Beginner Gardening: Perplexing Pumpkins, 2 by JessJess

JessJess wrote:
I need your phenomenal pumpkin powers to… basically reassure me that I’m not nuts.

This is the first year I’ve ever grown pumpkins (or anything…) and from the title of this forum, you can guess I’m a little baffled. But proud! Ever so proud!

My little pumpkin patch has a hill of Early Sweet Sugar Pie Pumpkins, a hill of some Burpee Hybrid Summer Squash (Zucchini) and a hill of Waltham Butternut Squash. (Yep, I’m going to be hand-fertilizing, because I do nooooot want zucchini/pumpkin hybrids.)

I planted seeds on June 1st, and so far, things look pretty good. The seeds sprouted around June 9th, and after four weeks, the plants on each hill have strong stalks and thick, broad leaves. The actual Pumpkins are probably doing the best in terms of rate of growth and general size, but the others aren’t doing too poorly.

However, the reading I’ve been doing suggests that all three species are supposed to produce nice long vines. One article informed me that the pumpkin vines will grow like crazy for a full 8 weeks before producing any buds. My big pumpkin, the one that’s doing the best, already has buds, but nothing that looks particularly “vine” like.

Is this normal? Should I remove the burgeoning buds to encourage more vine/leaf growth? Or let it start fruiting? (We don’t have a HUGE number of growing days left, but I don’t expect a frost until at least mid-September.)

I periodically fertilize with 5-1-1 Alaska Fish Fertilizer (stinky, but effective!) and laid in some slow-release 8-8-8 Purely Organic fertilizer on July 2nd, so I doubt there’s TOO much of a nutrient deficiency, but you never know.

Also (on an almost completely different subject) – the white marble patterning on the leaves is VERY different from the little pumpkin I’m growing in a pot at home (same Early Sweet Sugar Pie species though from a different seed packet). The third picture is the pumpkin in the pot. It’s not powdery mildew, but it is a little perplexing. Is THAT normal?

What are your thoughts?