I am going to put my squash and pumpkins in the garden tomorrow. They're all nicely hardened off and doing wonderfully. I plan on planting a mixture of summer and winter squashes and pumpkins. Some of the plants are bush varieties and others are going to be sprawlers! Since I don't have the largest garden in the world (more's the pity), I'm trying to plan my space really well this year. I'm going to put my bush-habit plants towards the back of the garden and let the vining plants take over the middle of the garden. But I'm also growing pumpkins, which are VIGOROUS viners. I originally was going to plant them at the edges of the garden and let them take over the yard, but then I had a thought. Could I grow them on a trellis? Would that work for a pumpkin? Or for a winter squash, for that matter? Here's what I'm trying to grow:

Bush:
Early Prolific Straightneck squash
Black Beauty zucchini
Gold Nugget squash

Vining:
Potimarron
Waltham Butternut
Lumina Pumpkin (2 plants)

Can I grow my Luminas' on a trellis and leave the Butternut and Potimarron have more room in their row?

I'm going to grow my cantaloupe, watermelon, tiger melon, and cukes on a trellis this year. I'd be super excited if I could grow my pumpkins on a trellis too!

Thoughts?

Kelly

The quick answer is yes, you can grow Lumina on a trellis. I've done it here, although not in several years. You can grow anything on a trellis as long as:

a) the trellis is sturdy enough that it can support the weight of the vine and the fruit it produces, and

b) you use slings to support the weight of the pumpkins or squash as they enlarge. I normally use either knee-high nylon stockings (or the legs cut off of pantyhose stockings) for melons and cheesecloth or burlap tied to the trellis for heavier pumpkins or winter squash. Some pumpkins and winter squash can hang from vines on trellises until they are fairly large, but without experience with any given variety, you won't know if the weight of the maturing pumpkin/winter squash will cause the vine to break or the pumpkin itself to snap off the plant, so it is better to support them all. The support might not seem necessary in general, but with the strong winds that often accompany thunderstorms here, it is better to be safe than sorry. Trellised melon and squash plants that normally can hold the weight of their own fruit may not be able to hang on to those fruit in higher winds.

If the melon, or squash is not terribly high up off the ground, sometimes I just put an upside down 5-gallon bucket underneath the pumpkin or melon and it sits on top of that bucket as it enlarges.

With some of the ones that bear smaller fruit, no support other than the trellis is needed. If you use trellises for melons that naturally form an abscission layer and fall off their vines when ripe, you do need to support them with a sling as falling to the ground any distance may cause them to crack open when they fall.

Lumina will make pumpkins that weigh between 8 and 12 lbs. depending on how many pumpkins set per plant and how much rainfall/irrigation they receive. I'd sling them once they are getting larger than a large grapefruit.

My question for you is why grow Lumina on the trellis when it produces much larger fruit than Pontimarron and Waltham? Both of them likely would be able to support the weight of their own fruit without slings, whereas Lumina would need support.
With a winter squash that naturally vines into trees in its natural habitat, like Seminole, slings are not necessary. Their vines can support their weight, even when there are lots of squash on the vines and even when the winds get a bit high.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Thanks for the info! I was originally going to grow my Luminas on the ground, but then I remembered the massive pumpkin mess I had last year (vines everywhere, powdery mildew due to poor air circulation, which lead to squash bug heaven, and finally the decimation of my pumpkin plants) and thought that there had to be a better way. Plus, I'm really trying to focus on proper spacing this year. Anyway that's why I thought I'd try trellising. I probably could have grown sugar pie pumpkins again, but the squash bugs loved them, so I was hoping they wouldn't think the Lumina were as tasty. I'd happily grow Seminole pumpkins, but I can never find the seed for them.

Kelly

I can bring you some Seminole pumpkin seeds if you are coming to the Spring Fling.

The squash bugs like Lumina as much on trellises as when on the ground, so don't hold your breath, but having the pumpkins trellised may help with the PM. To a certain extent, pumpkins are always a "mess" because they are such rampant growers and run wild all over the place if they get a chance. My pumpkins in general do best in drought years when it is hot and dry and the humidity is low. In rainy years, it tends to be disease city for most of them, but not for Seminole. They're such rampant growers that they can outgrow disease much of the time.

Seminole is pretty tough. I've never had it get diseased or get such a serious pest infestation that it kills the plant. It just keeps growing and growing and growing. In other words, I plant it and forget it until it is time to harvest. That's why I like it so much, and it doesn't hurt that it is very tasty.

Often Seminole climbs the garden fence and up into the trees outside the fence. I just let it. You should see the people driving up the road who slow down to gaze at pumpkins hanging from a tree!

Dawn

Seminole makes buff-colored fruit that are shaped sort of like a fig and they only weigh a few pounds so they aren't huge. I bet thy look like giant figs from the roadway even though they are not hanging from fig trees.

jdlaugh, That 1/2 mile isolation by distance is the recommended spacing for all cucurbits because they will cross-pollinate with each other. It is only an issue if you save seeds, in which case you need to bag the blossoms.

Seminole is one of a small group of plants I grow that are so reliable that I say this about them: "they won't die and you can't kill them".

Seminole has an interesting history, so I've linked some info about it below.

Dawn

George

Kelly

PS. I am coming to the Fling! :)