I have two volunteer pumpkin plants growing in my yard. One is by the house. The other is in my dog's pen. I would not mind seeing if I could get a few pumpkins out of them. It has started to bloom in the last week. Does anyone have any suggestions about how I should care for the plants?
All squash need regular water but will suffer without good drainage, I water my pumpkins once or twice a week depending on hot how and dry it is.
Once your pumpkins start to grow it's a good idea to make little hammocks for them out of old nylons or some other breathable, stretchable material. This will help prevent the fruits from rotting and will also give you more attractive and well-formed pumpkins. You can also make pillows out of dry straw, but it's not as effective and you need to change the straw if it gets wet.
No need to change straw just use a larger pile of it. One thing is the first blooms that appear are considered to be male blooms. Female blooms will have a small green pumpkin behind the blooms. May be several weeks after the male blooms appear that the fruit bearing blooms make their appearence.
Haha no, those are pumpkins. I know exactly what you mean, they do look very similar when they're immature, but you can tell that it's still a pumpkin from the brown circle (scar?) from where the flower falls off. Don't worry, and keep doing what you're doing.
Cantaloup maybe. The last picture is very interesting. Are the veins actually that lighter color or is it dust residue? If the plant is actually that color may I suggest that you keep some of the seeds and plant next year to see if it's offspring have the same coloration. Of course if it has offspring.
