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slowpoke_gardener

Seminole pumpkin update

slowpoke_gardener
10 years ago

My puny Seminole pumpkins are starting to grow.

Larry

Comments (5)

  • Macmex
    10 years ago

    Looks beautiful Larry! My Old Timey Cornfield Pumpkins came up with a case of squash bugs. Spent a good deal of time killing the little "buggers." Hopefully the OTCPs will soon take off like this picture shows.

    George
    Tahlequah, OK

  • slowpoke_gardener
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks, George. My OTCP are planted out back near the pasture fence. I have not hooked up enough water hose to reach them, so they have not watered, but look good anyway. They are mulched heavily and in a good bed, so should do OK. I will have to watch for the bugs. I don't plan on fighting the bugs like I have in the past.

    On another note, I already have a good crop of grasshoppers. They are small, but be lone. Bailing the hay has put more of them in my garden.

    Larry

  • momofsteelex3
    10 years ago

    Those pumpkins look great! If you don't mind my asking, how many plants do you have there and how big is your space? I planted some pumpkins for the 1st time this year, and I followed the silly directions of making this mound, but decided against thinning them like it said bc you just never know with Oklahoma heat!

    Yuck on the grasshoppers! My mom and step dad have them something terrible. You walk through their lawn, and it moves like the sea. They have eaten everything. They are upset bc the likelihood of them getting any produce this year is looking grim. My mom even said Friday they went after the onions, and ate down into the onions themselves!

  • slowpoke_gardener
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Mom, I guess I am lucky because my grasshoppers are not that bad yet.

    The Seminole pumpkin are seven plants in about a 150 Sq. ft. area. This pumpkin growing is an experiment for me this year. I figured 4 plants would be enough for the bed, so I planted 8 seeds. Seven came up and I could not throw away any. I tried another type of bed that I first tried last year. It is mounds where the plants are with channels to run excess rain water into 10 post holes I have dug, hoping to funnel more moisture into my very tight, shallow soil. So far it seems to be working well. I also cut short pieces of bamboo to fill the post holes. After the plants were planted I mulched mostly with oak shavings. I also tossed in some composted manure and mushroom compost into the bottom of the channels and in the post holes hoping to boost the microbe count in the root zone.
    The plants are just now showing signs of wanting to bloom.
    I will show you a picture of the bed before planting and mulching. I also did my Old Timey Cornfield pumpkin bed the same way, except without post holes. ( they will be growing on the ground rather than a trellis. I will report at the end of the growing season about how well this project worked.

    The trellis is (2) 16' cattle panels and a bunch of bamboo.

    Larry

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    10 years ago

    Larry, They look great.

    I planted my Seminoles kinda late so they are just now starting to run really well....most of about 4 to 6' long. For me, they are sort of a late-season 'gift'. I can just basically ignore them all summer and harvest them in late summer through late autumn.

    I put my OTCP in the cornfield...well, on the edge of the cornfield, so right now the corn is shading them and keeping them a little smaller. They'll take off and grow a lot better once the corn is done and isn't there to shade them any more.

    George, I hope you got all those squash bugs and that your plants recover. There are not enough words in the English language to describe how much I hate squash bugs and stink bugs.

    Bre, Are your parents using anything to try to control the hoppers? It sure looks like it is going to be a bad hopper year. Some years I have had great results from mixing some molasses with water and filling up quart canning jars about half-way with it. I place the jars around the garden in random spots. The hoppers are attracted to the sweet water, and tend to drown once they get into the jars. That works pretty well in flower beds and the veggie garden, but I don't know that it would work in lawn areas. In our lawn, I let the chickens free range for 8-10 hours a day, and they are hopper-eating machines. Guineas are even better. One guinea will eat two pounds of hoppers a day. I haven't had guineas in several years now (not since the year that predators got all the poultry for several miles along our roadway and adjacent roads), and I think I see their absence reflected in the huge hordes of grasshoppers every year. I don't think the chickens can eat enough hoppers fast enough to control them all.

    The worst thing of all is that blister beetle populations soar right along with the grasshopper population. I hate to kill blister beetles because they eat grasshopper eggs, but if you let the blister beetles freely eat their way through your garden, they'll devour the leaves of tomatoes, beans, cukes, melons, etc. Why does it sound like it is about to be a really buggy summer?

    Dawn

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