1st time growing pumpkins please read...

14 years ago

Well last year we didn't expect pumpkins but 1 grew from the previous years Halloween pumpkin. Now I'm all about the pumpkin growing!

I currently have 1 pumpkin plant grown at a fast rate of speed. Only down fall all this rain we have been having the past few weeks. So small white spots are showing on the leaves. Not sure how to fix this...I'm thinking this is mildew from what I have read.

I also think my pumpkin plant is growing weird. Usually plants grow one way. It seems that this plant is almost like a "TWIN" in one plant. The reason behind this is one of my male flowers actually had two flowers on it. It looked as conjoined twins 1 stem...2 flowers. (RARE?)Has anyone seen something like this before?? I will try to include a pic in this message not sure if I can. First time posting here. (copy & paste into web browser)

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t48/tat2ed4eva82/IMG_0016-1.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t48/tat2ed4eva82/IMG_0011.jpg

The second part is it is growing both ways down my garden. I have never seen any plant grow this way. Usually they just grow in one direction. Both sides are growing at the same rate and I already see pumpkins on both sides!! One did fall off as it did not get pollinated (due to rain) but the 2nd one I made sure I hand polinated it. So I am hoping it took. It seems to be getting slightly larger and no signs of yellowing.

I hope my pumpkin is here to stay & I hope many more are to come. I want to make sure I can get a few pumpkins from this plant before pinching it so it can focus on growing the ones it has on it. When should I pinch the plant? It's still early in the season so I don't want to pinch it too soon just incase some mommy's don't make it.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:853815}}

Comments (2)

iam3killerbs
14 years ago
I've often had healthy squash plants throw vines in several directions. Its a sign that the plant is doing well.

I don't usually pinch the pumpkins and winter squash off since I'm not trying to grow record size individual squash. I'm happy with more, slightly smaller ones instead of a few huge ones.

The twin male flower was pretty cool. Now and then you get twin squash. I had a twin female this year but it aborted since the male flowers weren't out yet. I've had them before.
weirdtrev
14 years ago
Double male flowers are uncommon but not rare. In my garden they seem to be one every couple hundred flowers. The rare thing is double female flowers. I personally love double fruit and I hunt for them every year. While the doubles are rare, compared to other squash they are fairly common in acorn squash and jack-be-littles. They are more rare in ornamental gourds and very rare in actual pumpkins. I travel all over my area looking for them and I usually find about a dozen double fruit each year.

When you say pinch do you mean culling extra fruits or just pinching the growing tips? I have NEVER pinched the tips of any vines with the aim of ripening fruit faster. I really don't think that does anything honestly. But if you feel the need to do it then I would say that it takes at least a month to go from flower to orange pumpkin (5 - 10 lb size, longer for larger fruit). Also once they reach the full size and are dark green they will ripen off the vine at any time after this (though they won't store as long). You can decide when to pinch accordingly based on your last frost date.
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