Douglas

Hi Douglas: I hope you're right. The pumpkin is currently widest at the top of the slope, so if it gets more evenly distributed, that would be great !

The pumpkin is getting to the point where I don't want to lift it much to measure totally around. I would think by next week I'll only be doing "over the top" measurements.

Wayne,
Last year my circumference measurements were from right under the stem, around to the blossom end, and back.
I wouldn't do any more lifting of the pumpkin, as it could cause a stem or vine split, or even a hernia:-(

Hi Douglas: agreed. I've managed to bend the primary vine over the last few days so that it's at a greater than 90 degree angle from the pumpkin stem. I'll take a picture tomorrow and email to you. I will probably wait a few days before any further bending to all the plant to adjust.

A hernia is not good. I know that pumpkins are not as dense as watermelons (because they're hollow), but it's already as big as my 47-pound Carolina Cross from last year. I'm guessing that it's about 30 pounds right now. The stem is a good 3 inches across. I have to agree with you, these plants are impressive !

My plant seems to have stopped growing, except for the pumpkin itself, which is steadily adding 3" of circumference per day. It's at 44 inches now. It's interesting in that as that pumpkin started growing, I noticed a dramatic dropoff in the growth of the rest of the plant -- pollenated flowers withered after a few days, and the vines are not increasing in length. Overall though, the plant itself appears healthy except for some yellowing older leaves.

considering adding some compost tea and other fertilizer at this point.

I am building a "hammock" for the pumpkin to suspend it off the ground. Some solution like this is necessary for me since the pumpkin is on a hill. I can already see it start to want to roll down ! I drove 4 5 foot poles into the ground around it; this weekend I'll be sewing the hammock itself from some sturdy fabric I bought yesterday.

That hammock sounds like a good idea Wayne. You could even use it as a shade structure. Have you started shading the pumpkin yet? If not, I'd start soon.

Douglas

deep___roots jumping in.
Wayne gave me his other pumpkin plant in May and it is growing all over the place. But as soon as any blossoms appear, squirrels nip them off, and I think it is the squirrels who also gnaw on the stems of the vines. The plant just shoots out new vines, but a pumpkin had better get started soon, eh, as it's getting mid-summer?
I was at Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto this week and they make cages with pvc pipe and chicken wire and cover their pumpkins. Maybe they have the same problem as me?
So this weekend I will be building a cage. It looks pretty easy to do.
I want a pumpkin! At this point any size will do.
Experience is a hard teacher sometimes, but I hope the cage will do the trick.

Deep_roots: how did your cage-building go ? You could do what I do, which is to buy some heavy 1x1 inch wire mesh at Orchard supply -- it comes in 2 foot wide rolls. Buy a couple feet of this any make a screen "tent" over your pumpkins -- that should do the trick. I use this on all my plants when they are small, not for squirrels but for birds. Let us know how you do.

Hi Wayne,
You wanted to keep in contact with another Calif first time grower! These vines are growing like mad, one vine circled around and is heading down the bean patch and other is heading off on the concrete and has set a pumpkin there. Not sure what I should do with it

I have three pumpkins right now. The largest is the size of a football, same shape too! I only pollinated it last week!

Uh yep. Got 2 areas of flowers caged. One of the areas has a tiny little marble sized pumpkin forming under the flower or inside it or whatever. So that's good.
The other area has 2 male flowers and 1 female flower, but I can't see any pumpkin formation yet.
My prediction is, in order to foil me, them dang squirrels will chew the stems off outside the cage's protective area, thus marooning my forming pumpkins.
Pre-cage, this happened. I had a little pumpkin and went to get something to cover it only to discover that it was a gnawed off stem with a 2 inch pumpkin entirely separated from the plant. "Drat", sez I.
I may not get a giant pumpkin, but you should see my zucchini! They are immense. Guess squirrels don't like zukes?

Soren: where abouts in CA are you located ? I would definitely try to protect that pumpkin with a cage or a screen like Deep_Roots has done. You never know when disaster may strike, part of the challenge of growing giant veggies.

Deep_Roots: wish you the best of luck. I would make sure that you give that plant plenty of water while that baby pumpkin is trying to take hold. Any water stress and it will abort.

I've got an update too: last night a raccoon took six big bites out of my pumpkin. I'm hoping that they will heal over; some earlier bird pecking healed over. I fixed my electric fence to hopefully keep the buggers out. The pumpkin measured 59 inches circumference today. We built a "hammock" to put it in today and managed to lift it -- I think it weighs about 80 pounds right now. Would love to publish a picture of the hammock -- I'm pretty proud of it. Hopefully it helps.

Ladies & gentlemen: growing pumpkins is a lot of work.
But I may finally have a keeper. It is perhaps 8 inches around, and some animal has done some minimal munching on it, but I think it will survive. It is currently surrounded by a cage of chicken wire.

In an uncaged area, I am noticing a couple other pumpkins forming. You know, I've got the closed flower and under the flower is the little pumpkin. I did not have time to protect them with a cage before work this morning, but I will fence them in tonight.

Raptors have returned to my area to hunt. I can hear their cries all day long, so I think their prey (the annoying little squirrels who were damaging my pumpkin flowers and stems) are in hiding. Go raptors! Now I may get a nice fig harvest to boot. Isn't Nature wonderful with its checks and balances?

So my pumpkin plan is to do some fencing and keep up the water and fertilizer. There's about 2 months of hot weather left. I will gladly accept any size pumpkin I can manage to grow & protect. I'll take this year's experience to the bank, and next year...look out!

Thanks for the encouragement and pointers. Cheers. deep.

Deep_Roots: glad to hear it's working out for you. We should get together at harvest time and toast our adventure. I strongly recommend taping the flowers shut after you pollenate them -- were you already doing that ?

I kinda feel the same way as you about next year. My pumpkin is doing well, despite bird and raccoon attacks (it'll be a little scarred). I think it's about 100 pounds right now, but it's neither orange (yet) nor is it round. A friend of mine calls it a "protoplasm". I thought that was pretty funny. Basically it tapers off toward the blossom end, but I'm still pretty happy with it. Will take the lessons into next year.

I agree, you can learn a lot the first year.
A.G.s seem to be quite variable in shape. I've seen pics of a variety of shapes of pumpkins from seeds from the same pumpkin. I have a thoery that the shape of the mother fruit may give you a good indication of the shape of the offspring, although there are exceptions. This thoery could be wrong of course.
My best grower is the shape of the Carolina Cross watermelons; long, and oval. Not my favorite shape for a pumpkin, but it's growing very well.
I picked the 901 Hebb seed, because it has produced some nice shaped, and colored pumpkins. It's early, but the shape is nice so far.

I think my pumpkin has really slowed in growing. We've had over 90 degrees here every day although it is high 60's low 70's at night. It's only about 130 pounds I think, based on measurements. But it is still growing though and the vine is doing ok. Interestingly, once my pumpkin set, all vine growth completely stopped....