Thinning pumkins, radishes, cute little plants

9 years ago

I'm growing pumpkins for the first time. Planted at the end of May. We just moved to our wonderful 1.12 acres, so we quickly made three mounds and planted 3 seeds in two mounds and 4 seeds in the other mound. Guess what? They all came up and are so cute. I did not thin anything.

Do I really need to thin? Is it too late to thin at this point? I read that I can just cut them to the soil. That hurts me. BUT I have learned that thinning is necessary as I just harvested the radishes that I refused to thin and they're very small. They mostly ended up in my compost bin.

Why do seeds packets say to put two seeds in each hole? It's brutal to choose the plant that will stay. I just replanted yesterday with one seed per/hole.

Lots of questions. I'm new to all of this. But the big question is: Are 3 or 4 pumpkin plants too much for one mound? They are Connecticut Field.

Thank you.

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Comments (4)

StephanieHS
9 years ago
I hate thinning too! :)

I'm really looking forward to seeing the responses to this post. This is my first year with pumpkins as well. A more experienced pumpkin-grower advised me that the size of the pumpkin determined how many plants you could grow per mound, a standard pumpkin like yours probably 2 per mound, very large pumpkins just one plant per mound and very small pumpkins could handle more per mound.

That's the advice I was given and I'm following it, but as I said, this is my first year so I can't make any guarantees!
hazelinok
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks, StephanieHS. I suppose I'll thin them down to 2 per/mound. It's hard to choose which ones--they're all so healthy.
Ha-Just noticed I spelled pumpkin incorrectly on the title.
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StephanieHS
9 years ago
I hate thinning out healthy little plants too! Ah well. We'll probably get bigger lovelier pumpkins in the end, right?

With as much space as you have you might get away with 3 per mound if you really let them sprawl. Good luck with it!
LCaroline12
9 years ago
I also hate thinning! I just grow pumpkins in rows and put a couple seeds every 12 inches or so, then come down the rows when they're a few inches tall and take out some that are two close together. Like someone about said, if they have lots of space to sprawl you might be okay with 3 per mound!